Limestone, lakes and La dolce vita

Meeting up with friends to climb the walls of the Val de Sarca

After two trips in Spain and another two into the German Alps our small crew met again for another week and a half long multi pitch vacation. This time we chose a more obvious destination: The ever popular Val de Sarca. 

This deep valley is surrounded by well developed limestone walls ranging from 25 meter hard as nails sport areas to monster 1.000 meter trad routes. Our focus was somewhat in the middle: 100 to 300 meter fairly well protected multi pitch climbs of moderate (UIAA 5 to 6+) difficulty. 

The team this time: Melanie (fairly new to climbing but up for anything and bold), Lars (who was part of all four previous trips), Wolf (with whom I have climbed many great routes) and my humble self.

After arriving late the day before we spent the first day climbing on the slabs of Monte Baone to get into the groove. Besides having flashbacks to the punishing climbs in La Pedriza, a good way to start. We finished the day properly with gelato and doppios.

The second day had some unstable weather but we still managed to visit a sport climbing crag called Massone, which would be great but has some of the worst polished rock I have ever seen! In the afternoon we decided to gamble on a weather window and climbed a four pitch UIAA 6 route on the Sherwood Forest wall. The climb was still in the dry but we got drenched on the way back.

Having found our groove we took on a bit more of an alpine objective on the Placche Zebrate wall. Good climbing in stunning scenery with sufficient protection and the occasional rock tumbling down the wall. I was happy to be among the first rope teams on the wall, as rockfall seems to be a serious issue here.

As  Melanie and Lars had a hike planned for the next day Wolf and I drove to the very end of the valley to try our hand on a longish less well known route called Piccolo Diedro. Quite new and still a bit vegetated, this route is a good way to get away from the hustle and bustle of the main valley.

For a bit of rock variation visited two conglomerate crags in San Lorenzo one valley over. Excellent climbing on surprisingly solid rock. But the heat really got to us that day.

Keeping in the groove Lars and I climbed Via Edera on the east face of Monte Baone the next day. Quite hard work in the hot sun on a UIAA 6/+ seven pitcher. 

As I had climbed two routes on Piccolo Dain already two years earlier with Wolf it was time to finish the triple. That wall is just fun: 280 meters of good climbing with solid protection. We also managed to be the first team on the wall and avoid the traffic jams and the sun!

Still motivated, the last multi pitch we took on a 120m 6+ route on Croce the Ceniga. 

PS: Thanks again to Wolf for lending me his trekking bike to rack up a few kilometers and race my road biking pears on Italian climbs.