maanantai 8. heinäkuuta 2013

Excellent multipitches at Piccolo Dain in Sarche

Mika Huhtamaki 14.48 Arco, Italy, multipitch, Riva del Garda, Rock climbing, Sarche

Jarkko "on the edge" (180 meters at Parete della Centrale).

If you just want to see the photos then click here.

Read also releated story: Amazzonia - 5 stars multipitch at Parete Limaro

Are you looking for a great climbing experience on a good rock, with easy access, good bolting and beautiful views? If all that sounds good then Piccolo Dain in Sarche is definitely the mountain to conquer.

So far our trip has been a great adventure around the sourrounded valleys and mountains. But because time runs fast we had to choose the last multipitch adventure for the holiday. The choice was Piccolo Dain's Parete della Centrale wall.

Piccolo Dain is about 17 kilometers from Arco in the city of Sarche. It offers several different walls and a great number of both, traditional and bolted multipitch routes. Routes are relatively long, around 250 meters and the longest routes are up to 450 meters.

Parete della Centrale wall is easy to recognize. It faces to west and can be seen easily on the right side of the road from Sarche towards Madonna di Campiglio. All routes can be accessed just before the river Sarca from the dirt road on the right side. The road starts just before the river and it travels under the wall towards the power station. Routes starts from the road just before the gates of the Enel power station.

Parete della Centrale wall has several great 250 meters long routes and our picks for the day were Orizzonti Dolomitic and Amazzonia. Both are 250 meters and 11 pitches long and grades are 5b and 5c. For the two routes we splitted into teams. Mika, Heta and Jarkko formed the first team and Nora and Sami formed the second team.

When we started at 14:30 the weather a bit too hot for efficient climbing. The first hour and a half the temperature was around 32 celcius degrees and it made climbing consuming. But then, after two hours and 100 meters, the unexpected happened. Just in five minutes the whole sky was full of dark storm clouds and rainy thunderstorm started to beat us. As usual, it was my turn to lead. After a brief group thinking we decided to continue at least one pitch further to see if the weather is getting any better. Storm was over in 40 minutes and the sky started clear just when my lead was over, typical.

Leading in the rain.

Mika's lead, up we go (230 meters left).

For our luck the rain cleaned the air and climbing after the storm was enjoyable because of the fresh air and lower temperature. Once we reached the top our total climbing time was 5 hours and the descent from the top to the nearest gelateria took additional 50 minutes.

Very enjoyable experience, definitely a must wall to visit! I'm just wondering that how I could stay here for a longer time, Garda region is such a great place to be. I'm ready to listen good ideas how group of Finns could afford staying here more permanently while adventuring around the region ;)