Hunt of new walls at Noriglio in Rovereto

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Rovereto offers fresh views and new crags to explore for climbers who are seeking for new walls to conquer. Rovereto is not far away, it takes only 30 minutes by car from Lake Garda. And on top of rock climbing the old city has lot to offer from culture to shopping.

Rovereto has a long history and it is well known from the Peace Bell that has been cast from the bronze of the cannons of the nations that took part of the First World War. Mountain and alpinism has been also part of the heritage which shows also at the nearby Pasubio mountain's fortresses and structures from Word War I. If rock climbing is not enough or unpredictable rain spoils the day there is always something else to do. Day can be easily extended with a city tour, museum visit, winery tour or shopping afternoon.

But our day was dedicated for climbing. Today's target was Noriglio that has about 120 routes in 7 different sectors. Range of the difficulties at the crag vary between 2 to 8 and most of the routes being in the range of 5c to 6c. Approach is easy and short but the wall is hot to climb during summer months.

At Casa al Sole sector majority of the routes are in the range of 6. Rock quality is broken and vertical slab climbing with few overhangs and bulges. Rock is slightly polished on some routes but usually it is not affecting to climbing. Rock has also natural roundness and polished surface because of the dripping water that has smoothed the surface.

In the Casa al Sole sector belayer got nicely into shadows but the wall was facing to the sun for most of  the day. In the late afternoon or early evening the wall turns more into shadow so afternoon climbing is more than recommended during summer. Some of the sectors before the Casa al Sole are completely exposed to the sun and it is a good idea to avoid those during hot days. But for spring and fall climbing Noriglio seems to be perfect.

Routes at the sector are mostly well bolted and few routes were just recently re-bolted. It is still good idea to check the style of bolting because on some older routes the 2nd or 3rd bolt might be too high for completely safe climbing.  Over the day we climbed few 6a and 6a+ routes and one 5c warmup. Overall feeling is that grading is though but mostly fair so prepare for demanding routes.

Noriglio has good routes to offer but it is not the first choise for summer months. Some sectors have shorter routes and you can read more first hand experiences from Sami's & Nora's article.

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Rovereto, Noriglio, 6.7.2014