Dolomitic limestone at Molveno

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Our journey to find shady crags good quality rock to climb carries on. So far we have been lucky with our picks and most of the carefully selected crags have been enjoyable. Today's pick was Molveno S. Antonio nearby the Brenta Dolomites a crag that is dedicated to the memory of local alpinist Luca Sartori.

Molveno is an east facing crag taking 50 minutes from Arco by car. It is located at a high altitude of a
900 meters above sea level so it is well climbable during hot summer days. It is one of the alpinist style of crags like Coltura and Croz de la Niere. You can almost taste the golden age of alpinism at Molveno where Brenta Dolomites are dominating the skyline.

When it comes to the climbing Molveno the limestone is more compact and Dolomite's style here. Crag looks good on paper. Total of 47 lines starting from 4 and going up to 7c and most of the lines are more than 20 meters long.

Rock face looks actually good and the styles of the line have definitely some character. But then the downside. It looks like that all the local climbers and growing young alpinists have been training a lot here. Many lines were polished from the beginning thou there were also better quality lines. And at the same time bolting was distant in most of the lines. Distant bolting on a slippery rock makes the 1st few clips hard on some of the routes.

Not an easy crag due the distant bolting and polished rock. Sad because crag has great potential to be interesting challenge. It is not a must place to visit but if you happen to be nearby or just want to get a shady crag then you may want to check it out.

Crag grade: 3/5
Rock quality: 3/5
Bolting: 3/5
Surroundings: 5/5
Approach: 4/5

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Molveno S. Antonio, 28.6.2015