Val Varatella and I Gumbi

I Gumbi is the first sector in the valley along the path "Sentiero delle Terre Alte". Beautiful and sunny sector offers more than 40 routes for all climbing styles and vide range of difficulties. Somehow the quiet valley and the steep red wall give a massive climbing experience. I noticed that even my normal voice echoed over the valley when climbing on the wall.

Easiest few routes start from 5a and hardest routes end up to 7b+. In general the routes are long and well bolted between the years 2003 and 2012. Overall rock quality is excellent at least on the 2012 bolted routes we climbed. Lot of long and vertical or overhanging routes are available from technical crimps to strength requiring routes. I have to admit that I enjoyd this crag and just this crag is definitely a reason to come back to Val Varatella.

And after the climbing day we headed to the "Grotte di Toirano" a 1300 long cave under the nearby mountains. But that's another story.

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Val Pennavaire and Colosseo

Val Pennaire is a large valley starting from Albenga and offering over 40 crags and more than 1000 Val Pennavaire could be easily a target even for a longer climbing holiday just because of the huge amount of good quality routes to be climbed. A good amount of the routes have been bolted after 2000 or even later than 2010 thou the first rock climbers discovered the valley already in the 90's. If the sole number of fresh routes is not a justification for a visit then the varied styles of climbing from tufas to overhangs and slabs are. 

Our pick of the day from Val Pennavaire was the crag Colosseo that has respectable 35 routes from 4a to 7c+, majority of the routes being on the range of 6a-7b. Bolting here is good as usual and the routes are relatively new, bolted between 2005 and 2006. On some overhangs a bit of polished rock exists but nothing that would affect to the climbing experience. Most propably the best parts of the wall are the on the overhanging part of the wall. Mostly those are 7+ routes but there is still some good overhangs for 6 grade climbers as well.

Again a great crack to visit. So far we have been picking cracks that are bolted 2005 or later and with that in mind the rock quality and bolting has been good or even great. I'm a little bit amazed how many good routes on a good rock there are. And all that in a relatively small region.

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