Cascata di Fontanazzo di destra - ice screw tested!

Time for an ice fall multi-pitch climb. Our target was in just behind of the small village Fontnazzo - Cascata di Fontanazzo di destra or Bus de Tone as locals call it. Climb follows a small creek that that connects a sequence of 5 ice falls into a nice multi-pitch graded WI4.

 Approach to the climb takes about 30 minutes from the parking just next to the little bridge near a kids playground just behind Fontanazzo village. Right spot is easy to recognize because the alternative climb Cascata di Fontanazzo di sinistra shows on the forest face.

Approach was slightly harder due the fresh snow but nothing overwhelming there. This time of the year the first pitch started from an open creek so getting wet would have been easy.

The 250 meter long route is mostly WI3 and only the last pitch is getting harder. But it does not mean that it is a walk in the park. The amount of snow was the hardest part and opening the ice was energy consuming duty for the leader.

The fresh snow was also causing the first serious danger during our winter holiday. On the 1st pitch the snow packed so that the grip to the ice was partially lost when screwing the second protection. The axe and crampons failed at a same time. That caused an upside down fall towards the creek. Luckily the screw hold and the bones and muscles did not got any hits from axe or screws! Ice climb leader must not fall!

Rest of the route went without any "close call" situations and we were able to enjoy the dolomite winter on its best!

See all photos:

Cascata di Fontanazzo di destra, 16.3.2016

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Scogliera di Salinella Sud: El-Bahira

Heading to the El-Bahira sector.

Guess what, we have been climbing today, again. It is amazing how many crags have been developed here during the last few years. Todays target is Scogliera di Salinella Sud's sectors, primarily El-Barhira sector. All Scogliera di Salinella Sud's routes are new and fresh and majority of them are tall from 20 meters up to 30 meters.

Our main target for the day was El-Bahira sector that is named after the camping site. el-Bahira camping is locates at the south from the center of the San Vito Lo Capo. Sector is divided into 6 different walls where one wall, Whitewall, is also illuminated during nights.

Sami warming up at the Pizzeria wall.

Warmup wall for the day was Pizzeria that is located at the north of the camping site. Sector has short routes from 2c to 7a and most of them are around 12 meters. Easier routes are recommended for climbing training and for others the routes from 5 to 6 are good warmups for the day.

Mika at the Ution wall.

Main routes for the day were at the Ution wall where routes are about 20 meters high and grades varies between 5a to 7b.  Wall itself was smoother rock quality than what we have been used to climb here. Partially it reminded more like Finnish gneiss. Climbing itself was enjoyable and the routes were well designed and bolted. Again a great day at Sicily and a recommended site to visit.

Heta at the Ution wall.

Author spoiling a nice view!

p.s. More photos will be available later when we have a faster Internet connection.

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Windy views and refreshing evening at Cavédine

Route from Nago to Cavédine.

After opera at Verona we decided to have a short climbing day and then afterwads enjoy a refreshing evening at Lago di Cavediné. So far during the holiday we have been visiting on new crags but today our choice was to go back to Beldevere and see the more demanding B sector.

Sector B has longer routes and  some of them are overhanging. Best part is that the sector is located clearly on a higher altitude than the A sector. Higher altitude and the average route height of 16 meters means that climbing feels more exposed. At this sector climber has a great views to watch during the whole ascent and the winds of the lake adds a cool and refreshing factor for the whole way up to the top.

Most important lesson of the day was that even the latest and the greatest topo books might have mistakes on route maps. At Beldevere it seemed that most of the routes listed on the latest "Arco Rock" guidebook from 2010 edition were wrong. Luckily there is an informative topo map at the crag. Somehow the grades and the routes were so badly mixed at the book that the local topo table was only clear way to see the routes. I included the actual topo and grades of the of the sector B to the article.

Actual routes.

We had time to try only few routes where grades were from 5c to 6a+. I usually climb 5c on-sight but at Beldevere's sector B I couldn't. It was more likely 6a/6a+ at the top. I also spoke with couple of Italian climbers and they pretty agreed that route is definitely more demanding than 5c. So be prepared for trickier parts even on a warmup route.

Top view from Beldevere B sector towards Torbole.

After short but intense climbing day we decided to avoid a holiday rush towards Torbole and instead of that we headed to the Lago di Cavediné. It is a smaller lake than Garda but big enough for a windsurfing school that is located nearby the beach. It is about 15 kilometers from Nago next to a narrow asphalt road heading towards north. It is definitely a worthwhile to visit especially when own activities are nearby the lake. Water is clear but felt colder than at lake Garda. Visiting after a hot summer day is preferred.

Sadly our holiday is about to end and we have only one more adventure left. Then after that it is all about packing up the gear and head back to Finland. Heading back means a car drive of "only" 2500 kilometers...

Behind the back view towards Nago and Torbole.

Lago di Cavédine

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Market morning and Calvario's classic walls

Bells and whistles at the market.

Arco had a market day so we decided to spent some time there and see if we can find good quality cheese or honey. Market sellers had a lot to offer but today we couldn't find what were seeking for. We decided to leave the markets and start to prepare for an afternoon redpointing session.

Classic wall.

Already earlier on this week we had a grade upgrade climbing session at Massi di Prabi which was a great place to practice for more demanding routes. Next goal was to find a good crag for redpointing routes. For redpointing purposes we chose the classic Calvario which has been the stage for the Italian trials for the very first Rock Master '87. After that the crag has been abandoned for years but in 2009 it has been cleaned and rebolted. All the routes are vertical and technical, in other words it is a perfect place to exceed our current grades. And on top of all that Calvario is located on our back yard just about a 1 kilometer away towards Laghel.

We arrived to the crag during afternoon around 2 o'clock and it was complete empty. That was a surprise because the crag is facing to the east meaning that during the afternoon it is nicely in shadow. And on top of that the rock's face wasn't badly polished.

Calvario is demanding for regular climber it has only one 4b and one 5b for warmups, rest of the routes are from 6a to 8a. Hetas target for the day was the route 2. - Mam 5b and mine the route 5. - Vibrafono 6a.

Preparing for the crux.

As a warmup Heta climbed Popi 4b and I prepared for the 5b. For some reason the 5b had trickier move at the top than I expected and I failed to climb it right at first try. As a result I slipped the very first time in here from a 5 graded route down to the rope. Four meters of unexpected excitement on a warmup route has to be a new record. My second attempt was easier and the "warmup" was topped.

Warmup route then became Heta's redpointing excercise. Initial ascent wasn't too promising but after two or three succesfull attempts Heta decided that she wants to lead climb it. She climbed it with reasonable amount of motivating fear at the crux move that I slipped on my first attempt.

After Heta's success I moved the top rope to my technical training route 6b. Route started with small finger pockets that were pointing downwards. After several attemps I had to agree that my fingers cannot handle that route yet. Next one was the actual target 6a. I managed to ascent with a top rope it and on the second attempt I also found reasonable spots for setting quickdraws. But time ran out and the route is waiting for the actual ascent. Again Heta was the hero of the day by achieving her 5b target! Calvario is a true classic!

See more photos from Flickr >>

Happy climber after a successful ascent!

Nice view from Calvario towards Arco.

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Multipitch day at Corno di Bo'

Corno di Bo'  is located nearby Torbole.
Parking wasn't convinient.

We decided that today we climb the first multipitch ascent. Our goal was to complete a 100 meters wall. When it comes to climbing, early mornings are becoming a standard because climbing during the afternoon is exhausting. Well, our goal was to start early but we couldn't keep the schedule. For some reason we forgot our second rope to the residence and we noticed that once we arrived to Corno di Bo'. There was only one option, to get back to the Villa Nicole and pick up the damn rope. That wasn't enough! It seemed that the holiday traffic starts to accumulate just after 9:00 and it was already 9:30 when we headed back. Basically the main road at Torbole was full of slow moving cars and the temperature started to increase slowly but surely.

Mika on the edge.

St that stage our schedule was badly late and we were afraid how the climbing would go. One lesson that we learned during our training session was that the sun starts to shine just from top of the Corno di Bo' around 10:00. That is annoying for the climber because reading the rock becames diffucult. Other lesson that we had learned was that the black tips of the climbing shoes are terribly hot once sun has rised above the wall.

Sami at the top anchor.

We still chose to climb. Luckily it looked like that the weather wasn't the hottest possible. Sky was partially covered by white clouds that blocked the sun enough to keep the temperature reasonable 30 celcius degrees.




Overall the climbing went  generally well. Personally I got some additional excitment at the second pitch by choosing slightly wrong ascent path. Traversing on top of a ledge of a polished slab without any visible holds or cracks nearby and having more than 4 meters of rope hanging out wasn't most encouraging experience.

View from the top.

 The climbing part wen't well and every one of our team got a 100 meters 5a multipich ascent. Number of the pitches surprised us slightly because topo listed only four pitches but we had to climb five pitched to complete the route number 6 "Norex".

Corno di Bo' had also additional bonus to offer, beach was only 50 meters away from the routes. A nice way to complete the very first multipitch adventure.

I'm proud of our team's progress and skills. We are ready for new challenges.

See photos from Flickr

Well done!

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Sport climbing at Beldevere

Top view from Beldevere towards Torbole, nice!

It is a time for the first sport climbing session at Lake Garda. Our goal was to find a crag to get more familiar with the local rock. Finding a spot for climbers who have been rock climbing less than a year is not an obvious task. For our team Beldevere was an excellent choice, because it has a lot of well bolted routes where you can pick any one of the lines without thinking too much about the grades.

So we packed our gear in the early in the morning to head towards Nago and Beldevere. Beldevere is easy to find, just head towards Arco from Nago by following the road SS240. There is a good parking on the left side of the road nearby the mast. Beldevere is the grey wall behind the woods on the opposite side of the parking slot.

Jarkko climbing route number 6 "Ale'Gher"  - 5a at Beldevere.

Once car was parked we headed to the crag by following a path that started on the other side of the road. Beldevere has two sectors, A and B. We headed to the sector A that has 20 routes from 3c to 6a. Length of the pitches varies between 8 to 12 meters.

It took about a 5 minutes to get to the crag and another 10 minutes to locate a free starting route. Beldevere seems to be relatively popular since at 9:30 half of the routes were reserved. Still it didn't felt too busy and switching the routes was easy and quick. Beldevere is mostly in shade so for the belayer it was a nice environment to belay. For the climber shade lasted up to 4 meters and after that climber became well exposed to the sun.

During the day we climbed between 6 to 9 routes per climber and everyone of us felt that Beldevere managed to fulfill our expectations.We can recommend the crag, if you want to climb 4-6 graded routes. But be aware, you are not going to be alone at the Beldevere during the August.

See photos from Flickr

Sami and Heta belaying routes 4 - "Fessa" (5a) and 6 - "Ale'Gher" (5a).

Parking on the left side of the road. Access via trail from the other side of the road.

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Via Ferrata del Colodri

Our initial plan was to take the final practice for the multipitch climbing at Corno di Bo. But as usual things didn't went as planned. After a busy morning and afternoon we had only few hours to do something fun. After short planning session we decided to climb an easy but nice Via Ferrata del Colodri.

Testing via ferrata kits.

Our trip started with a short walk through the city of Arco where the first goal was to buy a via ferrata kit. After 45 minutes of testing different kind of carabiners we were ready.  With the brand new equipment we headed towards the Arco camping area where from the via ferrata trail starts. At that stage time was around 18:00, leaving us about 2 hours to get to the top and back before the sunset.

Ferrata starts nearby the camping area.

Finding the via ferrata was relatively easy. First we headed to the Arco camping area and then located the trekking path number 431(bis). All trekking paths are marked with red and white stripes and numbers so locating the right path was easy. Then we just followed the ascending path with red markings towards the cliff. After a walk of 10 to 15 minutes we were at the starting point of the via ferrata.

Via ferrata was easy and it had a nice view over the Sarca valley. The climbing part took about 40 minutes. During the last third we had to rush a little because of an upcoming thunderstorm. Once we got our summit the thunderstorm reached Arco. Descending via ferrata was not an option. Being at the same altitude with the storm and connected to a lightning rod (steel via ferrata cables) wasn't a good idea.

Sami setting up his helmet camera.

I started to rush towards western side of the mountain to find the exit path that leads towards the Santa Maria di Laghel. To get down there the first mission was to locate a small path on leading down on the western side of the Colodri. Finding the path wasn't an easy task but finally after 15 minutes I managed to spot a narrow path hidden between the woods and bushes. At that stage we also "rescued" a german family from the storm by guiding them to the right way down. The exit path was narrow and steep with loose rocks. After about 80 - 100 meters we found a rope and then after descending that we continued the rocky path towards the main road. Sudden thunderstorm was the most thrilling part of this adventure.

See photos from Flickr
 See photos on our journal

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Towards Lake Garda

This blog is a diary about our team's mountain adventures at Lake Garda in North Italy. Majority of the posts will be about climbing, mountainbiking and via ferrata trips at the Lake Garda region. You can follow our adventures via this blog, a journal and twitter.

Our team: Heta, Mika, Jarkko and Sami

Mountainbiking has been the major sport for me but  this year's goal and challenge is to climb first multipitch routes on alpine walls. This may sound like professional, but actually my clibing career started just a year a go at Lake Garda. 15th of August 2011 I had the very first top rope ascent on a real rock. And the rest of the team started rock climbing soon after that. Now after a year of training and coaching from alpine guides we are ready for the multipitch climbing challenges on alpine walls.

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