Roadtrip Helsinki-Arco 2016

Roadtrip from Helsinki to Arco takes 3 days, two boat trips and 2500 kilometers. Year after year the trip shows the continent's different traditions, great sceneries and wonderful people. It is an eye-opener and I always see something new that blows my mind.

<<Click the map to see the route>>

<<See the roadtrip video from 2015>>

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Regina del Lago, great views over Valle di Ledro

Path to the crag starts from the mouth of the tunnel.

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

The old Ponale road leading to Pregasina is a well known mountainbiking trail up to the Punta dei Larici and back. For climbers the same road passes by one of the best medium level climbing crag, Regina del Lago. Regina del Lago offers total of 69 routes on four sectors from A to D. Grades of the routes starts from 4a and ends up to 7b. Majority of the routes are in the range of 5c to 6b.

So far the crags we have been visiting Regina del Lago offers the greatest view over the Lake Garda and  especially over the Valle di Ledro. The downside is that the approach is not the easiest one.

Aproach starts from the parking place just a bit after the tunnel ends. Car can be parked either to the right side of the road  SS240 just before the road on the left side to Pregasina. If the first parking is full there is the other convinient parking on the left side of the road, just after the turn to Pregasina. The third, but not recommended option, is to drive through the old tunnel mouth and park few hundred meters after the tunnel.

Parking is the easiest part of the approach. From the road side parking it takes about half an hour to reach the sectors. The crag is surrounded by steep woods and the last few hundred meters of the approach to sector B is 2c/3a climbing excercise. Heavy bags will add the difficulty factor considerably for the last part. See our photos from Picasa to get better understanding of the approach.

We visited at the sector B that is marked with few screws and a small rock on top of them? Maybe it is this or difficulty of the last hundred meters that the rock was one of the best quality (not polished) in the region. Bolting was well done and anchors were reliable as usual in the Garda region.

During the day we completed few 5c and 6a routes and as a conclusion we can recommend the crag, thou its not suitable for a families seeking for picnik type of a location.

Pregasina, Regina del Lago 17.6.2013

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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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