Regina del Lago and long routes, 17.6.2016

Rock climbing is more than just a physical and mental test of your skills. On a right location it offers a great way to see the surrounding nature from a different point of a view. One of such places in Lago di Garda is Regina del Lago.

Regina del Lago is popular sport climbing crack that has also a nice sector of longer routes. We have
been visiting here occasionally and for us it is a great place to get started before longer and more demanding routes. Still when it comes to the challenge you an find routes up to 7b and 150 meters long so it has plenty to climb at the Prima Fascia and Seconda Fascia sectors.

Today's climb was one of the shortest routes, only 80 meters and 3 pitches with a grade of 5c/6a. Route was enjoyable with a reasonable boltin and great views. Scariest part was when snake was next to our belay station between 2nd and 3rd pitches. Most propably it was mildly or non poisonous Zamensis longissimus longissimus - Aesculapian snake.

So far we have climbed the following routes from the Sector Prima and Sector Seconda Facia:

• Via Caino e Abele, 6a+
• Via Plaisir, 6a
• Via Babilonia, 6a
• Via Sole Minore, 6a
• Via Sesto Senso, 6a+
• Via Settimo Cielo , 5c/6a
• Via Messalina, 6a

The views over the surrounding mountains, valleys and over the Lake Garda makes this wall unforgettable. 

Read more about Regina del Lago from our earlier posts:

2015 March: Switch from ice to rock faces at Regina del Lago

2014 March: Spring climbing over Ledro Valley

2013 June: Regina del Lago, great views over Valle di Ledro

Read More

0

Switch from ice to rock faces at Regina del Lago

After four days of ice climbing and two days of snowboarding it was time to switch the mode from ice to rock. This time of the year is a perfect for longer rock climbing routes to we headed down to Sarca valley and Arco.

After the longer ice climbing routes we decided to start with shorter 110 meter routes at Regina del Lago. Regina's Prima Fascia sector has great 4-6 pitch long routes with quick approach and easy exit. And actually after climbing a longer route you have three good option, head to the sport sectors, continue longer lines at the Regina del Lago C-sector or just walk down and start the next route.

This is the second time at the Prima Fascia sector and today we climbed two 6a lines, Via Settimo Cielo and Via Messalina. Both routes were enjoyable to climb and the belay stations were relaxed with excellent view over the valley below and Lake Garda.

Prima Fascia sector has 20 know routes and we also found some fresh ones too. Majority of the routes are bolted during last 5 to 10 years. But be aware some of them have trad pitches in the middle and few of the routes are complete alpine graded. I was also surprised about the wide range of grades in the routes. Easiest ones start from 5b and most difficult ones go as high as 7b. A great range of difficulties for a one sector.

After the 2nd visit at this sector I'm convinced that this is the best part of the Regina del Lago crag.

See all photos:

Regina del Lago - multipitch routes, 23.3.2016

Read More

0

Back to the old, good and solid

If you just want to see photos then click here 

Just the next day after our arrival it was time to head back to the rock walls. Three days by car takes its toll and expectations weren't high for the  1st climbing day. Goal was to climb long and beautiful 6 graded routes in a nice environment. Perfect target for the first day was one of our favorite crags, Regina Del Lago at the Ledro Valley.

Approach to the Regina can be hard in a hot summer day due the long and steep path to the crag. 
Luckily our expectations were wrong, the weather was perfect 24 Celsius degrees. Over recent years we have got used to the hot summer days that are exhausting for bikers and climbers and can drain all the energy before the actual activity. But this summer seems to be different. Based on the local's knowledge the whole summer has been more or less colder than usual. Of course 'colder' is not 'cold' in terms of Finns and the temperature is actually perfect for outdoor sports.

Maybe one reason for the cooler weather is the number of Finns around here. For the first time we actually heard a spoken Finnish at the crag, 2 fellow climbers Tero and Viivi from Jyväskylä. They were visiting Lake Garda for the very first time and Tero was getting ready to his RCI (Rock Climbing Instructor) training at the Dolomite mountains. That was a perfect coincidence, we got a RCI candidate to teach rock climbing for our soon to be arriving guests Juha and Niina. Great!

For the 2nd climbing day at 20th of June we headed to the L'Orto that us just at the backyard of Arco. But backyard doesn't mean that the approach is a walk in a park to a picnic camp. Actually it was the opposite. It took about 50 minutes by feet from our apartment at Arco up to L'Orto.

The crag has short to medium length routes with nice and challenging moves. Overall grading of the routes is solid but the routes have started to polish since the last visit. L'Orto used to be known from fresh rock, which it still has, but popular routes have started to polish and the roughness of the rock is permanently lost from few 6 graded routes. Still a good crag to visit!

See all photos:

Arco, L'Orto-Regina, 19.-20.6.2014

Read More

0

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

Read More

0