Long routes at Scogliera di Salinella Sud

Our last climbing day's goal was to find long routes for Sami's 70 meters rope. San Vito Lo Capo won't let you down if you are seekin for meters to ascent. After a brief research of topos and potential routes we chose to return back to Scogliera di Salinella Sud. The area offers a huge variety of tall and good quality routes. Our choise of the day was to start from the Scomparto Rifiuti sector's Destra wall. Wall has only few routes from 5b to 6a+ but every one of them is 35 meters high with middle anchors. Our warmup was easy 5b wich was actually enjoyable climb because of the outstanding view that opened from the huge flake down to the Mediterranean sea.

Näytä suurempi kartta

Main route for us was the respectable 35 meters tall Grey Wall - 6a. Again this route was enjoyable to climb but at the topmost part the bolting was missing. For the last 10 meters part the only bolt to clip was at the neighbor route. So be aware for a potential runout at the final part. Otherwise no complains.

Our final calm down routes for the day found from the Centrale sector. Sector's routes were still 30 meters high, a nice calm down climb to top. During the great day Sami managed to climb 100 meters by climbing only three routes wich proved that our goal for the was accomplished.

Sad but true this was our last climbing day at Sicily and San Vito Lo Capo. As a conclusion all of us can truly recommend the rocks of San Vito. Lots and lots of new routes, no polished limestone, climbing during the winter months and not too crowded (yet?). A definite place to visit if you are planning to climb in Sicily. Ciao!

See the photo album:

Sicily 5.10.2012

Read More

0

White Wall Sector at Cala Mancina

Cala Mancina as a whole is a huge sector containing up to eight walls. Today we decided to come back for a second time to Cala Mancina. Earlier visit was for the Zoo and Highwall sectors but today's target was the north side of the High Wall sector called White Wall. White Wall is also the only one of the walls that is pointing north making it a better option for climbing on a hot days to climb. White Wall offer routes between grades from 5 to 7 and the altitude of the routes varies from 13 meters up to 25 meters. Wall itself has an easy access from the north west side of San Vito Lo Capo.

Näytä suurempi kartta

During the daywe onsighted few 6a's and at the end of the day we finally managed to swim. There is a nice but slightly rough beach nearby the High Wall sector that is definitely recommended. We has the opportunity to enjoy a rare temperatures, sea water was crystal clear and  +24 celsius degrees on the shallow beach. Not too common during October. Again recommended if beautiful nature and tall rock walls makes your heart bump.

See the photo album:

Sicily 4.10.2012

Read More

0

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.

Read More

0

In the shadow of the Bunker

World War II bunker guarding the beach.

Todays target was Scogliera di Salinella Centro wall guarded by a World War II bunker at the top of a 60 meters cliff. Climbing sector's name comes from the unreachable bunker that has been controlling the access to the rocky beaches during the war.

Bunker sector is located on the western coastline of San Vito. Approach is from top of the cliff where from an old dirt road heads down towards the rocky beach. Normal city car wasn't suitable for the approach and we took a walk on the rough but stunning beach towards north. Walking along the beach is like a travel to older times. Cows we pasturing at the top of the cliff and goats at the beachline. On the western skyline misty mountains rise from the sea. It is like travel to a fantacy world, amazing.

Heta on the rough beach.

Climbing routes on the wall are also well done. Most of the routes are around 20 meters high, highest routes are about 30 meters. Rock quoality is also good and routes are untouched, almost brand new, no worries about polished rock. Grades varies between 5 to 7 and majority of the routes are graded to 6 but there is still plenty of 5 and 7 graded routes available. Because of heavy waves and rough beach swimming at the Bunker sector is not recommended, but otherwise definitely a worthwhile place to visit.

We would like to add more photos but our local Internet access is too slow. More will be available later...

Heta leading on a fantasy world.

Sami on the wall.

Rough beach.

Read More

0

Climbing at Cala Mancina

Dirt road is not built for a city car.

The long awaited day when we finally had our very first climbing in Sicily. Our target was Scogliera di Salinella Nord at coast called Cala Mancina wich is located on the western side of San Vito Lo Capo. Access to the crag wasn't obvious, but because of our earlier scouting, finding the gate to the old dirt road was easy. Driving the road wasn't that obvious, our car is designed for the urban streets and the dirt road was full of big stones and deep potholes. At the halfway we decided to park the car to avoid potential damage to the car.

Life cycle.

Once we arrived to the walls it became obvious that why more and more climbers are heading to San Vito. Walls are good quality limestone and fresh. No chalk on the walls and no polished rock. Crag itself is divided into seven walls and biggest walls are divided into several sectors. Height of the routes varies between 15 to 35 meters and grades starts from 4 and go up to 8b+. A great varying scale of routes that should fulfill the demands of any sportclimber.

Where is the climber?

The setting of the routes is also beautiful, I would say the most beautiful. Red walls are standing from 50 meters to 100 meters from the sea and underneath lies only rugged fields where goats are pasturing. Beach is covered with sharp and grey stone hit by the strong waves of the Mediterranean sea. This is not the most common view that you would see from the photos of the San Vito's beaches.

Lost climber found,

During the day we climbed easier, but nice warmup routes from sectors Zoo and High wall (2 pitches route on a single climb). As a conclusion we were satisfied and the extraordinary setting adds a nice touch on the routes. Recommended.

About the routes:
Current version of the Versante Sud's Climbing has only few routes listed from San Vito Lo Capo's region. Our primary topo book for this area is Sicily-Rock that can be bought from GEBRO Verlag.

At the wall.

Sami at the High Wall

Mika at the High Wall.

Heta at Cala Mancina.

Hight Wall sector.

Sicily 1.10.2012

Read More

0

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

Read More

0

Via Ferrata Rio Salagoni

Ferrata started nearby the parking.

It was time for the second ferrata. For today we selected relatively easy via ferrata Rio Salogni. Exceptional route is traversing in a cave like environment surrounded by a rich and a beautiful nature. The ferrata starts from outside the city of Dro and ends up nearby to the old castle of Drena.

Ferrata starts 600 meters from the parking at the road SP84. Starting point of the ferrata was like an entry point to a fantasy land that lies between smooth rock walls and a small rivulet at the bottom.

Finding the start of the ferrata was easy.

This ferrata is completely different from the others because it is traversing most of the time on a wall of a limestone rock valley. Temperature on the ferrata is almost 10 degrees less than at the surraunding countryside, wich makes it even more enjoyable.

Start of the ferrata.

Ferrata follows the rock walls by traversing slowly upwards. After about 20 minutes the first part of the ferrata ended into an outstanding green valley. The valley looks like a lost world because of the distant sunlight and smooth colors of green and brown. One of the most exciting locations that I have seen during the summers that I have spent at Lake Garda. From here the ferrata continued through a bridge built out of three iron cables. Via ferrata continues then after the bridge and climbs towards the castle of Drena.

Finally we ended up to the spot where guides usually take hteir groups towards the path that leads to the castle. That traditional path turns left over a small wooden bridge. But today we chose a different trail. We continued our adventure by travelling further the valley.

Mika on the cable bridge at the lost valley.

Trail continued with iron steps but without the cable. Most of the time it was ok, but on same cases connecting the via ferrata kit to the iron ladders seemed to be a good idea. Path continued for about 15 minutes until it ended to Drena.

At Drena we decided to take a look to the old castle. Castle was nicely renowed and it was also possible to visit at the tower to see the nice view to the Sarca walley. After visiting the castle we headed towards our car by following a nice but rocky trail.

Once we ware at the car everyone felt that the via ferrata was definitely a worthwhile to climb. Recommended because of the great cave like environment and beatiful scenery.

See our photos from Flicker.

Heta and Sami at the tower of the old castle of Drena.

Read More

0

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!

Read More

0

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.

Read More

0

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

Read More

0

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.

Read More

0