Lake Garda

I have been a bit lax on the blog front; after Melloblocco we spent 2 weeks travelling Italy with friends, taking in some sites around Venice, Pisa and Lake Garda. Then after 2 weeks relaxing we arrived back in Val Masino raring to climb. Only we were met with nine days of continuous rain, and after going stir crazy hiding in the van, the weather finally improved with the arrival of our ‘Targasonne’ friends Jason and Claire.


Back to business, we climbed every day, and I managed a quick ascent of the sit to Tarzan 7c. This started the ball rolling, so I returned to unfinished business with ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’. Before Melloblocco I was struggling with the 7b+ stand, however after 2 weeks relaxing and a couple of good ‘dry’ sessions on it I felt my fitness returning, and from the 7c+ sit I was able to get to the top repeatedly. However I spent most of the remaining sessions scaring myself silly on the top and down climbing. I had spent all previous sessions hitting the middle of the side pull and edging down to the small ledge that was marginally better than the middle, but not big enough to put my feet to my left hand for the top out. On my last session I reached ‘by chance’ slightly further on the final side pull and found the hold tripled in size….relief and success.
Pending the arrival of Hannah and Andy (from Albarracin) we spent the next week exploring the vast areas of Val Masino, and nursing Jason’s Swiss injured broken big toe back to climbing health, with help from some ice treatment from the freezing cold river. With temperatures rising above 20oC we headed to the heavally wooded, slightly higher area of Bagni di Masino, home to some scary high ball boulders. The forest is full of gems and I concentrated my efforts on my anti style, a compression problem called Oscurita 7c. One session to work the moves, second session sent..chuffed.
2 days spent hiding in the woods and enjoying cooler conditions, we spent the next two days melting in Val di Mello and going for a very cold dip in river. With temperatures creeping up to 30oC we retreated to the dense forest once again, after spending several days tanning, swimming and sweating off climbs lower down. However, the heat was now affecting even the heavily shaded areas, and we spent a full day slipping and sliding off a 6c+. Deciding the only time to catch bearable conditions was silly o’clock in the morning, we all begrudgingly set our alarms and arrived at the crag before 8 to savour cooler conditions for at least a couple of hours. Thankfully this was not a wasted effort and on the first early morning start I sent the classic 7b+ white bird, which felt 8c in the heat the previous day.
Providing temperatures don’t rise any higher we will be adopting an early morning start into the climbing days and spending at least the next week or so here, as there is more rock than you can shake a stick at.