Finale (the original one!)
We’ve been firm fans of Oltre Finale (which translates as “beyond” Finale) for a number of years now, but had written off its more famous and long-standing neighbor as being […]
Category Archives: Northern Italy
Aosta round up – more rock than you can shake a stick at!
With so much climbing I’ve got into a bit of a “back-blog” so here’s a quick round up of the other crags we visited in the Aosta Valley: Corno di […]
Another Day In (Grand) Paradiso
A message from Will, fresh back from Leonidio, prompted a further exploration of the crags further up the Valgrisenche. He and a Cham team were planning a foray through the […]
Matterhorn and Monte Rosa
No, we haven’t packed big boots and crampons for this trip. The Aosta guide is a huge tome, organised into sections according to area, and the valleys leading up to […]
La Ravoire and Leverogne
The Aosta Valley runs for almost 100km from just north of our campsite (Camping Mombarone) … up to Courmayeur and the Mont Blanc tunnel. There’s a tonne of rock (140 […]
Gruviera and Montestrutto – into Val d’Aosta
We’re taking advantage of a weather window to explore the climbing around Grand Paradiso and the Aosta Valley, starting in the lower valley whilst things perk up and dry out […]
Weathering Storm Alex
Alex, the first named storm of the year, was forecasted to dump about 6 inches of the wet stuff on Val Penneveire on Friday, threatening to put a major dampener […]
Rocca dell’Arma – up into the clouds
With Jake and Leah having a rest day, we took the opportunity to explore the top end of Val Penneveire. Rocca dell’Arma sits at around 1,400m near Colle di Carpauna […]
Euskal – Colosseo – Rocca de Basura; a three crag day
A couple of kilometres further up the Pennavaire valley from Colletta, these three crags line the sunny south-facing flank. They’re only a few hundred metres from the road, but two […]
La Galera – “Go Directly to Jail…”
“The Jail” isn’t a particularly appealing name, but this is a very pleasant crag, if a bit of a hike up hill. All the routes are named after prisons (I […]
Benvenuto in Val Pennavaire
A number of factors conspired to see us leaving Germany and heading into Italy (dashing through Switzerland en route without a “Transit Stop” to avoid falling foul of any quarantine […]
La Caurga – Sirta, a sports climbing wind downÂ
With an airport day on the agenda we were looking for single pitch bolt clipping, near the road and not too far out of our way to Bergamo. This crag […]
Luna Nascente
We made the most of a much improved forecast with an early start and were on the first shuttle bus at 8am. We made short work of the “1 to […]
Il Risveglio di Kundalini
Val di Mello has been likened to a European Yosemite Valley, but it isn’t really a fair comparison. Whilst VdM has cliffs that are almost as high, they’re broken up […]
Val di Mello – cragging at Sasso Remenno
Jim and I are on a 10 day trip to the Alps, with a rough itinerary involving Val di Mello and the Bregaglia. Typical stormy alpine weather greets our arrival […]
Santa Lucia
The very pretty Santa Lucia sector above Toraino gets a great write up in the guide. To be honest, it’s a bit too grey and slabby for our current tastes. […]
Erboristeria
This is the dark, gloomy north facing crag that dominates the entrance to the valley – very reminiscent of a shady Malham. We’d avoided it on our previous two visits, […]
Castelbianco
The original crag of the Val Pennavaire, Castelbianco has an old (ok, only 20 years, but that’s ancient in these parts) sector of very steep routes – entry grade is […]
Back in Italy
…yes, I know we said we were going to France, but somehow our random walk has taken us via Italy, and specifically the climbing in Liguria. There’s actually some logic […]
Telematica – back to Oltre Finale
Chasing a blast of sunshine on a generally showery coast, we blasted back to Oltre Finale, which seems to enjoy a great microclimate. Sector Telematica has generally easier routes, nothing […]
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