The Dolomites

The holiday went 'so well' I didn't have the inclination to write up its failings, a few months later here it is in note form:

June = Too early, huts closed, lifts closed, snow in descent gullies and only Eastern Bloc climbers (i.e. mentalists) climbing.

Do NOT be second on the route. Said Eastern Bloc climbers have no remorse at literally throwing large pieces of rock in your direction. When they're hitting the slabs just above you, its time to bail.

Cinque Torri is crap.

The Marmolada is friggin' huge (~870m).

Abseiling off one single ring peg (about a 4mm ring) with no chance of backing it up is terrifying, even if you weigh as little as I do.

If you can't see the rock, don't try and climb a 600m route.



When you DO see the rock, run away as it looks like this:



Driving to Val di Mello in a 1.2 L Panda takes nearer 7 hours than Googles predicted 4.30. With only one person on the insurance and a good forecast for the next day it isn't fun to attempt in an evening.

Val di Mello is incredibly beautiful. The rock is pristine. Coming here to boulder is an insult.

The little lake drawn in the Solo Granito guide is NOT the first lake, it is the second one with the rock (complete with bolt), take the path here to Luna Nascente, do NOT walk out of the valley by mistake on an earlier path. Especially when you've got up early to jump a dodgy forecast.

Luna Nascente is amazing. If its at your limit be prepared to be a tad run out at times.



When you get to the big roof (unlike last time!) you DOWN CLIMB for 6m around the corner, the next bit is easy but there is little pro all the way to the belay. How we got this far previously with an incomplete grit rack I'm not quite sure.

Imagine a perfect corner, got it? The next pitch is it from here upwards:



The final slab is easy, very easy in fact, but once again there is NO pro for 40m (and no, its not this shallow all the way).



It is also a 60m pitch, by that I mean as I bounced on stretch to clip the tree at the top, all I heard was "climbing". Good to know.

Carrying a headtorch is golden although after the Dolomites descent without, whilst handcuffed would have been a walk in the park by comparison.

Finish at the Luna hut, Pizzocheri (local dish) and finish with an Espresso.

Rain. Watch as your planned router literally forms a waterfall.

Work out how much it has cost you per pitch of climbing. Go to Verona and drown sorrows in Aperol Spritz and complain that the ladies were more attractive last time you where here.

Heed the Spherical Cow!

The End.

ps - the S95 > LX5 for this stuff, and when are we going back?

2012

Since returning from the Verdon I'd had little psych to make the effort to get out on the Grit; the one day I bothered I just wasn't interested (and neither was she).

Spain came around quickly and afterwards there was little time between the Christmas duties to even think about getting out climbing.

Christmas was spent far too close to London; again, no climbing.

So it was nice this weekend to scrape a day out on the Grit, and what a day. Last time we went out the destination was picked by Nat and wasn't the best choice to try and re-inspire some love for the luck-based-scrittle. We settled on Stanage plantation, the best of the best.

Twitter showed a large number of the UKB crowd to be heading that way, and a few phone calls persuaded a good friend that he too wanted to tag along. It was great to see people and served well as a reminder about how good grit days can be. The climbing isn't my favourite in style but the general company and ability to jump between a large number of high quality problems is fantastic.

Thanks to Rob, Nat managed to push her top end grade (as well as flash). Thanks to me the day ended with some shouting after being a little too keen to point her at Crescent arete, although later she did admit that it was mainly a head issue.

I was very happy to notice that my footwork had improved, leading to ticking a couple of slabs. The kind of problems that I'd happily saunter past declaring them 'shit' not so long ago.

Posting on the "Best of 2011" thread really got me thinking. This year has been by far my most enjoyable year climbing. Early on in the year the stolen evenings on Grit trad were memorable, leading towards High Tor, Chee Tor and then a summer spent ticking away at both of the Cornices. I've never managed to climb so consistently and I put it down to spending THAT much more time on rock this year as well as a new understanding of how to approach sport routes (the fact its not the end of the world if you can't do every move on the first dog, and a tiny sprinkling of tenacity). Monsterosity kick started this and by fluke, the route choices I made hereon built upon this. By the end of the summer I shifted to ploughing repeatedly up the easier Cornice offerings to prepare for the Verdon; a holiday I'd never have imagined not that long ago.
3 weeks was spent with great banter and fantastic routes only bettered by the weather in which we were gifted to climb them. The trip culminated in the best multi-pitch route I've ever done (Gwendal) and left me planning my next trip for a handful of equally amazing looking routes (Alex Punk des Vergon and La Fete du Nerfs).

Shortly after returning to the UK we were planning our final week away at Vilanova de Meia and Riglos. Although it didn't go entirely to plan the climbing was memorable and our speed from the Verdon followed us. Its all part of a bigger plan to have the skills to one day backup a trip to America and the huge granite walls it offers (an experience I'm yet to convince my second of).

So to next year? I must admit to being a little apprehensive. My goals are wide and varied and don't sit well with each other. On the one hand, I raised my base level of sport climbing to a wholly acceptable level this year and it makes sense to build upon that and see what I can claw my way up. However, I'm not interested in Mecca or any of its variants. Sorry, Its just not my thing (although I should probably give it at least a second go, preferably not in the full on sun!). Most of the other amenable offerings are in North Yorkshire and one thing that I think helped me this year was the lack of time away from each project. I'd get on them day on day off, (or evening on evening off) reliably until they were done. Malham/Kilnsey is a weekend raid.

The other part of me wants to continue building on the trad foundation that I started a few years ago and have been slowly building on ever since. It'd be undeniable to claim that this has had anything other than a positive effect on my climbing. I worry that locally I've now done quite a few of the low/mid highly starred trad routes and the reality of after work sessions won't be as rewarding as previous years.

Further afield I wish to spend more time at Gogarth, Flytrap, the Strand T-rex and Positron (or some variant) are all on an older list than this as well as another handful of North Wales routes (not to mention the routes elsewhere, such as Pembroke). Each weekend spent ticking here, is one spent off something hard.

Even further afield, Riglos and Aiglun are polar opposite trips to Buoux and the Fraknejura and holiday is limited not only by finances but sadly work.

I guess it all boils down to decisions and priorities, the main problem being I can't seem to make any.