Aka all the places I’ve left gear and had to bail. A few images from a few  days of climbing, post-lockdown. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you’re looking for beta on any of these climbs. It’s hard to find accurate, English-language information for many of these routes; I  get lost so you don’t have to. 

Val di Mello

Sid and I left Milan early on Saturday morning and were the first people in the Val di Mello. Despite great weather, the granite cliffs put an absolute beatdown on the fresh-from-lockdown American trad climbers. We intended to climb the classic Via Kundalini, but ended up on La Serpente Ripresa after I followed a horizontal crack too far and missed our route. On the next pitch, we battled a soaking wet dihedral with a finger-to-hand size crack. We realized how far off route we were, and decided to bail. I had to leave a piece of cord and locking carabiner for the rappel, but bootied a golden Black Diamond number 1 cam from the wet dihedral. That night, we slept in the woods in Val di Mello, and drove to Carate Urio for some cragging the next day. 

Il Sigaro

Our next route took us up Il Sigaro Donnes, a small tower in the Magnaghi group on La Grignetta, just outside Lecco. We climbed the Via Normale, an easy, fun tower climb. Despite getting off route again, and Sid leaving a quicklink, we made it to the top and rapped down and walked out. At the top, we met a pair of Italian climbers on the Canaloni Albertini on the wall across from us. 

On the appoach, we ran into a bit of trouble when we tried approaching from the Canaloni Porta. Again, we ended up off-route, and had to rappel back to the base of the canale/canyon and re-find our way to the base of the tower. However, the other parties in the canale/canyon followed us up a steep, rocky scramble section. As hikers, they were not able to downclimb the terrain, and were not equipped to rappel out. Sid and I had to lower 5 people from our ledge back into the canale/canyon. 

Lago di Garda and the Albertini

We set out for a line called Melissa Slimoncella in the Garda region. Upon arrival, Sid realized he’d left his harness in Milan, and we drove to the nearest open Decathon to buy him a replacement. Getting a start closer to 3-4pm, despite leaving Milan before 9, we didn’t finish the route and rappelled a few pitches from the top. I found a janky-looking old cam on the first pitch, but it was an otherwise unremarkable climb. I slept in the car in the parking lot that night while Sid found a spot in the woods to set up his hammock. 

Not fond of the other routes in the area, we drove back to Lecco and climbed the Albertini that we’d seen from the top of Il Sigaro Donnes. The route follows a beautiful, obvious crack system, inset on a massive hunk of limestone to the top of the Magnaghi Towers. We climbed in pseudo-trad, pseudo sport style, placing gear and clipping bolts where ever we felt, though the route is not the most technically or physically demanding climb.  We rappelled down the Northeast side of the Magnaghi tower and walked out just before sunset. 

Pizzo Arera Via dei Cugini

After a day of sport climbing outside the Bergamo area (aka getting our asses kicked on a 6b sopping wet crack), we drove to Pizzo Arera for our most ‘alpine’ objective yet: the Via dei Cugini on Pizzo Arera. A few hours into the approach, we crossed a snowfield and reached the base of our climb. Though it was June, the route was on the north face, and still held significant snow on the field below. Sid reached the base and clipped himself into a few cams, as the snow was above the first bolt and had separated from the rock wall, creating a bergshrund-like situation, a gap between the snow and rock, where a fall would be catastrophic. I followed, geared up, and led the first pitch, after delicately stepping from the snow to the rock. We climbed 5 of the 7 pitches, before we were turned around by clouds and thunderstorms. It started raining after we pulled our ropes from the last rappel, and started thundering when we reached the hut. 

Val di Aosta and Val di Orco

Next we climbed the Torre di Bloccioleto via Normale in the Aosta Valley with some friends, Lyndsay and Polina. Thought short, this was an incredible climb, with delicate, exposed slab moves on pitch three to move from a ‘block’ back onto the tower, and an absolutely beautiful arete on the fourth pitch. I’d recommend linking pitches 1 and 2, as there’s only a few meters of climbing between the anchors of pitch 1 and 2. 

From there, Sid and I drove to Val di Orco to try for Via Gogna on the Scoglio di Mroz. I slept in the car on the side of some windy-valley road, while Sid set up his hammock camping system. In the morning, we parked our car at an abandoned cable car station, as described in the beta, and lost several hours trying to find the trail or approach in the wood. We gave up after some 3-4 hours of searching and wandering through the wood, and drove off. On a whim, we decided to continue up the canyon instead of retreat back to Milan, and found another cable station. We parked there, and walked for about an hour to reach the base of the climb. Several other parties were on the rock face, and were rappelling by the time we reached the first pitch. Sid got stuck leading all the tough pitches, including the 6b overhanging dihedral we he climbed in French-free style. We reached the top a few hours before sunset, and rappelled down the granite face. 

Piz Trovatz II

The last entry, if you’ve scrolled this far, congrats. Linked up with some friend for a fun via ferrata in the Swiss Bernina region, just south of St Moritz.  From Milan, you can get there entirely on public transport, taking the train to Tirano, then taking the Bernina express to Diavolezza, or all the way to St. Moritz. I arrived a night before and stayed in a hotel nearby Diavolezza, and met up with Sid and Amogha the next day. 

We took the cable car up the Diavolezza and started up the via ferrata. We were stuck behind a slower moving family from Belgium, but with clear skies, there was no hurry for us to pass them. We broke off from the Pitz Trovatz I and took the Piz Trovatz II, a steeper, more challenging route that involves overhangs and a section of zipline / tyrolien, all under the shadow of Piz Bernina and Piz Palu.