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Italian Bouldering Guide (Read 15531 times)

r-man

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Italian Bouldering Guide
October 24, 2007, 04:10:42 pm
This looks really good:

http://blog.rockrun.com/2007/10/review-ibloc-bouldertopo-italia-north.html

One of these days I'm going to make it to Italy. I found a lot of interesting stuff on the web a while back ( http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,4295.0.html ) but this new guide looks like the business.


Dolly

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#1 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
October 24, 2007, 04:23:00 pm
I've got this and am heading out there at the weekend. I'm going to Varazze despite Nibile's warnings of crimps and low starts ;) (sounds ideal)
I'll post my thoughts when I get back on how it actually works as a guide.

neil h

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#2 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
October 24, 2007, 04:56:40 pm
i took it to italy a few weeks ago, super guide

works really well, found all the problems no hastle and all the areas no probs

Nibile

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#3 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
October 24, 2007, 05:45:47 pm
dolly,
before even touching the first hold, be sure to have a serious local telling you what holds are/are not allowed.
everything seemed to be eliminate, also because in the guide there were 100+ problems listed in an area with two boulders.
anyway,
have fun!!!

Nibile

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#4 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
October 24, 2007, 05:47:16 pm
and, just to be clear:
they're missing the best places in that guide, and it seems to be a summertime bouldering guide.

r-man

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#5 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
October 24, 2007, 05:57:44 pm
So what are the best places?

saltbeef

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#6 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
October 24, 2007, 06:35:01 pm
and where to we get the topos?

Nibile

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#7 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
October 24, 2007, 06:42:49 pm
don't get me wrong!!!
val di mello and valmasino are great, and so other places, but many of those are not that good, or at least not worth going for a foreigner.
i think sassofortino is better than many places that are there, and ceriola as well, and all the small areas in the amiata range.
not to speak about meschia and another place there.

but there are good places for summer, like cittą dei sassi, lagoni.
other places, like varazze, il cubo, are just ugly in my opinion.

Dolly

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#8 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
October 24, 2007, 07:49:32 pm
Cheers for the tip off Nibile - I'll look for a local and let you know how I get on :)

neil h

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#9 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
October 24, 2007, 09:18:09 pm
don't get me wrong!!!
val di mello and valmasino are great, and so other places, but many of those are not that good, or at least not worth going for a foreigner.
i think sassofortino is better than many places that are there, and ceriola as well, and all the small areas in the amiata range.
not to speak about meschia and another place there.

but there are good places for summer, like cittą dei sassi, lagoni.
other places, like varazze, il cubo, are just ugly in my opinion.


those areas are in the other guides, i think there are 3 guides


http://www.gebro-verlag.de/gebro/italyblock.htm



Nibile

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#10 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
October 24, 2007, 10:31:40 pm
ohh i see...
maybe the fact that it's "northern italy bouldering guide" has something to do with it showing only northern italy destinations...
ohhh...

Greg C

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#11 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
October 25, 2007, 08:48:18 am
I can see where Nibile is coming from, I'd be a bit wary if a bunch of Germans came into my backyard and produced a guide. That said it's a nice guide to use and the only Italian produced guide I've come across (and own) is this - http://www.versantesud.it/bloc.ita.html and it's absolute pants compared to the GEBRO Verlag guide. Feel free to put me place Nibs and tell me there's a far better guide I'm unaware of.

PS: On an unconnected note. I spoke to Hary yesterday and GEBRO are in the process of putting a Spanish bouldering (presumably selected) guide together, could be interesting.
« Last Edit: October 25, 2007, 08:54:50 am by Greg C »

Nibile

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#12 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
October 25, 2007, 09:44:51 pm
there aren't better guides for sure. i have the one you linked, and apart the main destinations it's useless.
my point was only based on the high expectations one could build for places that in reality not that good. it's happened to me with only a few hours drive on my back and it was terrible, i wouldn't like it to happen to people who caught a flight, hired a car and booked a hotel. for this reason i'm very curious to have dolly's report on varazze.

if you stick to the classics, anyway, i'm sure it's good.

r-man

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#13 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
October 26, 2007, 12:37:54 am
So are these the best places in Italy, all worth travelling to?

Val di mello
Valmasino
Sassofortino
Ceriola
Amiata range

neil h

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#14 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
October 26, 2007, 10:05:34 am
So are these the best places in Italy, all worth travelling to?

Val di mello
Valmasino
Sassofortino
Ceriola
Amiata range

mello is topos, i went to these areas for a 3 week trip, I exhasted val de mello in about a week,

But defo worth a trip to alll these areas,

I drove down from the uk, and it was probable one of the best trips away I have had, visiting lots of little bouldering areas on the way, I hung around the mello valley for about 2 weeks, taking day trips to other areas valmasino, a few worth wile problems

see below



Then its worth a day or two  at spuirana




i heard of the locals about new areas that arnt in any guides, but didnt get to go to them, you def need local knowlage if you only have the ibloc guide, otherwise you do run out of things to do

After a couple of weeks in the mello valley, I had to leave, nothing left to do, so we went to arco sport climbing, which is only a couple of hours away, then finished of with a week round magic wood, again ony a couple of hours away


Greg C

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#15 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
October 26, 2007, 10:27:13 am
In some ways I actually thought Val Masino was better than Val Di Mello there's more hard problems (there's far more high 7's and 8's), although it's not quite as scenic. There looks tons of potential on the other side of the Val Masino valley far more than the Mello area, where most of the obvious stuff has been done... from what I could see anyway.

Nosferatu at Val Masino is one of the best problems I've done for a while! Reminded me of problems in The Valley.

Greg C

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#16 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
October 26, 2007, 10:36:31 am
By the way Neil, shouldn't that be: "YOU'RE ALL PUNTERS"?  :-\

Nibile

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#17 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
October 26, 2007, 10:42:40 am
i also think valmasino is better, even if the setting in val di mello is more astounding.

the main problem i think in italy is that most areas are quite small, so unless you're into finding a hard line and trying to climb something very hard for you, you can be done with one place in, yes, prolly one week.
there's nothing similar to cresciano or chironico, with thousands of problems.

i can tell you ceriola is very beautiful, packed with hard stuff, but rock quality in average is not perfect for sure. a couple of guys that develop and put up all the new lines at ceriola once told me: "if it was up to me, i'd climb in sassofortino the whole life" regarding rock quality.
maybe uncle can give you a more objective opinion.

then there are a few areas in the south.
meschia and her cousin interprete are amazing. sandstone and a wonderful setting: more like your backyard garden the first one, savage wood the second. near potenza there is rocca del toro, that allegedly is the dog's bollocks, they made a big big meeting there and i only heard good reviews.

and then there may be a dozen small areas, in a few hours drive, with excellen problems, really worth a day or two.

in my opinion the average quality of the winter destinations is much higher than that of the summer ones.

neil h

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#18 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
October 26, 2007, 12:55:09 pm
By the way Neil, shouldn't that be: "YOU'RE ALL PUNTERS"?  :-\

maybe, Im scottish so my english is crap ;D

a dense loner

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#19 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
October 26, 2007, 03:39:05 pm
let me see you're a scotsman that lived in london and has now bought a gite in font. you didn't change your name to neil h, when really it's neil o'h, did you? :-\

SA Chris

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#20 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
October 26, 2007, 04:47:18 pm
Mc surely?

saltbeef

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#21 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
October 27, 2007, 10:48:30 pm
 are there acess issues at meschia, something to do with truffles?
is sassofortino in the guide?

Nibile

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#22 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
October 28, 2007, 02:14:59 pm
"old meschia", the first are discovered, it's been closed years ago due to climbers acting irrespectfully, spoiling the wood, that is what the owner of the place lives on. do not believe to anyone who may tell you that it's fine to climb there pretending the have some access right or know the owner.
"new meschia" is fine. even if it's on private ground as well, the owner actually wants climbers, because he has a house to rent just five minutes from the boulders: it's big, with 10-12 sleeping places, big kitchen, fireplace, and the owner often brings ostrich eggs.

Nibile

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#23 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
October 28, 2007, 04:32:20 pm
you can find some info about sassofortino at

http://www.piugaz.it/bzsassofortino.html

Dolly

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#24 Re: Italian Bouldering Guide
November 05, 2007, 05:27:32 pm
Just got back from trip to Varazze, so a couple of thoughts on the guide and the place.
Guide seems fine for main area in Varazze - ie you can get to the problems and work our what goes where, which is really the main point. One bugbear is that in the description for how to get to the main areas,  the access info mentions turning right where you see a yellow sign to an archaeological site. I did this and got properly fucking lost. What would have been more helpful to know is that there are 2 such signs and its the second one that leads to the boulders, not the first. Just in case you want to go there.
I didn't perform a comprehensive comparison, but the grades in the guide on a few occasions were on several occasions lower than those suggested in the topos on www.onemove.it  If you're bothered about grades, then I'd suggest the online versions are more accurate.

Varazze itself then.
Its certainly a nice place to climb but like Nibs suggested I just didn't think it was that good. It may be that it needs to be much colder ( it was 19 degrees on Friday) and its probably appreciated more with a decent spotter ( I had my nearly 8 yr old son)
Many of the crimps are horrendous and as Nibs said a lot of the lines are eliminatey so its not always obvious what to climb apart from the obvious arete or groove features.
Chipping. Plenty of evidence of that. In fact under one very steep 25 foot overhanging wall, where someone had a ladder, brushes, mats etc to work their projects, there was even a chisel lying on the floor with no attempt made to hide it.

I did a few quite good problems, but nothing great and  I wouldn't go back there. If you're into chuffing then its only 35 mins away from Finale.   

 

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