[Paul B]

Ok, something is bugging me. Yesterday Nat and I attempted then backed off Luna Nascente. We were lost and couldn't make head nor tail of the guidebooks black squiggles (turns out you can get better topo's of the internet).

Anyway here:



is a piccie of the route.
We basically ended up under a big arch like roof with some tat around a flake out left and some old tat high and right below the arch.

Various internet descriptions suggest that either
a: you downclimb for 7m then across for 1.5m to get established in the crack
b: a video shows a guy high in the arch looking like he'll head out rightwards.

All sources so far seem to skip over the exact bit so we're none the wiser.

Its pissing me off and I'm getting frustrated that a 30 euro guide doesn't seem to show the line as well as a german squiggle drawing.

Any help appreciated; this one will be getting chalked down to the need to go back and top it pile.

[grimer]

Are you talking about the bit that's just over half way up Paul, or the start? It sounds like the higher bit. If so you go up a crack or something to a whole bunch of slings around a something (perhaps a flake). This is at the top of a wide flake crack on the left.

Layback down the flake to its bottom then back up the left side of it again. I remember something about a wide offwidth. Keep going up the chimney with a tricky little 5a/5b move to the belay. It's not hard, HVS / E1, but it feels wild, and you don't place any gear because of the up down up.

PS, you get to a bolt belay on the wall, but if you carry on a few more metres you get to a much nicer stance with cam belays.

[Paul B]

yeah its the latter grimer. I think we've found out where we've gone wrong, the second stance on that topo wasn't on our guide so we were expecting the trav pitch when we still had one more to go. Didn't know anything about downclimbing so I tried going direct across the slab and all sorts of other things. A tad frustrating but never mind... thanks.

[grimer]

If it's a help i also have a note in my guide for the descent:

At the top continue up through trees and scramble up a dome of rock. At its top a path runs off down a gully to the base.

[Paul B]

do you remember how far you downclimbed for? I tried going that way but maybe didn't go far enough (I'm kicking myself I was probably above the bloody bolt belay)... We left mello yesterday and we're about 5 hours drive away but its seriously bugging me.

[jfw]

jules cartwright had an awesome mello guide from some nordic nation which was really good (and came in ring binder format). the star quality of the routes was represented by various sizes of beer and sandwiches, and the ballsyness of the route was represented by how hairy a stomach the drawn little man had.

it also had dead good descriptions/topos - i have never managed to track ia version  down - it was mint.

[Paul B]

sounds interesting...

we should have known better we soon worked out it wasn't an 'exhaustive' guide to the area. Maybe the other oneguides would have been better than solo granite?

Somewhere to come back to.

Thanks for the help.