Italian Rock - A Rock Climber's Guidebook – Italy, Europe
Italian Rock
Selected rock-climbs in Northern Italy by Al Churcher
Guidebook has 400 routes in 12 rock-climbing areas of North Italy, Europe. Covers Finale (Genoa coast), Valle Susa and Rocca Sbarua (west of Turin), Machaby and Valle dell’Orco (Aosta), Balmanolesca (Lake Maggiore), Lecco, Mello and Valtellina (Lake Como), Arco (Lake Garda) and Muzzerone, Monte Procinto and Bismantova (La Spezia). More...
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Seasons
Year round, although ideal in late spring and early autumn. Summer may need a stoic approach to Read More... the heat. Winter in the higher areas may be too cold.Centres
Access through most of the main towns of northern Italy including La Spezia, Genoa, Turin, Aosta, Read More... Milan, Verona, Venice, and Bologna.Difficulty
Covers the range of difficulty but includes a good whack of harder routes (40 of E5 and above).Must See
Italian rock, sunshine, food and wine. And some climbing too.General
This guidebook contains information on twelve of the best and most highly developed free-climbing areas in Northern Italy, several of which are making their first guidebook appearance. The Dolomites, with their more alpine nature, have been deliberately excluded, although the long climbs on Arco’s Cima Colodri give something of the flavour of dolomitic climbing. However, many of Arco’s climbs are short, hard and on perfect rock, an example of a new style of climbing now developing in parts of the Dolomites - notably at San Martino, home ground of Manolo, Italy’s most famous rock star. Other potentially interesting cliffs of the east coast of the Veneto have also been excluded.
The majority of the cliffs described here are to be found in the valleys of Piemonte and Lombardia, their proximity to the French and Swiss borders making them ideal for storm-harassed alpinists. The mountain area of Mello and Orco receive their share of bad weather, but the crags dry quickly and the weather is usually better than further north. The most settled weather conditions are generally in late spring and early autumn, and being cooler than summer these are also the best periods for both the lower altitudes of Arco, Lecco, Machaby and the Susa Valley, and the Mediterranean areas of Finale and Muzzerone, although here, climbing takes place all year round.
Having said that, the vast majority of our Italian climbing has been in July and August, and although we have often had to show extreme stoicism in the face of the baking sun, we have rarely lost more than a few days to the rain. Even the appalling wet summer of 1984 cost us little more than one week out of five, and these months tend to have the added bonus of virtually empty crags.
Locations
Detailed access and approach notes will be found in the area introductions and cliff descriptions, which should be used in conjunction with the appropriate maps accompanying the text. Except where otherwise stated all directions are given facing into the cliff.
