the dolomites

Well after being fortunate enough to find Anna, who was happy to climb with this mad English man whilst waiting for her friends, Mark and Adam to arrive from the dolomite's, some good climbing was had, we even did a via ferrata as a rest day which provided magnificent views of the town below (Mori) and over to Lake Garda
A couple days after Mark and Adam arrived and with the prospect of good weather we all headed north to Cortina where the fantastic limestone peaks of the dolomite's rise out of the ground in majestic towers and pinnacles that cry out to be climbed.

Mark and Adam, both Exum guides in the Tetons had had mixed results with unfortunate weather and were hoping to vanquish this bad luck, Anna and myself were happy to get on unpolished rock and climb somewhere that wasn´t overcrowded.
Despite the good climbing in Arco most of the crags nearby have suffered from their popularity.

The first night involved the four of us camping out near one of the mountain huts so as to ensure an early start which was almost regrettable after watching the mercury drop to near freezing. fortunately i had no probs with the cold due to being prepared for weathering Siberia but the others felt the cold a bit more, especially Anna as she managed to leave her sleeping bag at Arco.

The first climb on the 8th was an 11 pitch arete on the Trofan de Rozes, and after a sucesfull and enjoyable climb mark and Adam decided that they would stop another night and climbed a longer and slightly harder adjacent arete, Anna and Myself decided that Cinqua torre looked like a nice climb which would remain in the sun all day so we camped a little further up the valley and had a spectacular day, I even got some crag snaffle on the way down.
After two nights of camping out it was a unanimous decision to head to a campsite for the next few days. I attempted a bit of Sport climbing but without a guidebook ended up climbing a 6c+ as a warm up and a 7a which felt much harder and had me resting on the rope with drained arms before i finally struggled up the rest of the route to the top.

the next few days involved an accent of Punta Fiames and Col de Bois both of which are higly recommended and comprise pleasant climbing up to about VS on surprisingly compact rock for the dolomite's.

Arco climbing

Hi all

have found an american lass to climb with who can belay me and who can also understand some of my english. well a bit of my english. but it's better than my german or italian so im on a winner.

did a heap of routs yesterday on rock which felt at times like climbing on glass. Hopfully can find a few routes which arn't to poloished for tommorow and can try to get a few good photos to add to the site.

Hope all is well at home and the sheaf view isn't missing my custom,

take care and have a pint of real ale for me. i thin high neb pump may me in order.

Later.

I made it to Arco

Well the car has done about 2000 miles and after a busy two days of driving around and sleeping in the car i'm now in Arco.

I was in Orpierre from the 26th to the 30th and got a couple of good days climbing in, I set of on Sunday evening and drove from Orpierre to Briancon, where i arrived to watch the last half of the rugby game between RSA and the US.
Then i got take out from the local pizza shop and slept in the car. the following morning involved a drive up to Emosson where i was disappointed to find out that climbing the artificial route on the dam face was strictly prohibited. despite this i tried in vain to find someone to climb this wall with as i had just done a detour of 200+ miles.

After that failed i ran off south down to Aosta where i chased the sun to lake Garda, dodging mad Italian drivers and trucks who seemed intent on trying to hit me, it felt like a high speed game of tig on a four lane motorway running through Milano as the traffic stacked up until most people where less than two meters apart doing upto 100mph.

I suppose that's why these folks have such faith in religion, because if God can't save them when they drive like that then their not long for the world of the living,

Also talking about religion when i was stood next to my car brushing my teeth this morning in a car park just outside of town a Jehovah's witness tried to sell the word of god to me, I was so outraged i almost spat toothpaste all over him. needless to say i'm not converted from my (sinful) ways, so i,m off to have a shower because after two nights sleeping tin the car i'm starting to pong a little and then hopefully some climbing,

Enjoy,