I was climbing in the Val dell Orco with Kate for 5 days over the weekend. The Val dell Orco is situated on the south side of the Gran Paradiso National Park, it is a beautiful valley with fantastic granite crack climbing similar in style to Californian granite. The routes are mainly trad with bolt belays and bolts on the slab routes but you will want a rack for most climbs. We started on the Torre di Aimonin climbing the Pesce d'Aprile a 7 pitch 5c then Spigolo a 7 pitch 6a We headed to Sergent one of the biggest and most impressive crags in the valley, we climbed the superb slab route Apparizione del Cristo Verde 6b we were back on the right wing of Sergent the next day for the superb Via Locatelli 6a an 8 pitch extravaganza with a huge variety of styles of climbing. We finished the weekend climbing a couple of single pitch routes Mary Poppins 5c and the amazing hand crag of Incastromania 6a which you will definitley find easier if you tape up first.
A team of us headed through the Mont Blanc tunnel this weekend to climb at Traversella. Traversella is a group of south facing crags near Ivrea, the crags are situated above the Bruno Piazzi hut so you can get a great cup of coffee beofre going climbing and a beer afterwards.
Kate and I were joined by Kath Murphy and Roger Knox for Roger's birthday. We climbed some great single pitch routes on Sunday then moved onto some of the higher multipitch crags on monday. The south facing aspect allows climbing at Traversella all year round, all you need is a dry day and the sun to be out. The forecast is for loads of fresh snow over the next few days with over 60cm forecast at 1500m and snow to 600m so winter is definitley on it's way.