I should probably write more often. I do actually think about posting something after every trip, but then time passes and I forget what I wanted to say, or believe it’s not that important anymore. Anyway, even if months after, and even after the videos have been on YouTube for a while, I decided to post them here.

In May I went on a climbing trip with Mauro. We decided to mainly do some bouldering (although we brought ropes, quickdraws, and harnesses just in case) and to follow the weather.
As you may remember, usually our trips are plagued by rain and floods and we barely climb anything, so this time we rented a car in Milano and drove South, first to Varazze in Liguria, and then even more South to Sassofortino in Toscana, to stay ahead of a stormy front that was coming down from the North.

We managed to climb some, and got our fingers shredded into pieces by the rocks. I guess we both thought we could climb harder and send at least a 6b, but we stayed true to ourselves and ended up climbing up to 6a+ (i.e. our usual ground).
As usual I got scared more than once, screamed, cried, and all the usual, but you will not see that in the videos.
Actually, you’ll only see few climbs in the videos because we were busy climbing and did remember to position (or turn on) my camera only few times.

So, without further ado, the videos of myself and Mauro bouldering in Varazze and Sassofortino.

 

 

 

What did I learn from this trip?
I did learn that if you want to have a successful climbing trip you have to be flexible and follow weather and conditions, and to do so you need to have time.
Previous trips were always too short, leaving not enough time to either enjoy the climbing, or avoid the inclemency of weather.

On April 23 and 24 of 2016, I went (together with Mauro, Marta, Andrea, and Jonathan) to Pietra del Toro, a bouldering area in Basilicata (southern Italy). We wanted to go since the end of last year, and finally decided to go using the 2016 edition of the “Basilicata Blocfest” as an excuse.
We spent two good days climbing boulders, and sent problems between 4c and 6a+ (although Jonathan sent also some 6b). We were so into climbing, that I mostly forgot to shoot videos, and ended up recording only failed attempts (except for a moment when I shot Jonathan sending a 5b problem).

The music is “The Bread Is Hard As Crackers” by Velella Velella.