woohoo the dollies!!!!! (Dolomites)

Ever since Paula & I started to develop the skills and experience to climb in more adventurous environments (mountains, multi pitch) the Dollies appeared on our radar and took our hearts, with its mixture of beautiful settings, familiar limestone like rock, and endless possibilities from moderate to extreme.

It feels a bit like returning, well not quite home, but somewhere cherised as we returned for our third time. This time without a deadline for a return flight home and also planning to meet up with some friends from the UK (Pilar & Julian) who were coming out for a week.

Both Paula and I were psyched to come back and meet up with some friends after 3 months in the van together ;-)

We started in some familiar areas at Cinque Torri, then Sella Towers and Piz Ciavazes, initially seeming to spend our days with our heads in the clouds, a little more altitude and the mountain weather.

Some memorable routes included Finlandia at Cinque Torri, Vintanzer on Sella Tower 3, Schubert and then Roberta 83 on Piz.

Clear crisp skies after days of storms, moon out views from our wild camp spot at Cinque torri

Finlandia

Brilliant to see Julian and Pilar for a week

ciao ciao Valle dell’Orco, missing you already!!!

As a climber I've always dreamed of travelling to the US and climbing on the amazing granite in Yosemite and Tuolumne. The closest I've got to this is probably the Granite in Chamonix like the South face of the Aig du Midi and areas around the Envers Hut. But most of the climbing I did there was not (yet) on splitter cracks.

We kind of new we didn't have the skills yet when we were there, but our climbing has developed well albeit slowly and after trying some classics in Millstone in the Peak District last year and having some moderate success, the idea of going to Valle dell'Orco for some proper granite splitters was enticing.

It's a beautiful valley in northwestern Italy in the Gran Paradiso National Park. A beautiful alpine valley with snow capped 4000m range at one end, thick forest, gushing waterfalls, a noisy river, and of course some fabulous Granite feeding us a daily diet of natural lines, mainly some proper jamming Cracks, beautiful Dihedrals, and run-out friction climbing, all making me admire those masters dancing up the granite walls of yosemite even more.

The valley was blissfully quiet,…and stunning,...and full of interesting routes, and you can wild camp easily near the cool glacier fed river, having not climbed in the US yet this was a great way to develop our skills for this style.

We will be back for more...Sergent & Caporal...

I read this blog before travelling, rather than repeat similar content have a read if your planning a trip

http://travelswithrockboots.blogspot.ch/2014/07/orco.html