Famiglia Tranquillo: climbing

Monday, May 6, 2013

Sardegna Climbing Easter Break 2011

Sardegna Climbing

We were a group of 10 climbing friends from Florence that planned to go to Sardegna for a climbing trip. From the start of the trip we noticed the weather was not going to be in our favor. We checked out reports on several websites with hope of some promissing weather conditions for climbing... As it turned out, after we drive to the farie, take the boat ride over to the island, drive another 2/3 hours and arrive at the campsite, half of the group ended up going back home because of the bad weather. But as the 5 of us stayed we basically made our motto "lets make the best of what we have".

This was the very first day when we still had everyone from the group. We hiked a little along the coast to a beautiful stop right on the sea. We met other climbers from all over Europe, all determined to make the best of their "Easter Break".

The spot was fantastic and I loved being there even if the rocks were wet and slippery.

Thats me, in this moment telling my friend where its most slippery and where the water is coming from.

Getting ready to climb

View of the sea from where we are climbing.

Since we had succumbed to the idea that it would be difficult to climb in the rain every day we decided to do some touring around also and in between get out our climbing gear whenever possible. One alternative activity we did was hike into a canyon where there were very large boulders and amazing scenery.

We also did a tour of a grotta. Which was fun and interesing. Gimmy and I had visisted a grotta in Tuscany so this was interesting to compare to what I got to see there. We were not allowed to take photos, but we managed to get at least one ;) This is from the top looking down into the cave.

As we were driving around in the rain we noticed the area we were in was known for having ancient ruins. This is one of the ruins we visited. No one knows who made these but they are similar in architecture to the Etruscan style in which they used huge rocks but as far as I could understand its still a mistery.

This is the last place we were able to climb. We tried to climb it one other time during the trip but there was too much rain so we left and hoped we would get back to try it out. This was another, obviously, very beautiful climbing spot right on the sea, and its basically a canyon with bolted walls for about a mile in. We climbing the morning of the day we had to leave and it turned out to be the best climbing we had while we were there. We found a wall that just so happened to be positioned where it was dry from the rain and even dry from the mist of the sea... That is until a huge dark cloud came over and down poured while our friend was finishing up the very last climb of the trip. We all thought that was a funny way to end to our "Sardegna Climbing Vacation".

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Melloblocco

I went with a group of friends from my rock gym to the International Boulder Meeting called Melloblocco, in Val di Masino, at very far North of Italy in the Alps. There was some rain but we made the best of the time we had, and either climbed or hiked when we could. It was paradise but I think this one belongs only to me (not Gimmy).

Hiking into the valley

Allison and Jacqui hiking into the valley from the town.

There was a river that ran threw the entire valley, it was so pretty, we took a lot of photos!

Jacqui, Allison, and Steve ( Steve is another American living in Bologna)

There is a trattoria ( resturant/bar) near the boulders and a campgound... how convenient.

The photographer, our friend Jacqui.

Photo by Jacqui, her camera is so good and she has a fantastic eye.

Me and Allison, photo by Jacqui

The girls, photo by Steven ( w/ Jacqui's camera)

Me! Patagonia pants, jacket, backpack. Katana climbing shoes. Photo by Jacqui

Photo by Jacqui

I did it. ( again, photo by Jacqui)

Photo by Jacqui

At the bar for aperativo.

in this photo left to right: Jacqui, Giovanni, Vivianna, Massimo, Simone, me, Steve, Allison.

Viviana and Massimo, the owners of the Stone Monkey rock gym in Florence.

All of our group ( minus Jacqui, the photographer) at dinner

In this photo: Steve, Elena, Francesco 1, Giovanni, Simone 1, me, Allison, Francesco 2, Viviana, Massimo, Simone 2.

Walking around the little town early in the morning, taking pictures of cute things such as this wood stack leaving the window stace open.

More photos of the river

It started to rain at about noon on Saturday, we found this huge rock/cave to shelter us and keep us dry while we ate lunch and made friends with other climbers.