Alpine Logistics

Last Saturday we woke to brilliant sunshine and a terse blue sky…the mountains beckoned. We departed from Stafal, at the head of the Gressoney valley. It was bustling with people of all nationalities walking in jolts in their ski boots.

Civilisation began to slip away as we walked east into Vallone della Salsa. All I could here was the cheerful song of an optimistic bird and the gurgle of a nearby stream. Gaining height the snow deepened and it was time to put on our snowshoes. This valley is a well known off-piste descent and we could see a few of the characteristic tight descent curves, but doubted that many people had done it this year. The valley floor has very little snow cover and you would have to walk the last few kilometres with your skis over your shoulders.

We trudged up and up. We were heading for Colle della Salsa, which at 3000m was just over 1000m above our departure point on the valley floor. The views onto Monte Rosa and the other nearby mountains were breathtaking; they basked in the sun like kings on a golden throne. It’s so revitalising to leave the chaos of everyday life and escape into this world of giants…anything seems possible on days like this.

The going became tough during the final steeper part of the ascent; the snow didn’t allow us to maintain a steady rhythm. One step onto hard compact snow could be followed by another plunging you in knee deep, but our efforts were rewarded and by 13.30 we were hungrily devouring our freshly baked bread rolls and leftover chicken from the night before.

Any climber can probably give you a million reasons for loving the sport so much, although as many will say ‘it’s not a sport, it’s a lifestyle’… in other words it’s all consuming and often comes before friends, family and work in the list of life’s priorities.

Rock climbing can take you to some of the wildest and most beautiful places in the world and allow access to spots that couldn’t be reached in any other (natural) way; from the frozen glaciers of Greenland to the hot sunny sea cliffs in Thailand. The bond you form with the people you climb with is something special. Just by being someone who climbs means you share a range of emotions that ‘normal’ people would find it hard to comprehend.

It’s an activity that requires strength, balance, precision and flexibility but your mindset is equally as important as all these factors put together. The rock is like a puzzle; your job as a climber is to use every natural physical and mental resource you have to move in the most efficient way possible from bottom to top, as dictated by the layout of the puzzle. Flowing carefree from hold to hold, every element of your mind focused 100% on the instant…it’s like being transported to another world: ‘The zone’ as it’s sometimes called, in which you often don’t even here external noises. The music, a dog barking, a stream rushing down the valley…all get blocked out as you concentrate; it’s just you, the air and the rock.

In life you sometimes hear people say that it’s important to be positive and have confidence in yourself…even negative experiences can become positive because they teach you something that’ll probably help you in the future. Sometimes it’s hard to see how true this is until you have a concrete example, such as climbing for instance.

When you’re climbing something at or near your limit, everything has to be right. A bit less body tension, a wrong foot placement, gripping the hold one way instead of another or a moments hesitation can cause you to come down.

You’re mind has to be empty so you can focus every bit of mental energy you have on working out the sequence as you go up and making the moves exactly as they have to be. If your mind is elsewhere everything suffers…you start to feel apprehensive. What if my foot slips? What if I get pumped and can’t hold on any more? What if there’s a move between this piece of protection and the next that I can’t do? You hesitate, everything is more effort than it should be, you hold on tighter so you tire more quickly, you spend ages in each position looking at the next and wondering whether it will go…foot here, or there, or maybe pointing this way as opposed to that….sooner or later the rock spits you out and you feel rejected.

Realising where your faults lie solves part of the problem, then you need the strength of will to resolve them. It’s always easier to stick to the things you can do best, but if you want to improve it’s the only way foreword…and the harder you climb the harder it is to make further progress. You have to stick with it knowing that eventually, if you’re doing things right, you’ll break through the barrier into the next level. ‘If I could only onsight 7a’s I’d be happy’ …7a yes possibly but happy? Not a chance. There is a blissful moment when you realise you’ve reached your target, wonderful! It opens up a whole new range of possibilities and routes to climb. Then one day you start to look at something that bit harder still…

The challenge is never over and that’s one of the best things about it. Climbing is a wonderful activity…I love to share it with other people. It can give you a lot and I think it’s much more constructive than the increasingly popular sports of TV watching and shopping, but like any passion it can be both incredibly rewarding and very frustrating. Like my mum who used to put up with my smelly climbing shoes and bad moods, it requires unconditional love. It’s a constant challenge to reach your genetic potential.

I started climbing in 1995. The crags in Valle d’Aosta are close to home and a fantastic playground for beginners, but when winter came the rock was too cold and left me little hope of satiating my hunger for the vertical world.

So it was that in the winter of 1996 I went to Finale for the first time. It was love at first sight: infinite crags of perfect limestone, on which you can often climb wearing nothing more than your own skin thanks to the mild, maritime winter climate.

Eleven years have gone by and I’ve climbed there every winter since. It’s a special place for me, I almost feel like a local. I’ve climbed in almost all the sectors and in many of these have freed all of the routes. However I’m the first to say that Finale always has some nice surprises in store.

During the drive along the so called motorway of flowers to the coast (Liguria is famous for its flower cultivations), the inevitable question eventually comes; “OK guys, which crag are we headed to. Luckily there are always plenty of options, thanks mainly to the tireless locals who regularly bolt a new crag or bring back to life long-forgotten sectors with some modern lines.

Last week-end we managed to equip ourselves with a sheet of paper listing forty or more new routes in a recently discovered crag called La Placca dei Maleducati. Overwhelmed with enthusiasm we immediately went to test it out.

At the base of the crag we started wondering along the rock, heads skyward, commenting on every single piece of rock: “Look at that line!, “Feel that grip! and “I’m having a go at this route!. We chose our warm-ups and began the day on a vertical pocketed wall true to typical Finale style. The moves were delicate and never to take for granted, reminding us that nothing here is given away without effort; even the more modest grades require concentration and good technique.

Having warmed up on a few more routes we chose a nice looking 7a, which starts as an overhang and finishes on a vertical wall. We resolved the puzzling initial crux with a dynamic move to hold we could only guess was there. Next we set our sights on a near-by 7b, which takes a pumpy line up slightly overhanging grey/orange limestone. We carried on climbing, the routes were all very good and the new rock had no mercy on the skin of our poor fingers.

As always when you’re having fun the day passed quickly and we found ourselves finishing the last few routes when the sun had already gone behind Bric Scimarco (a crag on the other side of the valley). Obviously, we were the last to leave the crag and it was almost dark. Ale suggested “Birretta e olivette al Bar Centrale (a bear and some olives at the Bar Centrale?). Julia answers “Olives? I’m hungry!, and so began the ‘après climb’ in Finale…