Alpine Logistics

A new route in Sardinia, Amico Fragile, was opened last year by Marco Vago with three different climbing partners and on three different occasions. It climbs the beautiful Donnenneittu wall in Cala Luna and is characterised by a vast overhanging section. This is what drew Marco into searching for a line through what at first sight seemed un-climbable.

He began the route in October 2005 with Fabriaio Fratagnoli; the first three pitches were born. In June 2006 he returned with Matteo della Bordella to add another three pitches but the route was finally finished and freed in Seoptember 2006 with Simone Pedeferri.

The original climb had eight pitches of which the crux are pitches 3 (7c+/8a) and 4 (7c+); the most overhanging section of the route. A nice storey with a happy ending…but Marco wasn’t completely satisfied and felt he hadn’t quite finished with Donnenneittu.

We found him back in Sardinia during our trip at Easter and had the opportunity to climb with him. Between one climb and another we chatted and he told us about his latest objective: to link the two crux pitches of his route on Donnenneittu, creating what has been graded as an extremely long 8b…55m and 110 movements!

On our return home we read of his success and sent him our congratulations. Marco has kindly sent us an article, photos and topo for the new route to publish on the website, so here it is….happy reading.

Amico Fragile – The Second Act

By Marco Vago

Photos by Riky Felderer

I felt and knew that it wouldn’t have finished there, that there was still something unsaid between me and that wall…

…today’s ethics impose freeing a climb all in one go, something I knew and now know more than before to be do-able, but this is not what attracted me to this overhang. I couldn’t understand what it was until I abseiled, with double ropes, from the fourth to the second belay point. I found myself hanging in empty space fifteen metres from the belay and with over seventy metres under my butt.

When opening the route I wasn’t able to link together all 55m of the line of tufas which dominate these two pitches, so at about half way I made a belay point. I later became aware that this third belay could be avoided by uniting pitches 3 and 4 in one long tufa run, straight from the second to the fourth belay; a true challenge against gravity.

I certainly wasn’t looking for a ‘performance’ or anything extreme, simply a desire to maintain the purity of this aesthetic line; the third belay seemed somehow to castrate the overhang, interrupting the tufas right at their apex. So I went back to Sardinia and Codula di Luna and found myself once more in the presence of the Donnenneittu wall, this time with Adriano (Selva n.d.r.) and Riky Felderer (the photographer).

I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy undertaking for me. Right from the start, as well as lactic acid build up, we had to battle with the water which, thanks to copious rainfall during the previous month, had filtered in behind the wall and made it wet. The tufas on the crux third and fourth pitches were the worst affected.

During the fourth day on the wall my arms twice abandoned me at the second to last bolt; only ten movements from the belay. This was a blow to my confidence: even though it wasn’t an extreme section I couldn’t even bring myself to remove one hand from its grip to attempt the next movement. After the fall I was so pumped that for five minutes I couldn’t even take my toothbrush from my chalk bag to clean the holds.

I decided to leave in the quick draws and sacrifice two days of holiday for a complete rest and one last attempt.

Three days later we returned to the base of the route. However on the first pitch I could feel that my arms weren’t as they should be and got pumped quickly. The pitch was also wet and my head wasn’t with it; I didn’t want to have to think about linking those 110 movements together again, it made my stomach turn.

After Adrian’s attempt, whilst I was slipping on my shoes and getting ever more tired and discouraged, I decide that this would be my last try. If I didn’t succeed I would take out all the quick draws and that would be it; this wasn’t fun anymore.

Strangely I managed to get to the intermediate belay and the base of the final 12m-long tufa. Here I decided that I had to give everything I had, ignoring the tiredness, my pumped forearms and blurred vision: if I was going to fall it would be because my hands opened up on their own….but that didn’t happen.

I clipped the rope into the belay with a liberated cry of joy like I hadn’t felt many times before. I don’t know if it was more because I had freed an amazing pitch or because I had finally taken a great weight from my stomach.

Advice for repeating the route:

To link pitches three and four (8b – 55m) a single 80 metre rope is suggested, since double ropes could make clipping the draws on the last pitch problematic.

16 quick draws with slings to prevent rope drag.

One of Valle d’Aosta’s southern-most side valleys, Champorcher is still untouched by modern constructions. Driving up it is like entering into a fairy tail, where all the houses are small, pretty and quaint, the sun is always shining and the surrounding landscape is a flood of pink, purple, yellow flowers amongst the new grass and glistening streams.

At the head of the valley is Bec Raty; a 300m wall of gneiss with a fun 6a route following cracks, corners and bulges to its top. In no time at all Antonia, Manuel and I were on the final pitch before the short scramble to the summit. All of a sudden a loud clap of thunder in the neighbouring valley signalled that the day’s heat had reached a climax and storm clouds were accumulating out of sight behind the bulk of rock on which we were suspended. A cold breeze began to whip around us and it wasn’t long before the clouds started to spill over into the valley.

Feeling vulnerable we made a hasty retreat by abseil back to the base of the route. Thunder and lightning let rip as we hit the floor and made a race for the car under a hailstorm. Shafts of sunlight filtering through the clouds produced very dramatic lighting effects and the wet ground released a beautiful smell of pine.

Antonia and I set off from the small alpine village of Piedicavallo towards Croso Col (1940m), following the Chiobbia river to its source. A beautiful spring morning, the sun beamed through the bright green leaves of the deciduous forest which gave us some respite from the heat during the first part of the ascent. A group of old houses and a water fountain mark the end of the tree line, where the path begins to wind its way up through pastures.

Two hours later we were able to gaze across into the wild and isolated Val Sorba north of the pass. No roads or towns, just a single stone house about 300m below us. We descended towards it through blueberry bushes on a now less trodden trail. Once down, the upper reaches of the valley and our foot path came into sight to the west. We followed it steeply through meadows full of yellow flowers, past waterfalls and a small lake. Marmots squeaked with alarm when they heard us approaching, but it was our turn to jump when an adder presented itself in the middle of our path.

Now at around 2000m in altitude, we followed a series of cairns across rounded lumps of gneiss, which made it look as though the glaciations had retreated just last week. To our astonishment, amongst all this steep rugged terrain, we emerged onto a perfectly flat grassy plateau where there must once have been a lake. It was encircled by rocky ridges, one of which we needed to cross to reach Valle Cervo and our descent path.

As we climbed the path started to disappear under a series of large and surprisingly deep snow patches, which made the going tough. We passed several lakes still covered in ice before reaching our high of 2430m. Here we crossed the jagged ridge to reach the valley of Gressoney in Valle d’Aosta. This side was west facing and much greener compared to the frozen lunar landscape we had just come from.

From here it was a short descent to Colle della Mologna Grande (2364m), the final pass before the long descent back to civilisation.

A local guide told us about a new 8-pitch gneiss route in one of Valle d’Aosta’s rarely frequented side valleys; Outrefer. There’s no road into the valley, as it’s very steep and narrow, so the climb requires an arduous approach with 1300m height gain in little more than a few kilometres.

It’s worth the effort though as you leave the bustle of the main valley behind; penetrating deeper into the mountains would eventually lead to France. After an hour and a half we saw our line, taking a pocketed vertical wall with a few cracks and bulges to the final headwall 300m above our heads.

It was unusually hot fore the time of year so we had the luxury of being able to do the route in T-shirt and shorts without the fear of getting cold; something which often troubles me when gearing-up for long routes… wind-proof jacket, hat, thermals….

The climb is good but could do with a few repetitions to clean the rock. We made it up in four hours and descended by abseil to our much awaited sandwiches followed by a knee-breaking descent back to the main valley floor

At the eastern end of Gran Paradiso National Park is Forzo Valley. You can smell the mountain air as you step out of the car. The River Soana winds its way down from the glaciers of the Gran Paradiso massif, carving itself a platform amongst the granite mountains and pine forests of this peaceful valley.

Towering above the valley’s northwest flank is some of the Park’s best granite climbing: Anciesieu, Schiappe delle Grise Nere and Apherian. Today we came to warm up on the first granite this year: an 8 pitch climb on the slabs and cracks of Apherian. The idea is to prepare for a summer on the higher elevation routes in Gran Paradiso, Monte Bianco and Val di Mello.

Being in such a beautiful place makes me feel like I’m taking part in something special. It regenerates my soul and makes me dream of adventure and times gone by, when the Alps and other great mountain ranges were still largely unexplored and uncontaminated. It’s always a privilege to experience these places.

As it does every year, Spring arrives and casts open its doors to longer, warmer and sunnier days; nature emerges in all her glory and calls us to spend more time with her.

Being in town starts to feel a bit claustrophobic and we can never wait to spend some time in the countryside. Luckily for us Biella centre, being at the foothills of the Alpine arc, is only a few minutes away from peace and tranquillity.

 One of our favourite places is Burcina Botanical Park, an 800m-high hill turned park in the mid 1800’s by a local industrialist Giovanni Piacenza. Driven by his love for nature and passion for gardening he bought the park and started planting exotic species as well as putting the first infrastructure into place. His inspiration came largely from the English garden landscapes of the time.

The park’s 57ha now belong to Biella Council. There are a great number of botanical species present, such as the Sequoias planted in the mid-1800’s by Piacenza, as well as native trees like beech and birch.

What makes Spring most special in Burcina is the flowering of its Rhododendrons, which fill a large area of the park with a multitude of colours in May, along with the various other types of flowering plants which also add to this beautiful pallet.

Thanks to the variety of species and fantastic views onto the Alps, the park is a beautiful place to be throughout the year: walking, running, bird watching or simply relaxing in the grass.

We wanted to share this treasure with you by putting some of our many photographs of the park online. Some here below and the rest in the photo gallery under ‘Piemonte’.

Cala Gonone is Sardinia’s most famous centre for climbing. Here the sea, great crags, fantastic multipitch routes and relaxing evenings in town can all be combined; a good way to end our trip in the paradise which is Sardinia.

 We started the week cragging and both decided to dedicate our efforts to pushing our grade. We started trying two splendid lines at the beautiful crag of Arcadio, where we were able to make the most of morning shade. We spent the afternoons visiting new crags and trekking the final part of the five day ‘Selvaggio Blu’ from Cala Fuili to Cala Luna.

I finally resolved my project at Arcadio on Monday morning: a 7c+ bolted and freed by the mythical Manolo. We then made the most of the stable weather conditions that afternoon to abseil the 180m to the base of Biddiriscottai and climb ‘Apriti Cielo’. This is a six pitch sea cliff route which we didn’t find easy for the grade but the climbing was varied and good and offered fantastic sea views.

We were joined by our friend Luca on Tuesday and spent the day at the popular crags of Cala Fuili at the Thailandia sector. There are some new lines on an apparently blank wall of white limestone which are difficult to interpret but very rewarding.

The following day we set off to do a long route at the Gole di Gorroppu but after a long approach and the first pitch of ‘Sogni di Sara’ the intensity of the sun and lack of any kind of breeze forced us to descend. We had fun none the less in the form of a regenerating swim in the beautiful pools of Rio Flumineddu; the river which flows out of the Gorroppu gorge.

Thursday we returned once more to Arcadio where Luca and I managed to climb another of Manolo’s great routes ‘Un Panino e via’. It was Julia however who accomplished the greatest achievement by also leading ‘Un Panino’ and with that her first 7c. We finished the day’s climbing at Millennium; an other-worldly cave full of wild tufas and overhangs; before celebrating Julia’s success with a pizza.

We spent our last day on a beautiful multipitch climb called ‘L’Ombra della mia Mano’ at Punta Cusidore; a striking limestone mountain near Oliena. The route offers nine pitches of beautifully compact rock and exhilarating exposure and views in the last few pitches, which follow an arête to the top of the mountain’s NW pillar.

The trip is over but things to do in Sardinia are all but finished. The infinity of fantastic rock guarantee new objectives and the desire to keep coming back to this ‘piccolo grande paradiso’.