Pocket pulling

Following on from alpine routes of a delicate and exposed nature, or was that just my head?; this weekend by contrast was to be pocket pulling and steep limestone in wonderful Finale Liguria. The partenza was put off until Saturday morning to allow us to visit the Brit Alastairs party. He had friends out from England, and was also planning to visit Finale the following day.

We left early, a little dizzy from the night before, arriving to a perfect day taking immediately a spot on the beach and feeding ourselves. Those of us with built in wetsuits took a dip while others blessed with more sensitive hearts simply reddened in the increasing heat, and it's only May.

Inevitably climbing had to happen so mid afternoon I raised the horn and blew it for all my worth. We headed out to Rocca di Corno. I had never climbed here before, but had seen the buttress on many occasions. The view was very fine, looking down to Finale and the ocean beyond. It was still hot even at this late hour, so myself and Claudia started proceedings on a fine looking 6a+ whilst Richard and Alastair took on a classic 5b. The rock was perfect and the climbing interesting but not to difficult for the grade, was this really Finale?. We were working ourselves up to try the classic 6c+ of Rombo di Vento. More overhanging than it looks the time had come and I set off with some trepidation.

The route really starts with a brutal overhang, well protected but reachy powerful moves. It wasn't long before I was hanging on the end of the rope, but got it next time. That was the technical crux, but the crux of the route is probably to keep going. Overhanging climbing continued on large holds, but with tiring arms it was to much. The remainder of the route went very slowly. Claudia followed up singing about Thailand, overhanging rock, large holds in the fading light. We left the crag in darkness and stumbled through the forest to the car.

The following day followed a similar pattern, coffee, gear shop and beach. In the afternoon with just myself and Claudia remaining we went to Kattedrale. A small crag but impressionably steep. Here the 6a's were no push over, technical climbing on steep rock. The hardest route we tried was Fragile 6c, an unrelenting trip up an overhanging wall on large pockets but tiring to a degree with a real sting in the tail. I totally dogged it. Failure!

This was enough, in our fragile state it was clearly time for a beer and an ice cream.