VALLE DELL'ORCO, ITALY
PARETINA INFELICE
TRAINING ROUTES ON THE FRENCH CLIFF
If you don’t like artificial
climbing, that’s no.problem. Climb up El Cap unaided and just forget the greatest rock faces
of the world: the Yosemite, the Paine towers, Zion, Baffin, Trango or even Verdon, Monserrat, the
Black Canyon of Gunnison...On the other hand you could just try it out.
Test out a couple of pitons. Take a deep breath before you step up on a skyhook...Do what you can
to haul yourself up one metre, then two, on this smooth wall...
Slip between cracks and roofs cut out of the sky...
Get past without leaving any trace...
Sleep beneath the stars, lulled by the wind.
It’s a game, another sort of mountaineering for climbers with time on their hands The val d’Orco
is the ideal spot. Hot granite in the day, Italian wine at night: just what you need to wake up the
Epicurean in you.
KEY INFORMATION
GET
THE WHOLE STORY FROM:
For other routes in the Piantonetto and Gran Paradiso valleys, take a look at the topo Rock Paradise
(in Italian) by Maurizio Oviglia, published by Edizioni Versante Sud.
Departure:
Noasca. The rock face is up above a tunnel, on the old road from Ceresole to Noasca.
Difficulty:
A1 to A3+Height: an aid climb of one to seven pitches.
Time of year:
late Spring, Summer, Autumn.
Time:
boulder it if you haven’t got much time.
First climbed by
a young team from the FFME (French
Mountaineering and Climbing Federation).
Equipment: take along some hard steel pitons (KB, LA, etc.), a few birdbeaks,
some copperheads, a selection of hooks, plus two groups of friends and aliens and some nuts.
Map: IGC map to scale 1/50,000, Gran Paradiso National Park.