No snow, go slow

 Life in Trentino-Alto Adige.

Lago di Garda from the place of Robi and community

 Well, ofcourse i´m moving around also, but the plan is to settle down in this mountain paradise. As I probably mentioned in my last post the project for the winter is to learn skiing and ice climbing. Of course there will be also rock climbing, trekking, biking, running and why not some fencing if I manage to go often enough to Merano or Bolzano (unfortunately fencing is not really popular here in valleys between mountains.... montanari).

Attention please, all those who think that it is warm in Italy - IT IS NOT!! Well, outdoors it is warmer than in Estonia, but indoors its colder than outdoors (because of little physical activity and the fact that many italians dont use heating... and houses are made of stone). First night I was stupid enough to not put my feet in hot water before going to sleep and it took 4 hours to fall asleep because of two ice cubes (my feet) in the bed... Next nights i was a bit smarter ofcourse.

11. january - Woke up with my frozen feet, made some push ups,  jumps, caffe and hot tea to warm up. Visiting my cave mates Davide and Robi in Brescia and a country house near Lago di Garda where Robi is living now as a member of a small community. Yaah I had an opportunity to help to re-plant 4 olive trees that their neighbour didnt need anymore. Lets be optimistic and hope that those trees keep living, even though some of their roots got broken during process.

excavator carrying an olive tree

Hole for olive tree. On the background 2 already re-planted trees

Generally it was a lazy day, gaining energy for the next days´ climbing. After the dinner we made a small jamming session with guitars, accordion, drums and vocal.... But I need more activity to stay warm and even though the community and their idea is lovely I think I wouldnt be able to live like that. Too relaxed but in the same time having duties as a member of community... so basically not very intense working but also no time for hobbies because there is always something to do with the house and garden. Some years ago I was thinking that it would be interesting to join some group like that but for now I have understood that I love more intense and srtressful life and anyway I tend to be lonely wolf (or individualist?). Anyway greetings to this funny people there!

12. january. Climbing with Giovanni and Samuele near Salo (near Lago di Garda). My last climbing before leaving Italy for Christmas was also with those guys 😉. This time it was 4 degrees warmer and I felt the different with many cells of my body. The name of the crag is (falesia) Castello di Gaino. The crag is graded quite hard, often the given grade is even 1 grade less than it feels in reality.... its not my fantasy because its even written on a stend next to crag. We tried "la freccia destra" (5c... quite hard 5c id say), "sederini parlanti" (6a+, id say at least 6b+), "la serpe" (6a+, super nice and creepy because of long distance between spits in hard sequence, again i would grade it 6b+), "Cioccolata" (6c, hard beginning and some hard movements in the middle... again id grade it harder, at least 6c+, but maybe i have just became weak, so better go and try!).

Guys on left side climbing "la serpe", Samuele and Giovanni getting ready for "la freccia dx"

View from the crag "Castello di Gaino"... down there you will see Garda lake.

What to do with the cold and dark evening time? Turn back to Brescia or go to Trentino? An old contact from fb group of desperate climbers helped me out.... Dorian from Verona was free to climb next day near Verona so the best option was to turn back to Brescia, hang out in the center with Davide and other anarchists. Just killing time. Got to bed at 3 am, to be ready for departure at 7.30 in the morning. Actually I should sleep more 💪😉😓.

13. january. Sunday climbing with Dorian. I needed to TAKE A TRAIN to get to Verona early enough. For me as a hitchhiker it feels really weird 😆. Well, diet for this day. Differences between prices of regional and interregional trains are crazy... over-italian Freccia Rossa ticket from Brescia to Verona was 20 euros while ticket of regional train was 7 euros. Difference in duration of the ride was only 4 minutes. Guess which train I used. OK, finally I met Dorian, the guy with whom we planned some climbing already in the end of the summer... without success because of distance and intense working time. So we went climbing on a crag named Gaium. The weather was super, under the sun a t-shirt was enough to stay warm during a climb.The grading of routes was much easier compared to previous day. Tried "scoiattolo volante" (6a, nice for warm up), "Coccinella" (6c, hard for me because of a bouldery crux, but super nice), "Otto" (6b+, nice vertical and slabby with short overhanging sections).... Unfortunately i dont remember the name of 4-th route... it was also nice vertical climb. Hahaaa, you have probably already understood that I prefer vertical climbing and overhangs make me cry... not that I dont like them, but i´m just weak and quite heavy.... all those muscles that I need to carry with me every single day.

View from Gaium. Its full of crags there

OK, now I felt that Trentino was calling. First I went to the base of climbers - Arco. BArtEcaffe was still on the same place and teroldego (one of the most common wines in the zone, my other favourite is marzemino) was tasty as always. I was a bit confused actually because I still had no idea where to do my skiing season. One of the options was Polsa, south-east from Arco, so I tried to find some room or place in some condivided room in Arco but without success. That night Anna and Luca helped me out with accomodation but the future plan was to find a job or living place (or both) and according to its location choose a skiing place. With job its a bit complicated because I want to have at least 4 hours of daylight for skiing... almost every day, so the job should be something at evening time or early mornings.

14. january, monday - hard to find company for climbing, so why not to do a short trekking?

Start of "Percorso alle Cavre"

Some parts of the track were via ferrata, well, I prefered to go without attaching myself to those iron things...

seasonal living spot

just some plants

Got up to see that in case of too much energy i would have gone further

...but i prefered to make caffe, eat bread with cheese and sun bath. This place is always open, there is gas and mokas to make caffe

Again this view. It has became classics. Every time I do some multi-pitch near Dro or Ceniga I see it.

River Sarca

While walking I realized that flu has made quite big damages to my endurance and functionality of respiratory system.... but it will get better. Just need to keep going (I have understood that it is the most secure way to arrive... ;)). I will get back to my marathon shape. 

Finished this intense walking my colleague Giulio picked me up and deported to Val di Non.

15.january... no photos. Looking for job, reading texts and writing reviews... for some cash (even I need to work a bit sometimes 😆). And I still needed to find boots for ice climbing next day.... Hmmm, why not those that I used for apple picking? And yeah, they seemed to be OK, so I borrowed them from a good friend for a while or a bit longer... well i guess i will fuck them up, so it would be smart to buy them :D

16. january. First ice climbing in my young life! Big thanks to Giulio aka Luglio who taught me (he even examined me before going... two most basic techniques - basic with split and triangle... hahaaa no idea how those techniques are actually called in english). Even though the beginning of this winter has been quite warm some ice was formed close to Fondo, a small town between Bolzano and Trento.

but... how can i walk here? its all ice!! Crampons and ice axes really work

Dont follow the flow, go upstream because following the flow you can only go down 😇😁😉

mostly not very steep (maybe 60-70 degrees) with some vertical sections

Random... view from belaying spot. no snow, even though we are more than 1000 m from sea level

Canyon

Evening I spent looking for living place, having long conversations with bears and writing reviews (I know I´m slow). Its nice to have something to do after sunset... usually in this zone (Val di Sole, Val di Non) you will die of boredom or go to bar and drink.... Fortunately my budget is low and I prefer to spend resources to mountain equipment or skipass rather than get drunk, so I have nothing to do 😂. 

17. january.  

Book exchange point in Trento. I like those a lot. Remind me my university town Tartu

Thats the main street of Dimaro. Brenta Dolomites on the background

Hitchhiked from Trento to Val di Sole to disturb owners of hotels. Nobody had job for a climbing vagabond. They even didnt have anything for slavery (working in hotels during the season means often no days off, and almost without salary, because "you anyway get the accomodation and food from there" .... muhahaa.  Buuuut.... I found a place for living (or actually a friend found it through his friends). After wandering around valley all day long I ended up in Dimaro to take a look at my base for next some months. Small room in the center in appartment with a super calm and intelligent chef, a friend of friend of friend - a friend for now I´d say. Almost no sport this day.... only walking with 15 kg of luggage. The week has passed super fast!

18. January

Moving in. Running to do some food shopping.... cheap supermarket is 5 km away in Male, so some movement is guaranteed. There is also an electric train connecting villages of Val di Sole and Val di Non to Val di Adige and Trento, but why spend money if you can do some physical activities instead.

19. january

I´m not very patient... if mountains are near I cant wait. So I decided to go and discover some passes and peaks nearby. But, as I still had reviews to write, I started tooooo late... You shouldnt start trekking at 11.30 in january (if you want to do 1900 vertical meters). Dimaro is 766 m a.s.l. and I was aiming to get to the peak of Sasso Rosso (2645 m a.s.l.)... I know I am an optimist.... 

The start

maybe at 1800 m... the background looks climbable. I will check it out in coming spring.

Sun Valley (Val di Sole) down there

It was hard to walk here... the snow got deeper and deeper

The short day was going to end and I was still far from destination

...it´s safer to go back (didnt have a tent with me)

It got slippery, I needed third leg... in the end this wooden thing was 4 times shorter because i needed to arrrest myself many times... it jusrt broke down

all´ombra dell´ultimo sole....

almost full moon... woooh... got down before real darkness

...the end

I ended up at Passo della Nana (2195 m a.s.l) which means that I only climbed 1430+ meters before I understood that the only safe option was going back the same way I got there... It started to get darkish so I needed to hurry up. Getting down was much easier (obviously 😉) despite being slippery... It took only 1 hour and 45 minutes instead of 4 hours and 30 minutes that I spent for going up. Ok, time to make fire in the stove and get some warmth into the body again. It was tough training :D. See the topo map here

20.january, sunday.... boh... walking to Mezzana to check out climbing gym - closed. WTF. I´m gonna be super weak for spring :(. Afternoon hitchhiked to Madonna di Campiglio for job finding purposes and why not to do my skiing also there? Nooo. Too fancy/touristic/expensive... no atmosphere at all... I even didnt enter to any hotel or bar to ask for job opportunities, and didnt take any photos. Hahahaaa. Next day Pejo Fonti... lets see.

STILL NO SKIING. I´m getting a bit impatient, but it would have been a bit stupid to buy seasonal skipass in some place where there is no living and working opportunities, right? So... I´m in Dimaro and my skiing options are Madonna di Campiglio, Marilleva-Folgarida, Passo Tonale or Pejo Fonti...