During August and September, Claire and I went on a great trip to Northern Italy. Our plan had been to spend the full three weeks climbing in the Dolomites, but Italy has apparently had its worst summer in many years, so the weather forecasts forced us to go on a bit of a road trip.

We went to some lovely areas, including Muzzerone (near the tourist-trap of Portovenere), Lake Como, and a bunch of areas around Arco, which is something of a rock climbing mecca. It’s a town of about 15 thousand people, and has about 10 climbing stores to cater for the needs of the visiting climbers.

We got lucky with the weather for a few days, and managed to climb two peaks in the Brenta region of the Dolomites - Torre D’ambiez via the East Deirdre, and Cima Margherita via the classic Detassis Crack. The latter was more memorable and rewarded us with more spectacular views, but unfortunately I misplaced my camera just before we made it the base of the route. So I have no photos of the climb, nor of any others on the second half of the trip.

Northern Italy is an amazing place. I’d love to go back to re-visit the amazing Sarca valley (near Arco), to tick off a few more classic Dolomites climbs and, of course, to drink a bunch of great coffee, and over-indulge on brioche in the mornings, and pizza in the evenings.