UKC

Hi there,

I was just wondering if anyone has done any climbing around val Di mello.
Planning on doing some sport out there this summer however I'm struggling to find a guide book?

Can anyone recommend one for the area please?

Cheers,

Jack

In reply to Jpinnegor:
There's a Versante Sud guide that covers quite a bit of the area. Check out their website. Many of their guides also comes with some English descriptions in them. The one I've got is called 'Arrampicate Sportive e Moderne In Valtellina, Valchiavenna, Engadina' but that's 12 years old now.

Some of the slab routes can be quite 'sportingly' bolted in my experience but maybe that has been altered since I was there (25 years!) Sasso Remmeno is worth a day or two with fairly straightforward routes on Europe's biggest 'boulder'(?) Some of the bigger routes 'up-valley' ARE big

P.S. There's also a hell of a lot of sport cragging around Chiavenna an hour or so to the NW

In reply to Jpinnegor:
It's awesome, head for a route called 'luna nascente'. There is a specific guide book, or the area is in the 'plaisir Sud' guidebook which you can find here :
http://www.filidor.ch/pages/book.aspx?Id=2

Enjoy

In reply to Jpinnegor:

I may be reading your post incorrectly, but I wouldn't consider Mello a sport climbing venue, but as an all-rounder it's got a bit of everything. There is some good sport climbing on the Sasso Remmeno as mentioned, loads of quality bouldering further down the valley, and then the main event - the big granite walls. These have a minimal bolting ethic, plus many of the classics are bolt free. Expect well protected cracks and spicy slabs on pristine granite. I used two guides - one for the sport climbing in the valley and on the Sasso, mentioned already, then Solo Granito by the same publisher for the longer routes. In addition to all this, and included in the Solo guide, are the many alpine rock routes above the valley, which usually involve a bivvi or staying in a hut.

In reply to danm:

Agreed. The few routes I've done there (apart from the Sasso) were slabs with maybe two or three bolts in a 30 metre pitch. 'Spicy' is a good word. As I said above if you are looking for 'sport' then Chiavenna might be a better base?

In reply to Jpinnegor:

As has been said, the stuff in Val di Mello itself is a mix of trad and very spaced bolting - gave me the most memorable climb of my life with a route called self control Self Control (6a+)

However Sasso Remenno : Sasso Remenno is mostly single pitch - the bolts tend to be well spaced, but not the 25 foot runouts you can get elsewhere! Via del Bosco and Simon Templar are particularly good

I'd also recommend these 2 crags if you want some very accessible and not too spicy multi-pitch

El Schenun: El Schenun
Pesgunfi : Pesgunfi

In reply to Chris the Tall:

Self Control sounds great.
One of my main regrets about our trip there in the early 90s was that we didnt try Oceano. It sounds epic. On at least two night s we watched people descending by torchlight while we were on our second or third bottle...

All excellent stuff. Cheers for this guys!

In reply to Jpinnegor:

For the big stuff on Monte Qualido (not sport though) :
http://www.paolo-sonja.net/qualido/qualido_all.pdf

Im going out there myself this summer (august?) maybe see you there....

Topher