Buongiorno Tutti il Mondo!

Adesso, noi siamo a Verona, la città de Romeo e Guilette. This past couple of weeks have been kinda crazy. Emilie and I split paths for a few days as she went to check out a great hike on Corsica, while I went off to Verona to spend some time with some family. Emilie decided that she wasn't comfortable doing the hike (hardest in Europe 170km) alone and therefore came and joined me in Verona last Sunday. It had been raining pretty consistantly on me in Verona, but the sun did come out on Sunday and I was able to get out climbing on a local crag (dolomite) it was quite a nice crag. I found some Italians to climb with as Emilie was not going to arrive until later in the evening. My cousin and uncle watched as I led a 5.9 and followed a 5.10c overhang. The rock was nice and all the climbs had a nice warmup before reaching the crux. I didn't climb long as my cousin and uncle didn't want to try. It was fun though and I met some really nice Italians. I gave them my e-mail so maybe in the next few years we will be hosting some Italians in Canada.

Emilie missed her train in Milano (though she will claim it's not her fault... we all know better) so we ended up waiting for about 30 minutes at the train station. I was convinced that she had missed her stop because she fell asleep. But actually the train from Nice to Milano was late so she had to catch the next train from Milano to Verona. After her arrival we went back to my uncle's place and despite my best Italian argueing, I was cowed into sleeping on their bed. Sigh. Poor cousin, gives up her bed when I arrived, then when Emilie arrived was forced to sleep on the floor. Note to everybody, have a guest bedroom if you are super nice and want to have your guests sleep on something comfortable.

The next day it rained more. Emilie and I went back to the crag that I had been at the day before and squished some snails. Escargot anybody? We also practiced some self rescue techniques and now are both pretty proficient at escaping the belay. Best be careful to not piss eachother off now or we could find ourselves dangling 100feet off the deck while the other heads back to Canada.

Enough of this rain, we decided, fed up with it. So we left Verona for sunny Arco. Where of course it rained somemore. We aimed our furgonchino (little van) at the nearest slab and checked out the local limeslab. The sun was amazingly shining at this point. So Emilie and I drove up the road... saw the sign... 1.9m. Shit... lucy is wider than that. Sigh... park. Walk. Get to cliff... "Hey... where's my shoe? You forgot one of my shoes!" heh heh... oops. Emilie is a great barefoot climber. Slab with one barefoot is skillful... painful yet skillful. I'm sure she is happier that I opened more doors for her by teaching her the art of one shoe climbing. The thunder that scared all the woosy German climbers away was too little to scare us away from the 5.8 and 5.9 slab we climbed. Of course we got drenched on the way back to the car.

The following day we headed off to the popular Arco crag called Massone. Initially we were thinking of climbing a 1600foot climb but the iffy weather sent us cragging instead. The crag was nice but the easy climbs were pretty polished. We ended up sending a 5.7, 5.9, 5.10a and a 5.10b. It was the first 10b I have ever lead. Emilie got a few airmiles as I took a couple whips on the second bolt... "Watch the third clip" the guide book had said. The jubaliation of our ascents translated into Gelato. Mmmmm Gelato. Cheap, yummy, and mmmm mmmm good. "Heavenly goodness" says Emilie. Emilie is pretty certain she has found her Promised Land.

Speaking of Promised Land's, Emilie and I went to climb at Terra Promessa the following day. The area's easiest climb was a 10a and quickly went up from there. However, today was the day to push ourselves. We quickly dispatched the local 10a and watched as a tiny waif of a girl climbed 3 10b/c in the time it took us to climb one. Turns out she is the world youth champion warming up for some of the harder climbs. Pretty impressive. After the 10a Emilie and I toproped some of the more difficult climbs that shared the anchor. Following this I led (with a few rests) a really nice 10b corner climb. 15m of laybacking followed by a 3 m crimpy crux. Best route I've climbed so far. Emilie toperoped it twice in succession and I climbed it clean on toprope. When we come back in august, I will send it clean on lead. Following this, Emilie lead a 10b. She bravely lead the difficult climb even when it started to rain on her. I didn't follow it but instead choose a 10a traverse. It turned out to be harder to clean than to climb. Lesson learned, make Emilie follow me on any traverse I do.

After another hard climbing day we are taking a rest day in Verona. Emilie is still looking for her first gelato of the day. Tonight we leave for Val de Mello (sp???)

Arivaderci