Beautiful Cinque Terra

So before we left Canada several people sat us down and said "When you're in Italy you have to go to this Cinque Terra" so of course we found time for it. It's quite a nice place. We just finished the hike today. Nice hike with plenty of good views. Swimming afterwards was nice. The water is warm. We kinda want to go for a swim/kayak but are burdened by our passports and other documents. We are considering buying a watertight case and storing stuff in there (attached to our legs while we go adventure swimming :)). We'll see.

Ah but now an exciting climbing backflash. After leaving Verona, Emilie and I headed out to Val Di Mello. A beautiful granite vally with more granite slab than you can shake a stick at. I didn't try but can only assume. It's alot of Granite. We met a ton of really nice people from rockclimbing.com as they had all shown up to bid farwell to a friend. The trip in was a bit of an ordeal as the main road was closed so we had to detour over a mountain. Poor lucy heated up the engine coming up and the breaks going down. I should get those things checked before we head back into the Alps. We arrived at night and quickly set up our Lucy to sleep. The following morning, Taz, Ferris (of fontainbleau fame) Emilie and I went to climb a simple two pitch slab/crack (emphasis on the slab). Ferris climbed a wee bit slow and due to the ease of the second pitch, Emilie and I finished at the same time as they did. We rapped off while Taz and Ferris looked for the walkoff. While waiting I decided it would be fun to try this slab to the right of the route we were on. Couldn't be that hard... could it? (Note: all squemish readers and parents please stop reading. Picture butterflys and flowers and scroll down a paragragh)

The first clip was a stretch. The good feet were just out of reach from the clip but I was able to stretch and get it clipped. The second clip was about 2 meters off of the first bolt. I padded up tentitively with nothing but nubbins and divots to stand on. I kinda lunged for the second bolt with the draw and got it cliped. Yee haw. A smart man may have backed off at this point. Me... I never claimed to be smart. The third bolt was at least three meters above the second bolt. Sigh... step up to the good feet. look around. Divots... nubbins. Man this sucks. Step up tentitively... foot slips... walk back walk back... rope weights phew. Ok lets try this again. I hauled up the rope to get back to the second bolt. Ok let's try this again. Up to the good feet. Emilie murmers encouragement from below. The world slows down. I step onto my right foot... it holds. Up to the left foot... it holds. My hands massage the rock searching for something, anything. Another nubbin... breath... step up. shit... Balance.. oh shit... lean... oh shit... falling... step back... free fall... pain. "Ahhhh...." I would have exclaimed if not for the draw in my mouth ment for the third bolt. Instead I took it out and ask Emilie to lower me the rest of the way to the ground. Turns out I had lost balance during the fall and cracked my elbow and hip into the slab as I fell. Sigh. I used a side anchor to retrieve the two draws. No perminant damage to my body. I guess I learnt the lesson not to climb 5.11a/b run out slab =) I have dreamt of getting back onto that climb and probably will if we go back into the area. This time I'll do it on top rope.

The rest of the evening was spent drinking wine in the local pub. Mmmm wine. The next day Emilie and I climbed and nice 6 pitch well bolted slab routed. There was a really slow party on the route so it took a while. Emilie lead the crux pitch. A nice 5.10a slab pitch. That evening Emilie continued her utter dominance of Carcassone and wasted Me, Heiko and Angela. (I do have to say that she got creamed the first game...)

On monday morning Emilie and I headed to a small sport crag (essentially a MASSIVE boulder with 40m routes on it). Emilie unfortunately strained her left ankle during a routine fall on the first climb we did. Again no permenant damage to the ankle and we were able to climb 2 more routes before it started to rain. After those two routes it started to rain and we headed back towards the sea to rest our bruised and battered bodies.

Ok i am taking over from David for the last few lines... For any that worry my ankle appears to be back to normal after a few days of stiffeness! It will teach me to do a practice fall! Sheesh. This has meant however that David and I decided not to head to corsica to do the GR20. After all that fuss, i know i know! We will make it uip later in the trip by doing the Tour du Mont Blanc! Cinque Terre is this beautifully preserved set of 5 villages within 10 km walk of each other. (Which as david mentioned earlier, we hiked this morning. Following Rick Steeves advice about a Tough HIke, we went prepared with hiking boots and poles, which....really.... werent neceessary :) ) We finished the hike with our traditional italian lunch, cheese, foccacia, proscuitto di Parma, fresh cherries and appricots. Of course we also treated ourselves to yummy GElato and a nice swim in the warm mediteranean. Oh.... other cool thing here, there are TONS of lemon trees. David has consented to collect a few for me, which we have been eating secretely in lucy. hehehe...

THe plan now is to head to Roma! See you there.... Pictures to come soon :)