Scapa di Noce

The three most important rules of mountaineering are...
1. You don't have to make it to the top, but safely back down (so you can climb some more tomorrow).
2. Every step is an important one.
3. The best climber is the one having the most fun!

Four days of climbing in Bavella made it easy to be "the best" climbers. We had such a fun time here in a most scenic setting! Often you could hear us singing made-up songs early in the mornings as we warm up our bodies and minds and hike up about 20 minutes from the road. Bavella's granite rock is quite grippy, which is helping us trust our feet and use smaller and smaller hand holds for balance. We're also graduating from slab climbs to more vertical climbs and consciously choose the routes that challenge us mentally and in technique for vertical face climbing.

The area is huge and dotted with hundreds of climbs, so we follow our guidebook's advice and keep moving from crag to crag throughout the day. The first two days were mixed weather and we keep having to pack all our things and take breaks while we wait for the rock to dry again. The next 2 days are perfect weather - hazy sun with a cool breeze. Happy Liebstes!

Meeting other climbers at our campsite and in the mountains usually makes us realize how much we have to learn yet and that we're still such beginners :) But even in just the four days here, plenty of the climbs we choose are pushing us to a new level of confidence on the rock. Leo's strengths are definitely in the climbs with large features that require a lot of technical moves - the climbs that Mareike thinks always look the most fun. My strength is more in the tiny features and balanced face climbs - the ones Leo usually thinks are terrifying . But we learn on every climb, mostly about each other, ourselves and how we can get stronger mentally to climb the funnest routes. One climb here was so fun, it deserves its own story (to follow).

Tomorrow we're moving west to do a few climbs by the coast and then slowly move back North again. Bavella definitely offered the funnest outdoor climbing we've ever done!Read more