Broken toes and theives...!

Part two of our road trip began in much the same way as part one…  We stopped in Fontainebleau to break the journey on route to the Swiss/Italian Alps.   We weren’t particularly psyched by Font – probably because we’d just spent three months there, but we were much more excited about getting to the Alps and playing on some rock in beautiful mountain scenery.  We were planning to head to Val di Mello to meet Paul and Kay – some friends we’d met earlier in the road trip.  Font to Val di Mello is quite an epic drive so we stopped for a couple of nights in Chironico, Switzerland en route.

Part two got off to a bad start…!  Day one of climbing in Chironico I managed to break my big toe on my left foot and badly stub the big toe on the right foot too!  I was trying a problem called Tomahawk; I had done all the moves and just need to link it.  On one attempt my foot slipped whilst turning a bulge and I fell with my body rotating towards the wall.  I hit the pad whilst still rotating and both my feet slid towards the base of the boulder.  Both big toes got slammed into the rock, with the left foot bearing the brunt of it.  The pain was instant and I fought to remove my very tight rock shoes.  My toe started throbbing and I felt a little queasy.  I sat on the pad, raised my foot up and started to think about how long I have to stop climbing…  I figured at least two weeks, maybe more.  Normally, this wouldn’t be so bad, but I just had about two weeks rest!  C’est la Vie!

Toe breaking fall!

The next day we drove to Val Masino in Italy, where we met Paul and Kay. It was great to see them again and catch up.  We found a beautiful, quiet place to park with a view across a wildflower meadow.  I spent the next week or so watching Claire, Paul and Kay climbing, but could at least amuse myself doing pull ups!  Claire’s wrist is still a little sore, but seems to be improving with time away front the Font slopers.

After 10 days I managed to climb easy problems with a trainer on my left foot.  I also treated myself to a highly stylish pair of Simond rock boots.  They were way too big, but gave my toe lots of space to move and allowed me to do some easy climbing. 

Even though I had to refrain from climbing, it was still fun to go out and take photos… Until someone stole my camera and lenses!  We were out bouldering and had left food, clothes and cameras on the ground.  We were only bouldering about 5-10metres away, but at some point my camera bag disappeared. It was very annoying to lose my camera, and quite surprising that someone managed to take it when it was so close to us.  The only consolation was that I had recently downloaded the photos/videos and didn’t lose any footage.

We reported it to the police and began the painstaking task of trying to claim from an insurance company.