Val di Daone

{en route to Daone}

I’ve not been having much luck with injuries and thieves lately… Just as my broken toe was starting to improve I hurt my wrist whilst working a problem in Bagni di Masino.  It didn’t feel too serious at the time, but seemed to worsen over the next few days.  I think I partially tore a ligament, but that’s only a guess.  It was still very warm in Val Masino, so we decided to explore another climbing area at higher altitude – Val di Daone.

Although Val di Daone was relatively close to Val Masino the drive took many hours as it involved many mountain pass.  We weren’t in any hurry, so took our time and watched the beautiful scenery go by – I watched the road too!  Val di Daone is a lesser known area in Northern Italy, sporting hundreds of boulder problems at altitudes from 800m to 1600m (with a few problems even higher).  There weren’t many really hard problems, but quite a few quality problems in the 6’s and 7’s.  I didn’t really climb as my wrist was recovering, however, Claire climbed a good selection of cool lines. We spent one day hiking up in the mountains, which were particularly stunning.  We also spent some great evenings around the campfire with Kay, Paul and many cows/horses!