Pennavaire story

by Ludovico Spiota

Valle Pennavaire runs towards the top of Piana di Albenga, it begins at Martinetto, hamlet of the commune of Cisano sul Neva, and ends at Colle di Caprauna, in the Province of Cuneo. On the hydrographic right hand side the valley is dominated by Monte Nero and Castellermo, for a maximum altitude of m 1094 asl, dominated by not very inviting rock faces of stratified limestone which have characterised the formation of towers and belltowers rising from the thick vegetation, almost resembling the more popular Dolomites. So much so that during the 1940’s talking about the “North western Dolomites”, a few courageous alpinists (among these De Marchi from Torino) set up ascents on some of the pinnacles and slabs, but the rock was not at all friendly and this did not favour the development of further alpinism/climbing of the area. They say that Cesare Maestri during the second half of the 1950’s, probably while he was in the area convalescing from some injuries, touched these rock faces but only an echo of his feats remain, like that lost in the wind of the blows of his hammer on the pegs in the cracks. The true climbing story of Valle Pennavaire begins at the end of 1989, when Claudio Laureri together with Angela Correggia in the territory of Caprauna equipped the first two routes on what will then become the rock face of Rocca dell’Arma: the die is cast. The sector Rocca dell’Arma will be the highest one, around 1500m asl, and will take form in 1990 by bolting a dozen routes on its beautiful rocks.

But Cladio Laureri will not stop at Capruana, and going down (in this case towards the sea) looking for other more beautiful sectors, in the year 1991 will reach Castelbianco discovering Bauso, definitely among the most featured and interesting structure of the Valley, bolting some amazing rock steps, such as Malavoglia and la Fontana, this one with its reference route: Il Castigo.

Rumors spread quickly among bolters and reached the ears of the great guru of Finale. Fulvio Balbi between 1991 and 1992 on the Bauso rock faces set up masterpieces which marked the historical significance of the rock and of climbing in the area, and this is how Kramer contro Kramer was born; without forgetting other incredible pitches, such as Let’s Play or the nearby Bella e Impossibile.

During that year the first top climbers started coming to the Valley, at least the local climbers, and in 1992 Andrea Gallo and Guido Cortese set up their personal climbing construction site under the overhangs of the Antro di Castelbianco and in a few months the first routes of 8th grade came to light. But Andrea did more. Being the visionary he was he set up a route which remained untouched for many years: Perfect Man. But his long term outlook brought him to never touch, or even worse, to “tame” the route so as to climb it, distorting its difficulty, since he believed that if he could not climb the route, sooner or later someone else would have achieved this feat. The undertaking was achieved in 2016, when Matteo Gambaro arrived at Antro and after entirely re bolting the line, cleaned the rock and found possible sequences, and after a few attempts managed to free it (climbing straight up the line of bolts), offering the grade of 9a, which will be later confirmed the successive year by Adam Ondra’s first repetition.

But this sector’s story perfectly narrates how the local Ligurian climbers traditionally were very welcoming to ‘outsiders’ , so much so that a kid standing under an overhang disturbed the bolter so much with all is his questions that he was moved away in a not very sociable manner, and this fact was successively remembered with the routes ‘Vattene’ (go away) and ‘Era Ora’ (it was about time) Without naming anyone, that kid from Savona went onto become one of the best Italian climbers, and

But we have to step back in time. At the end of the 70s another well known climber from Finale, Luciano Pizzorni had noticed the slabs of Castellermo and by climbing trad and with a difficult fight against the intricate Mediterranean bush he managed to set up a few routes. Throughout his exploration Luciano presumably was the first climber to reach Rocca Rossa where he climbed the first pitch of what would become a multi pitch route. Personal circumstances kept him away from that attempt and it all went lost until in 1992 Rocca Rossa or Mezzaluna (half moon) for its characteristic shape (name given to it by the local climbers) was re-discovered by Claudio Laureri who opened two or three routes here. The tales of “Mezzaluna’s” beautiful rock crossed over the border above Valle Pennavaire and reached the ears of Manlio Motto, who during that period was busy opening routes from the ground up even on Mongioie (that is the mountain straight behind Valle Pennavaire). All the routes opened by Manlio on Rocca Rossa are characterised by opening the routes from the ground up, placing bolts far away, and obligatory moves.

Summer arrives and it gets hot even in Valle Pennavaire. All the sectors which have been explored up until now are winter sectors, therefore with the summer season heat it is impossible to climb. Fulvio Balbi once again looking for new slabs to climb, wandering the valley of Rio Croso (Pennavaire’s main affluent) reaches Rocca del Re, even if it doesn’t resemble a king (Re) that much. The regime’s cartographers, once reached this area during the 1930’s and asked the locals what the name of the rock face was, and in their local dialect answered: “Rocca durà”. The cartographers then to keep close to the original name, but at the same time keeping the Savoia family happy called it “Rocca del Re”, but translated from the local dialect Rocca Durà means golden fortress, due to the colour the western face turns into when the sun sets.

Fulvio on that slab of smooth limestone opened a dozen routes, and not happy, he managed to bring along a true king of climbing: Patrick Berhault. Obviously all the grades on this face come from the great Berhault’s strict metre of measurement.

In 1994 even the A.L.A. San Remo arrived, and with climbers such as Roberto Scialli, Peo Vernassa (the never tiring) Davide Ramoino, Flaviano Bessone leave their mark, opening small masterpieces, in particular at Bauso Centrale, such as ‘Thecosmilia’ (which carries the same name of the fossilized branch of coral on the rock which lies on the edge of the road which runs up to Vesallo), ‘Nefertiti’ or ‘400 giorni dopo’, as ‘Fontana’ , ‘Timida’ or ‘Dulfer in Fundo’.

During the 90’s even Lodovico Spiota, who had moved to Albenga, started the first work of restyling/ rebolting of a few sectors using resin, beginning with Malavoglia and then continuing to Bauso Destro. But not only, he explored even the sectors of the Lower valley, cleaning and bolting the first slab on the hydrographic right hand side of Rio Pennavaire: the Placca degli Scorpioni called this way because up until that moment it was the undisputed kingdom of scorpions. He also went on to bolt the first routes at Terminal to then move over, with Fabio Vivalda and Paolo Brusasco to Caprauna, rebolting, in 1999, almost all of the routes of Rocca dell’Arma and opening various new ones. Marco Pukli does not lag behind and bolted many routes first of all with the guys of A.L.A Sanremo during the early 90’s to then freely move around with his wife Sabina Mao, discovering beautiful sectors such as Papapuk at Rocca della Garda, or the sector carrying the same name Pukli at Terminal, setting up very elegant lines.

In 1998 Lodovico Spiota and Marco Pukli, with a project financed by the Province of Savona carried out the restyling of all the routes of Bauso Centrale, giving this structure its prestige back since it

In 2000 even Marco Zambarino arrived, another top bolter from the Finale area, and concentrated his efforts in the upper Valley area, in the communes of Alto and Capruana, looking for and bolting new rock faces and sectors.

During the year 2000 the development of climbing in the Valley shifts gears, but above all gradient, with the arrival of Andrea Bisio (Dinda) and Luca Biondi (Blond) who with great effort systematically bolted the overhanging sectors at the bottom of the valley. This is how the sectors Emisfero at the entrance of the valley, Terminal, Cineplex, Reunion are born, and in the upper valley in the commune of Alto, the amazing Red Up is born, its left hand side wall is characterized by a series of overhanging tufas on red rock. But what will allow the group of Dinda and Blond to stand out is the awareness that creating a ‘rockodrome’, makes the safety of the routes a dominating factor, this entails lots of maintenance and upkeep.

In 2012 the group creates the Association Rocpennavaire, with the main objective of developing new sectors increasing the interest for climbing in the valley. From here the first B&bs are born together with vertical tourism, especially foreign tourism increases.

In 2011 Matteo Gambaro begins visiting the valley and after climbing all the difficult lines present, his attempts on the unrepeated or unclimbed projects begin (the valley’s first 8c is born in 2012) he then bolts new routes looking for extreme grades in the main sectors which already exist: among the most famous: Perfect man 2.0 9a at Antro di Castelbianco, Anchorage 8c+ at Terminal, Narcissus 9a/+ Erboristeria, Time out 8c and Hangargames 8c+ at Hangar Resistenza 8c and Resilienza Meccanica 8c+ at Euskal, Occhio alla Penna 8c at Calumet... to then bolt entire new sectors and new portions such as Conservatorio, Cpr, Il Calumet, Cartoon, La Rocca della Garda, Hangar, Capradura (financed by the shop Cprfreesport at Cisano sul Neva established by Davide Ramoinol) and HopFarm (financed by Samuele Scola/brewery), Buteghin and currently under way El Cap (financed by Versante Sud), thus bringing a remarkable contribution and breakthrough in terms of high difficulty.