A BOLTER by Ludovico Spiota

A BOLTER

by Ludovico Spiota

Lodovico Spiota was one of the pioneers of these areas, discovering new crags and re-bolting a few of the first routes in the valley, giving them a modern outlook transforming them into crags. His activity varies from the orographic right hand side of the valley with Placca degli Scorpioni to Terminal and the large bastion of Bauso on the higher part of the left hand side, until reaching the rock faces on the upper part of the valley with Rocca dell’Arma. Lodovico is an explorer, a bolter, but he also represents the memory of alpinism in this valley, he wrote this guide book’s historical introduction. Here below some of his thoughts on what a bolter is.

A bolter. “A bolter ...?” Practically this question sounds like the Manzonian memory: “Carneade…? Who was he…”, Don Abbondio asked himself. Indeed. Who is a “bolter?”. Many will have the right answer, like an essay written at school, when you didn’t have to think too hard, or have to reason, the response was immediate: the bricklayer of crags. That is what a bolter is. But that is simplifying things too much. A bolter is a climber who has something extra within: the curiosity to explore, to look beyond the surrounding environment which we all know too well, they are simply dreamers, certainly a bit crazy, but they are dreamers who imagine and look for new spaces for the game. Inside each bolter an “Ulysisses” hides, with his folly which leads him continuously to travel, looking for something new, possibly extraordinary, an Ulysses who already has a home, incredibly beautiful and unique, such as the Finale crags, but those are not enough, because his hunger for exploration leads him to find something beyond those Pillars of Hercules which are Capo Noli and Capra zoppa, the limits of the Finale area. Yes. The limits…what an ugly word… And so, that bolter, just like Ulysses, addresses his friends and involves them, in his dreams: “ ..Consider your seed, you were not made to live like brutes but to be virtue and knowledge ..” And it is with these words, that the Crook of Ilium relying on his climbing friends, will describe the apocalyptic slabs with sharp crimps which cannot even be found in Sardinia, who will narrate of overhangs with big jugs and the perfection of a rock which has never been seen before. And this is how, with the mood of a dreamer that new sectors are born, and sometimes entire new valleys.

Ludovico Spiota (© Arch. Spiota) 