The Best Rock In The World

We headed out in hope that it hadn’t snowed so much further up the valley.

In hope that some rock may still be dry.

In hope that it would be gone by the next day.

We trudged along through the snow, slid on hidden rocks and tried to avoid breaking any ankles.

There was a fresh eight inches of fluffy white powder dusted across the mountains, valleys and little villages.

Beautiful.

Perfect for a skier.

But we immediately knew we weren't going to find a dry piece of rock.

We were in Ticino, Switzerland.

Just north of the border from Italy.

Home to maybe the finest rock the world has to offer.

Honestly we didn’t think we’d climb for another couple of days at least.

And only if it didn’t snow again.

We were in luck, however.

The next day some friends let us know the valley they were in nearby hadn’t had a whole lot of snow.

We drove up there and discovered the last of the snow disappearing in front of our eyes.

The climbing could go on.

For the rest of the trip the weather was as good as it gets.

The next day we found ourselves in t-shirts laying by the river waiting for the sun to dip behind the mountains and the rock to cool off.

We toured the various areas and boulders.

Brione, Val Bavona, Chironico and Cresciano.

Visited classics.

And bumped into a good selection of the best climbers in the world.

Eliot and Solly were ticking off problems right up until after the sun had gone down on the last day.

We laughed.

We ate pizza.

We met good people.

Jacob.

For more stories like this from my adventures please join my newsletter.