To help follow these adventures, you might want to use the awesome online Swiss topographic map! Zoom in and the detail will increase! So after a few days cruising around Lake Como and the Italian towns on the lake shore, I missed my first train in Europe when I tried to head back to Bellinzona, the capitol of Ticino. As it turns out, the next train was actually faster, so I arrived in Bellinzona with about half an hour before the bus to Cresciano.
They let me leave my pack there and hang around the common room though, which was nice. This was a good choice, as it turned out to be next door to a 13th century castle, and the bus to Cresciano left hourly and only took 15 minutes.
I walked past two more castles on the way to the bus stop. I read on UK climbing that it was hard to get to the bouldering villages in Ticino, but that person had clearly owned a car for too long. Anyway, the first day I walked in to Bloc and asked where the boulders were.
Then the road ends, and the hiking trail continues up into the forest, marked by a signpost plastered with climbing stickers. Anyway, I found the boulders. The rock was fine-grained white-grey granite, with a surprising amount of moss in places, and just the right amount of features. I wandered around climbing random stuff, with just shoes and chalk. I managed to find problems many marked with white painted arrows with good landings. A German guy called Oliver turned up, and he had a pad and a guidebook.
Good times, good times. The next day, I wandered around further to a different area, climbed some stuff, same deal. I climbed for a bit with a French couple, Pierre and Lou. Pierre tried a beautiful but absolutely brutally razor-sharp problem, 7b or something. I could barely pull of the ground. Of course I had to have a go. The crux move is off the ground. Really unique problem, and counts as my send of the trip, and probably one of my hardest boulders to date?
