Farewell Magic Wood
We left Magic Wood to head back to France to catch our flight out of Paris. Unfortunately Magic Wood didn’t treat us well. We had one stretch of four or five days of sunshine and then it was back to rain, rain, and more rain. Magic Wood sits in a narrow valley with very sporadic weather patterns. It could be raining heavily in the valley but the sun could be shining two kilometers north. It was the worst month of weather I’ve ever seen for climbing, much worse than our time in Font. In retrospect we could have spent three good days climbing there and accomplished the same as what we did in a month. We had a few good days and the rest were spent either projecting something or huddling under the Tarp of Darkness, watching the rain fall. Magic Wood is a great place to meet people so we had plenty of people to spend the rainy days with. We made friends from Switzerland, France, Belgium, Romania, Russia, Austria, Italy, England, Poland, and Germany!
Les learning a crazy game
Tom and Lucas dodging exploding ash
Alex on a rad 7B. Photo by Les
In the end we were much more fond of Ticino than Magic Wood, even ignoring the weather. We found the lines and the rock to be better in Ticino. Many of the ‘classics’ of magic wood don’t topout such as Supernova, Never Ending Story Parts 1 & 2, Sofa Surfer, Piranha, etc. Not to say those are all bad boulder problems but dropping off isn’t the same to me as topping out a boulder. I ended up projecting a long crimpy 8B called One Summer in Paradise. I did all the moves in 30 minutes so I was optimistic about sending it quickly. Four sessions later it didn’t happen! I climbed to the end where the crux lies 20+ times in conditions ranging from fair to raining and never had the energy to finish it.
One Summer in Paradise 8B. Photo by Guillaume
We are excited to leave the continent tomorrow as we head south to South Africa. Our flight leaves Paris tomorrow at 11PM and after a layover in Johannesburg, we should touch down in Cape Town at 2PM Wednesday. After a three or four hour drive north, we will reach our new home for the winter just outside the Rocklands.
Chironico
We returned to Chironico last Sunday to escape the rain that inevitably falls on Magic Wood. When we got to Ticino we found unbelievable conditions. Sunny, cool, and a nice strong breeze. Perfetto.
Chironico
More from Maranello and Venice
I found some more photos on my camera from Maranello and Venice.
Ferrari Enzo
Ferrari 599X
Magic Wood
One of the reasons we left Magic Wood for Italy was the forecast was full of rain everyday. We returned from our week ‘vacation’ in Italy to drive up into the Swiss mountains with visibility at 5 meters and rain coming down all around us. The forest of magic wood was well saturated when we arrived. We setup camp and hoped for better weather soon. We had a lucky second day with a few boulders dry enough to climb on.
Dave
After that it never stopped raining; it sometimes slowed to a barely perceptible mist but there was always precipitation. We filled our days with books, chatter, cooking, and dreams of dry rock. Thankfully there is one boulder problem that stays dry even during rainfall, The Never Ending Story Part 2 7C+, which is an awesome problem down on the river with perfect polished rock. Les and I both managed to climb it quickly.
Les on The Never Ending Story Part 2
After that I climbed the only other dry problem, Massive Attack 8A, which is just a few hard moves that doesn’t really go anywhere (no top out). That was the end of the climbing so we returned to sitting under the tarp. Our dreams of dry weather didn’t come true and after six days of sitting in the rain, the forecast called for 10 more days of rain so we cut our losses and headed back to Ticino where the forecast was dry and even cooler than in April. Sorry for the lack of photos of Magic but it’s been wet and the psych has been low.
Pompeii, Florence, Venice
On our way into Sorrento we stopped in Pompeii to check out what remains after Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD covering an ancient civilization in over 20 meters of ash and pumice until it was uncovered in 1592. It is well worth the stop if you are ever in Southern Italy.
Pompeii
The Amalfi Coast
The Amalfi coast was the next step in our whirlwind Italia tour. Just south of Naples, the Amalfi coast consists of small crowed streets that run along the Mediterranean Sea. Mountains that fall into the sea give home to sun-bleached pastel colored houses. We found an amazing campground, right on the coast, with 5 star hotel views.
View from our campsite in Sorrento
We spent three days on the Amalfi coast, eating amazing gelato and pizza, staring at the sea, and soaking up the serenity.
Amalfi
Mt. Vesuvius (under clouds) from Sorrento.
Fiat 500 on Amalfi Coast
Weirdness in Amalfi
B-E-A-Utiful
Rome!
A few days after my last post I was beginning to recover from my back injury and the weather forecast in Magic Wood was grim so the only logical thing to do was head off on a sight-seeing trip to Italy. We packed up camp and pointed our car south and didn’t stop until we hit Rome! Eight hours and 100 euros in gas and tolls later, we found ourselves standing in front of the Vatican at sunset.
The Vatican
