So you like your alpine bouldering, you’ve done the usual Magic Wood, Chironico and Cresciano rights of passage and you're wondering how to get your next fix and stabilize those jittery cravings for icy cold granite in a Heidi-esque setting. Well wipe that cold sweat from your brow, pull out your big emery board as that Germanic centurion Harry Röker is going to take you on a whistle stop tour of the latest in vogue alpine bouldering Mecca’s, and your not going to be disappointed!
IBloc is the latest guide to spring forth from the relatively recently formed publishing setup of GEBRO Verlag, a German based guide book producer run by Harald and Ulrich Röker. GEBRO have already produced some established points of reference, including the two most popular Frankenjura sport climbing guides and also the first multi-area guide to popularize alpine bouldering – Blocheart.
Sample Page
In this latest manuscript the guys have set out to pull together information on the various areas located in the Italian Alps and nearby planes and foothills, documenting areas as far south as Torino and Genoa. In total the guide covers 33 areas and over 4000 boulder problems (from Fb3 to Fb8b+) nestled between the 352 sumptuous glossy pages, decent photos and excellent maps.
Fat Boy Slim Fb7b (Val Di Mello)
Over the last couple of years the guide book producers of continental Europe seemed to have at last “woken up and smelled the coffee”, finally realizing that their old substandard scrolls, wads and dockets of poorly drawn topos and unusable maps are no longer acceptable and it’s time to join the publishing ethic of the 21st century. Of late we have seen a number cracking continentally produced guides hitting the shelves, not least the superb new guides to both Croatia and Slovenia, not to mention the super popular Kalymnos guide. IBloc doesn’t fail to match the standards of the aforementioned guides; its instant shelf appeal is adequately matched by its usability, accuracy and ability to invoke “The Psyche”.
Val Di Mello
The guide is multilingual with access and approach info written in German, Italian and English, although all the problem descriptions are described in English, of a sort. I never did work out what the description “Start on the oblique groin” meant, but hey, it brought a childish smirk to my face every time I read it. We visited but a handful of the areas, but all the venues look good, with various climbing styles and rock types being catered for; that said granite is by far the most prominent rock found within the guide’s coverage zone.
If you’re still fully enamored with the classic Swiss areas described above (Cresciano, Magic Wood etc.) but fancy checking out the likes of Val Di Mello, Selvapiana and Val Masino it’s a fairly straightforward undertaking to spend a few days in Ticino before dispatching the scenic two and half hour drive across the border and thus split your trip in two. Of course if you do fancy that idea you’ll need the Blocheart guide as well.
Areas Included/Coverage Zone
Summary
This guide is clear, concise and very usable. It will get you to and around some awesome "new" venues, whilst having you flick through it's pages in the bar after a hard sesh with a sweaty palmed anticipation for the next days bloc sport. My conclusion, if you like bouldering in the Alps, on granite or in new areas (or all of the above) buy it!
Mello Bloc Video Clip:
Purchase the IBloc guide here.
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