Lagoni trad climbing by Michele Caminati

Last Thursday at his beloved bouldering area Lagoni in National Park Appennino Tosco Emiliano, Michele Caminati freed the first trad route of the area, "Il Dado è tratto!". The route is a natural line which "breaches on of the rare roofs", is protected with only two poor camming devices and a single nut and is graded E7 6c, or 7B/B+ boulder.

"I'd spied the line a few years ago, but I'd only abseiled down in briefly to check it out and give it a clean, but then I never returned" explained the climber from Parma. "last Thursday the weather was great and a friend came along to give me a hand and do some filming, and I had plenty of time to check it out and test the gear. In the end this kept popping out until I found the decisive nut, the only piece of gear which seemed to hold in that small flake on the lip of the roof."

As regards to the grade, Caminati explained "It's hard to compare this one with the English routes I've climbed, it's very overhanging, powerful and with close but poor protection, on the whole though I'd give it a good E7 6c, or 7b/7b+ boulder."

Il Dado è tratto! translates into as "The die is cast (although dado means nut) and the route is certainly the result of the trad climbing experience Caminati matured during two winters on England's gritstone outcrops and demonstrates, once again, how much the "trad" movement is blossoming in Italy, too. Apart from the historic valleys which have always been the breeding ground for trad climbs (such as Valle dell'Orco and Val Masino to mention but two), Capo Pecora developed by Maurizio Oviglia in Sardinia immediately springs to mind, as does Cadarese with its Yosemite-like cracks and the more easy Trad Area in Piemonte. And of course, when remembering gritstone travels and its Italian fruits, there's the route "Is not always Pasqua" in the Sibillini National Park. Established by Mauro Calibani a decade ago and repeated a year later by Cristian Brenna, this is still one of the hardest trad climbs on Italian soil.