Pietro dal Prà, two new routes on Lastia de Gardes

High up in wild Valle di San Lucano in the Italian Dolomites Pietro dal Prà established two important multi-pitches up the stunning grey rock face in the Pale di San Lucano group. After having established Grigioverde (380m, 7c) in 2009, dal Prà returned in September 2010 to forge In Mezzo Poco (400m, 8a+), while this spring he established Gracias a la Vida (270m, 8a+) which with "brilliant climbing" overcomes the grey and yellow-streaked, spectacularly overhanging face to the left. Both routes were established ground-up over a series of days and both freed this year, the former in spring, the latter in September.

In Mezzo Poco translates roughly as "Not much inbetween" and this gives a clue about the route's pro: a mere 8 bolts and the rest is protected using a trad rack. Dal Prà describes the line as being "very demanding, requiring experience on alpine outings, with a complex and difficult obligatory section on the 9th pitch."

Gracias a la Vida for its part offers "brilliant climbing up continues, homogenous difficulties. The run-outs are never really long, but belayers need lots of experience at dynamic belaying. The only difficult and dangerous run-out is at the end of pitch 6." Importantly, Dal Prà believes this is "one of the most beautiful lines I've ever seen and climbed." Now that's saying something.

The full report is currently in our Italian version.

	Via In Mezzo Poco pdf
	Gracias a la Vida pdf