Rokaloka, the fantastic highball boulder problem in Valle di Daone. By Valdo Chilese

Last September Italian boulderer Valdo Chilese made the first ascent of Orkaloka, the full version of Rokaloka. This climbs the most impressive side of the boulder and leads to the top via an “expo finish”. It is graded 8A+ but, more importantly, it’s a five star problem.


ORKALOKA by Valdo Chilese

Generally speaking it’s not easy to find a boulder that is still unclimbed, impressive and at the same time easy to get to. Yet high up in Valle di Daone, the Orkaloka boulder lay undisturbed for years before anyone even noticed it. I myself, for example, considered it nothing more than a roof to use as a shelter from the rain, until one day, forced below it by the bad weather, I looked at it from a different perspective and suddenly noticed it.

A short while later Rokaloka came into being, a problem consisting of 7 explosive moves that starts below the roof and finishes on a good hold, on the last "Thank God hold" before a really exposed exit. It was clear though that the problem couldn’t finish at that point, since holds that led upwards were all there. Give it a go? No, not today, it’s humid, hot, cold, snowing, raining, too sunny, no, today no!

One season passed, then the next, years passed until this autumn I happened to be there, and noticed its presence once again. After having cleaned it, and having tried the sequence on toprope, everything was set for the send. But by now it was dark, warm, cold, raining, snowing, too sunny… no, today no!

The next day I was finally in the right frame of mind and after battling through the first section I switched off my brain, turned up my courage and found myself riding up the ridge of this fantastic boulder.