The Melloblocco 2011 bouldering areas

Simone Pedeferri is satisfied with this year's immense work. "The problems are beautiful, long, a minimum of 12 moves and up to 30 moves long" he stated, adding that the problems were chosen on the basis of their beauty, the approach and the setting.

Every year Melloblocco offers a mix of new climbing areas, a rennewal of existing areas and numerous new problems created specifically for the event. Pedeferri searched the hidden corners of the valley, driven by the desire to get climbers to know the valley, even its remotest spots, right up to beneath the Precipizio and Pesgunfi rock faces. Instead of using paint to mark the approach trails, Pedeferri opted for the classic cairns... more than 150!

There are two new areas for 2011: Pesgunfi and Val Arcanzolo. Pesgunfi is located immediately beneath the Pesgunfi wall, in a splendid forest of ancient pine trees which hosts high boulders which rest gently on the soft forest undergrowth. This area was chosen not only because of its majestic beauty, but also because of the rock type: not the classic valley ghiandone granite, but a grey serizzo granite which has a finer grain and is more skin-friendly. Examples of other serizzo boulders in Val Masino are located at Visido. The new area is located at the start of the path which leads into Val Arcanzolo, a tributary of Val di Mello and also part of the Val di Mello Nature Reserve.

The other new areas for 2011, after careful work renewing existing areas and inventing new problems, are Bagni di Masino, Val di Mello and the San Martino sports ground area.

In total there are 130 completely new problems, invented specifically for Melloblocco 2011. 16 of these are for the competition, 8 male and 8 female problems and as always at the Melloblocco, the prize money is split equally between the two sexes. These difficult problems are spread out in 3 areas for the men (Val di Mello, San Martino and Pesgunfi) and 3 for the women (Bagni di Masino, Val di Mello and San Martino).

The date for everyone's diaries is in Val Masino from Thursday 5 to Sunday 8 May to climb, celebrate the International year of the Forests and, above all, do it all together.

> Melloblocco 2011 - the bouldering game in Val Masino
> Melloblocco #1, Copper skies above Monolith by Popi Miotti
> Melloblocco 2011 - everyone's bouldering in Val Masino

When: 5 - 8 May 2011
Where: Val di Mello / Val Masino (Valtellina, Sondrio) Italy
What: the world's biggest international bouldering meeting
Who: for boulderers from across the globe
What for: climb on the numerous boulders dotted across the valley floor
Organisation: Associazione Operatori Val Masino

The Melloblocco is open to all and climbers can pre-register on the official website www.melloblocco.it