Finale Ligure

After a painful night on the hard beds and cement pillows of The Hotel Maria Nella (Three stars, but deserves of none of them), we all agreed to take our chances and try to find a hotel in Final Borgo rather than spend another day driving too and from Bardineto. We had gotten up early in anticipation of a full day of climbing, but were greeted with hard rain and soggy surroundings. Since staying at the hotel for any longer period of time wasnt an attractive option, we drove to Finalborgo. After going to Rock Store again to ogle shiny things (I bought some new approach shoes), we went out in search of a hotel room, and the first place we went to -- "vecchie mura" -- was full, but had two private rooms availble within the walls of Finalborgo for only 55 euro which we happily accepted. Our room is the second shuttered window from the left (second floor)

I think I forgot to mention that this was easter Sunday, so things were quite busy. We waited out the rain at the Bar Centrale playing hearts, eating Paciugo Gelato and drinking hot chocolates, and occasionally wandered around the town


Then, around 2 pm or so we ventured out to the Rocca di Corno crag. It was muddy and still a bit wet, but we were able to test out Amy and Marks new rope and warmed up on a hard to belay 4c at the very end of the Western sector. One of the reasons I had chosen Rocca di Corno was because of a beautiful climb called "Rombo di Vento" which I had seen in a french climbing magazine and also in the guide book. It is a visually stunning overhanging line between cave systems on positive holds. A group of three Paduan climbers were on it, and let me give it a shot, and I managed to flash it with some beta from them. Chloe took a burn on it on toprope and looked solid, but couldn't quite do the crux.