- Peak District 2013

Since I came back from the Peak District on April the 11th I've been pretty busy, but now it's definitely time to sum up my experience as many interesting things happened during last two months. I left from Parma with my dear Skoda Roomster packed with gear on February 11th... destination Brussels, where I attended a two day advanced video workshop with Philip Bloom, organised by my friend Haroun Souirji.

It has been quite useful and fun, as we had the opportunity to shoot and edit a little 30 seconds short, and it really helped me realize what I need to learn and what I'm already capable of. You can find a collection of shorts that were shot on the occasion here, there's some pretty good stuff for a couple of hours filming inside a hotel and a short editing session at night!

After Brussels I went straight to Sheffield. I could not wait to see the Peak District again, and when I finally entered in town driving down Chesterfield road, I felt like coming back home. A really nice feeling, which I used to have only when arriving in Fontainebleau... it's nice to have a second "home away from home" now.

The day after my arrival the Peak was still lightly covered by snow, but a few days of good weather soon came along and I had the opportunity to get back into gritstone doing some classics like "Low Rider" 7c+, "Great White" 7c+ (which I added of a nice and scary top out), "Silk" E6 6c and "White Wand" E5 6a.

Unfortunately good weather didn't last long, and it soon turned back into clouds and rain. Not even good to take pictures I just sticked to training trying to prepare at best for my main goal: Voyager sitstart, which I wanted to send before warm weather kicked in, and leave some time for more trad climbing.

As days passed I had some mixed weather, it was generally cold but quite humid and still. I tried several times Voyager but I constantly kept falling on the release from a heel hook, quite close to the end, but there  was no sign of improvement with such conditions. I was confident anyway, almost certain to get some dry windy days at some point... and in fact I did, but not under Voyager, as I will explain later on.

At the same time I had some fun trying the technical slab of "Walk on By" 7c+, which required a few visits, and taking part as usual at the CWIF competition, proudly member of the Beastmaker team together with Ned, Will and Mina. I did surprisingly good in the qualifiers, coming second overall, probably too good, as the next day I did a complete disaster in the semis (as usual) and had to get out on grit straight away to get off some steam (usual again). In the evening I came back to watch the finals and then everybody went out for a curry... happy ending. (did I say usual? :-) )

One day I also got some luck: quite tired after a long session on Voyager the former day I went out with  

friends to try Superbloc 8a+, an amazing boulder problem that looks like one in Fontainebleau, but definitely climbs like a gritstone classic, needing cold weather and good skin to drag a few poor tiny pockets using the worst feet imaginable.

The day was perfect: cold, windy and with occasional clouds masking the sun. I could not ask for better, and after some fight with it I found myself at the top of the problem. I was quite surprised as I've been trying that since my first visit three years ago and was not even feeling close. Gritstone is like that, one day you can't move and the next one you stick to everything. After Superbloc only one boulder problem remained on the list... Voyager sit! But weather showed up with an unexpected gift... SNOW!

Right at the time my father and a couple of friends from Parma came to visit, we got stuck for a couple of days under a heavy snow storm accompanied by strong winds... nothing much I could show them apart from some circuits at the Climbing Works and a tour of the nicest pubs in town where we could taste a complex variety of real ales...

After the storm passed it was impressive to see how much snow there was up there... the wind moved and packed huge drifts of snow under the crags and on the roads, making it impossible to drive or reach what was left of the crags... it was time to buy some gaiters and prepare for some long hikes in the snow. The goal was to go there clean the rocks and build some nice and flat snow landings, waiting for some highball action once the crags would have dried out.

Weather gave us a couple of weeks of dry sunshine, staying quite cold and windy, and making the snow quite compact. Unfortunately winds kept blowing from east all of the time, making it really sheltered and even warm at Burbage north under Voyager, while on the other side, at Burbage west conditions were just perfect... very frustrating.

Anyway, finally good weather had come back, and even if condition were not good enough for Voyager, there were plenty of things I could climb, and the nice snow platforms under the routes were certainly an occasion not to be missed. Going out almost every day, fighting at times with cold wind and at times with boiling sunshine I satisfied my need of rock, and I made the most out of this awaited period of nice weather.

Among the things I wanted to try most were a couple of aretes at Burbage south: Messiah E7 6c and Simba's Pride E8 6b. The first one is a proper route with a hard 7b/7c boulder move at mid height, while the second one is a scary and tall boulder problem with a deadly jump right at the top... Messiah was really fun: as I was getting too cold placing gear in the first break before the crux, I preferred to carry on to the good one just above it when I did the route, but I still got really cold placing gear and finishing it up... nightmare!

Simba's Pride was even scarier: I wanted to try it "ground up" without a top rope inspection, but when I got to the final jump and had to engage I was simply too scared and I could do nothing else than trying to jump down as controlled as I could. Even with some snow on the ground the fall was really nasty and after the second one my sore knees forced me to stop. Back on my decision, I tried the jump with a rope, but that felt not as easy as I thought it would feel... (yes, I definitely suck at jumping!). I have to thank my friend Jake who took courage and finally climbed the line: his effort gave me back motivation and I also went for it instead of giving up. What a day!

If I could not finish Voyager and it was too cold for trad climbing there was one thing I absolutely wanted to do: Samson. I've been dreaming of this route since I've seen Jerry Moffatt top roping it in the video Hard Grit. The line is tall but it's definitely possible to try above pads, and a few people already did, like my friend Ned last year, making me very envious.

The problem starts with an easy crack, reaches an obvious hole in the middle of the blank wall and crosses to a pocket you use to finish up a line of rounded edges. The climbing is quite powerful on fairly big holds but all you have for your feet is just a bunch of poor pebbles that are quite hard to use. You can climb, take your time to chalk up in the hole, and then carry on for the upper crux. Definitely one of the best things I climbed in my life: a tall hard 8a boulder problem, one that you will never forget of. Thanks James for spotting and supporting me!

During last few days temperature started to warm up and you could definitely feel spring was coming. I briefly tried Voyager again without much hope of success (never give up), but at least I could move to try a few routes on a nearby wall, the one where "The Promise" is, before the snow platform would completely melt.

So one day together with Ned (like on The Promise last year) we did the third and fourth ascent of Miles Gibson's route "Superstition" E8 7a?. Probably a fingery and pebbley 7c boulder problem above pads (and snow), just slightly harder than the Promise, with a final scary jump for the ledge. Now just one route was left for me on the boulder, and thanks to the snow I managed to climb on my own with three pads "Living in Oxford" E7 6c on my last day... after that a final session at the Works (just in case), and a good pie at the Broadfield with James... next day I would find myself on the ferry back to Italy.

- An Italian back on Grit

Two weeks have passed since I've come back home, and I think I've seen the double the rain I saw during my five weeks staying in Sheffield... every time I look out of the window I just see dark clouds and big drops, and I soon miss the endless afternoons I spent out in the Peak with a lovely sunshine and a nice breeze.

I have to say I've been quite lucky with weather. It has not been the best to pull hard on sharp boulder problems, (which is what I usually do the rest of the year) but at least it has been nearly always dry, and I could go out and try as many routes I wished, without the nightmare of getting too cold and end up with frozen tips... I'm Italian after all... even if it was too warm to try the hardest routes out there I still had to finish my homeworks and repeat many of the classics lines of the 80's and 90's, and there was nothing better than some sunshine to cheer you up for that. Eventually I could always go down at the Climbing Works to finish myself off if I wanted to!

So back to Sheffield, back to porridge oats, carvery and big tea mugs, back to see old friends, make new ones and climb on this fantastic rock that can give you everything for a moment and just leave you with nothing most of the times. At beginning there were four of us: me, Filippo, Gianluca and Lorenzo (you may better know him as "Nibile"...) but we soon lost a member who went to fight his way out the darkness of The Cave leaving us alone to deal with chilly wind over the exposed gritstone edges.

In fact at the beginning it has been chilly at times, and I already told you of my first experiences of the trip on Careless Torque and The End of Affair (see my previous post). Soon after I started to look at the sharp one, the famous Voyager, a big overhanging prow put up in late 2005 by mr. Ben Moon, which has now become together with The Ace, the symbol of hard gritstone bouldering in the Peak District. I briefly tried the problem a couple of times last year while spotting my friend Dan, but I still had to find a sequence good enough for me.

The problem is the closer you look at the rock the bigger you see the pebbles you have to pinch and squeeze on the prow in order to stay on... the line is great, but it is really painful, and every time you just have a few goes before tearing big holes open in your fingers leaving blood all over the place. Lucky enough, I could soon figure out a good beta, involving a high heel hook an a massive pebble, and having some skin left I was able to send the stand start the next day on a perfect windy afternoon... (everything is easy on a perfect windy afternoon, isn't it?) But it was not over, the goal was to complete the sitstart: it is logical, hard and still unrepeated since that day in 2006 when Ben was captured in this video that already made history.

So I went back to try again one or two days afterwards, and I had a few good goes, almost managing to hold the key sloper near the top, but that was it: my fingers were bleeding and I still had three weeks left to climb in the Peak. I was not in a hurry and I just left, quite confident to be able to climb the whole thing before the end of my trip... but I did not take weather into account. In fact we had a few more good days but the CWIF competition was approaching and I was trying to heal my skin and train a bit for that: I did not want to let the Beastmaker team down because of me, making Ned Feehally and Chris Webb-Parsons angry, as they could have kicked me out of home ;-)

As a result I trained more indoor (say, more than before) but I still went out in the afternoon trying to do my best on some highballs and routes. The first one has been The Promise. Almost next to Voyager is this short balancy route James Pearson put up in 2007. It was originally given E10 7a, as gear is just a poor ballnut #1 placed in a tiny crack at the height of your feet as you are going for the crux. After several repetitions and some safe falls on that piece of gear the grade went down to E7, but when you are up there you're just relying on that, and nothing else can stop you from falling on some nasty rocks seven or eight meters below. So the route can be quite safe if gear holds or quite dangerous if it fails, (and it recently happened) so you'd probably be happier to have all the pads we had that day to save your ass...

After some hesitation to reach the big sloper at the top on my flash try I managed to do it second go, quickly followed by Ned. The fall was not too bad as we managed to build a decent landing, but the climbing is about font 7b+, which is always tricky if you have not tried the moves before, and you really have to commit. It has been for sure a great experience for both of us, and you can see it fully featured, together with some other great lines in the film "Life On Hold" that Nick and Rich from Outcrop Films have been nursing for a couple of years, following the action of Ned, Dan, Mickey, Dave and other great climbers around England.

The day before the CWIF was supposed to be a rest one. My parents and a friend from Parma were visiting for just a few days, and decided to go bouldering at Robin Hood's Stride. Even my friend Rich was off from work and I still had to see that place so... "Why don't we go and try Kaluza Klein? It's a slab, it won't be tiring, and it will be fun!" So we went there: Rich abseiled down, gave a quick brush to the holds and tried the moves a little bit. He soon managed to do everything but he was so stretched on the last big reach that his feet often slipped due to the bad angle they made on rock. I thought: "I'm taller, I will be fine".

I placed a small mat over the big rock at the bottom and I started for the lead. It took me a while to find the balance and smear my feet up the bad footholds, and eventually I was there, ready to commit for the big throw, with no chance to come down but to jump off. So I tried, but I didn't hit the vertical crack high enough, and was now totally out of balance with nothing good to hold on. Funny position: completely incapable to move I desperately try to swap feet and I soon found myself into the air. As the rope caught my weight I was already with my ankles against the pad on the rock: "not too bad... next try!"

The CWIF qualifiers were as funny as tricky as usual and we managed to do well winning the team prize, but the day after I soon started to feel pretty tired from all the climbing I've done and  my skin did not feel any better too. Never mind, you can't always have everything, it was definitely time for some sleep before watching the finals and going for a curry with everybody else. After that weather soon became quite warm and still, but it didn't rain and everything was starting to dry. I went back to try Voyager a couple of times, but in such horrible conditions I really struggled to move even if I was in a good shape. As depressing as it sounds... time has come to put on a harness again !

One of the lines I always wanted to try was Braille Trail, the blank slab featured in Hard Grit where you have to dance with your feet on some tiny pebbles having to rely on three hand placed pegs as a protection. We borrowed from Kathy a special piece of metal she used on the second slot during her ascent of that route (see picture here). The nice door handle she used in the first one was missing, so we went to buy a simple peg before leaving for Burbage south. Rich went down to clean the holds and check gear, and we found that we could actually use a safe ballnut #2 into the first slot, and a small cam into the third one which apparently got way bigger than it used to be... Everything felt quite safe, at least till you get established onto the arete (I slipped while getting there on my first try and did not fall that far), there one more tricky move gets you to easier climbing above, where you can just relax and calmly top it out... I loved it so much I did it twice to take a few pictures.

Next stop has been a quick three days trip up to Cumbria to visit my friend Dan and check out some nice sandstone. On the first day we went to "Queens", a small and peaceful crag lost in the middle of a bleak moor along the Hadrian's Wall. I soon felt at home as the rock is very similar to the one I have in Lagoni  and I had the pleasure to climb Queen Kong a five stars 8a prow Dan opened some years ago (see more pictures on Mark Savage Blog). Next day was a rest one for me, and after all the cold we got the day before it felt quite odd to be by the ocean in St. Bees, where I could enjoy some lovely weather just taking pictures and watching my friends climb these crazy boulders sculptured by water and wind... definitely a must go if you like bouldering by the sea !

The third day we traveled back to Sheffield in order to be present at premiere of Life on Hold, but we decided to stop on the way at Ilkley crag in Yorkshire where I had the dream to check out The New Statesman, an outstanding route John Dunne put up back in 1987. Regarded E8 7a, the route climbs up the right arete of this huge bouder dominating the hill above the town of Ilkley. It looked to me even better than I imagined, probably the most beautiful bit of gritstone I've ever seen, and in ten minutes I was already abseiling while Dan and Kathy were enjoying the boulders spread on the grass at the base. The route is huge and it took me a while to clean it, to roughly figure out the moves on self belay and to decide which gear would fit best into the small sandy crack you find at two thirds height and in the even smaller one near the top.

As I did not have all my gear I just found a poor single cam placement in the first one and wasn't able to fit any additional wire in. The climbing above was just a single 6b move to get to further gear, and having done it twice in a row I was quite confident not to fall there. After all the process was done it got late and wetaher was starting to be cold and humid. I was feeling tired but I knew I could still master the moves if I went past the hard first crux. That could have been the only chance to get the route done, being it far from Sheffield, so I just didn't think twice and I started for the lead. Unfortunately after placing the small cam I got quite cold, and was starting to feel slightly shaky... at that point there was nothing else to do but carry on. As I made a high heel hook trying to reach further up the arete it suddenly slipped without warning, and I fould myself into the air at 10 or 12 meters height. I could hear gear fail, I hit a small mat on a side and I rolled over my back out on the soft grass... not too far from a big rock! I stayed a couple of minutes on the ground before standing up, then we packed everything, and I drove back to Sheffiled with a very stiff neck... I've been very lucky this time.

It took me one day to recover from the fall, and despite some pain in my chest I was soon ready to get up early and fight the heat at Froggatt together with James Blay. We had quite a good time there as he finally sent Renegade Master and I made the first padded ascent of Screaming Dream, an old E7 7a by Mark Leach, which is now a brilliant 8a boulder problem... way ahead of his time back in 1987! Above is a nice video of that morning edited by James.

Time was passing quickly, and spring was definitely on the way. I had just a few days left to to stay in Sheffield and still wanted to go back on The New Statesman, as well as see for the first time Millstone crag and the famous Master's Edge. Luckily my friend Paul Bennett had just finished preparing his thesis and had time to come out and climb with me. The result were two memorable afternoons, with a nice breeze and plenty of sunshine, during which I could feel a small step further in my mind, not just by climbing The New Statesman but also by soloing Edge Lane (E5 5c), and flashing Master's Edge (E7 6c).  Nothing could be better to finish my trip to the Peak this year, and I was happy to celebrate with a good pint with friends before having to drive back to the continent, where I would spend one more week in Fontainebleau with Italian mates, but that's another story, and most of all a very different rock...

I'll leave you with the nice video that Paul edited of the New Statesman, and with the one I made myself with the routes I climbed ground up. It's just average footage from a fixed camera, but at least it captures real action and gives you the feeling of the moment, especially during my fight on Master's Edge, where I could mix some closer shots courtesy of Phil Kelly. Many thanks to everybody who shared his time with me or helped me out. It has been lovely to come back and I think you'll probably have to stand me again next winter... be ready ! ;-)

- Careless Torque and The End of Affair

A week and a half have past since I arrived in Sheffield and weather has been not too bad, at least for an italian point of view, with quite warm temperatures but chilly wind at times, that made rock feel quite grippy.

This time I learnt the lesson and didn't try to go out on rock every day... better have some good skin if you want to try anything hard on gritstone... so I had plenty of time to wander around and take some pictures with my old rangefinder camera... here you can the results I just got back from the lab!

Obviously I did not just wander, and had my goals clearly focused in my mind. First of all was Careless Torque... the legendary 8a boulder problem at Stanage Plantation, set up by Ron Fawcett when I was just two... (1987!). Last year I tried many times, but could just not do the mantle crux at the start... this time, understood how to grab the aréte with my left hand, I've been able to do it five times in a row. Four times still dropping with my fingers touching the very last hold, and then finally finding myself at the top of this huge boulder on my 27th birthday! Best present ever.

Wheather has not always been good and windy, and many days it has just been mild and humid. What better of training on the wooden Beastmaker board at the Climbing Works and then go out to try some of the best classic Grit lines? I had quite some fun at Curbar and Froggatt doing, among other things Ulysses or Bust (E5 6b), The Great Slab (E3 5b), Brown's Eliminate (E2 5b) and on the famous "The End  of Affair" E8 6c.

For the last route I had to come twice, and I'm glad I didn't try it straight on a flash go! First time I went there wind was blowing so hard that made me lose balance on the delicate moves up the arete, and I consequently felt reluctant to lead it... the second time no wind was blowing and everything was quite damp, but my mood was definitely better and I gathered the courage to lead myself up.

I'll leave you with this sunset picture taken with my 1958 camera at the base of the End of Affair... here is also the video, I tried to make it look as old as possible. Hope to have good news for an update soon!

- An Italian on the Grit

It's more than a month since I came back from Sheffield and I've been quite busy doing many things around here in Italy... now I feel is time to sum up the experience, remembering the most beautiful episodes and trying to explain what it meant and what changed in my mind.

At the beginning of february I left from Paris, where I've been visiting my friend Nicola. Weather was not so nice and I soon realized I was quite bored to try hard on the same boulders. I've been doing this for ages: keep on trying almost on my own some boulder problems I liked, in a place I knew well and felt like a second home. So I was happy to be with friends, but I ended up to be stuck on the same climbing. I needed to experience something different, something that could give me new psyche and help me become a better climber.

Time was for Lorenzo to team up and leave together for a new adventure. Nothing was really planned but we were heading to Sheffield : I really wanted to climb on gritstone and Lorenzo was quite psyched about anything from Brad Pit to the old school problems of Parisella's Cave or Raven Tor. We were ready to enjoy english weather as well as english beer, and in case it rained too much we would have gone campusing like beasts at the climbing wall. I knew there wouldn't be any 8c to try, but I was sure I could find loads of amazing lines that would kick my ass and make me try at 100%. 

During the first days we were kindly hosted by Rich and his wife. Weather was constantly changing and we managed to have some lovely days at Stanage  as well as many sessions at the Climbing Works, which was just down the road... At the beginning my skin was quite soft to try anything hard on gritstone, so I soon focused on some easier routes: I found myself quite scared in the middle of Archangel (E3 5b) on my very first day, and kept on for glory to the top of Satin and Pressure Drop even if my legs were shaking... everybody was climbing so naturally at these heights I just told myself I had to learn. The best way was to switch my brain off and think about climbing: trying to feel my body under control, in order to be safe and easy on every move. But sometimes I just couldn't feel safe at all, like on my first tries on Ulysse's where I had to jump off several times before my sore ankles warned me to stop ... I wasn't ready yet !

After getting scared is always nice to come back to bouldering, and there was quite a lot I had to do. I started to repeat some nice classics like Help the Young sitstart (7c+), West Side Story (7b+) and Western Eyes (7c+), and even a couple of nice highballs at Froggatt edge like Sole Power (7b+) and My Orange (7c+) which helped me to raise a little bit my "fear height". Bouldering on gritstone can be quite frustrating as rock is usually really sharp and needs cold and dry conditions in order to stick all little quarz grains under your skin. Sometimes weather is ace and you can just levitate crimping everything, even the worst Font sloper, but most of the time is just avarage and you end up killing your skin on a cheese grater without getting anywhere... I really had to learn when to rest and how to preserve skin, but that was probably the most difficult thing to do!

Meanwhile Lorenzo went for a trip to Wales and I moved to the house of the "guys". These were Dave, Dan, Ben, Ned and Rich, with Nick always showing up as a special guest. I won't mention surnames but I don't think to exagerate saying that is probably the strongest "climbing house" in Britain, and I was really proud to be part of it sleeping on the floor of what was the music room. The lovely dirty house had everything a climber would need: from a training cellar full of Beastmaker boards to a huge selection of climbing videos, but most important of all it was full of nice people who would share with you their time, being it climbing or not.

There were a few hard lines which most of all captured my attention. These were The Ace, Careless Torque, Unfamiliar, 8 Ball, Angel's Share and Gaia. Each one was a kind of dream (apart from 8 Ball which I got stuck into...) , expecially Gaia and Unfamiliar were pure unknown terrain as I seldom ever wore a harness in my life and I had no idea of how to approach them.

Every day I went out (pretty much every day it didn't rain) I headed up to one of these boulders and fought hard to find a good beta... sometimes it happened to have a revelation but most of the time I just made no progress so I finished myself soloing or highballing something easier with friends. Watching them in action was really inspiring, many times I thought : "Are you mad? No way I'm going up there...", but then after some hesitation I found myself struggling my way up... if it doesn't kill you it will make you stronger ;-)



Then there was the CWIF, the international climbing competition held every year at the Climbing Works, it wasn't really a priority to me but I knew it was great fun and I tried to do my best, despite my skin was trashed by a week pulling on wet gritstone. I joined Beastmaker team and led by captain Ned Feehally we managed to get a pretty good overall second place just after the Climbing Works hired "dream team" of Hukkataival, Becan, Landman and Sandoz ! I also made my way to the semi finals but the next morning I climbed pretty badly and found myself quite dipappointed in 10th position. It was just 2pm in the afternoon and outside a nice sun was shining: "I won't get to the finals today, but I will climb Ulysse's Bow". I was angry enough. With a team of unfulfilled climbers like me I sat off to Stanage to complete my task, then we got back just in time to have a pint and watch the finals. 

I was starting slowly to complete my projects: I fired The Ace (8b) on my first try of a cloudy and cool morning after I figured out how to do it with a hill (as there is always saving a heelhook). I managed to get almost frozen to the top of Unfamiliar (E8 6c) after fighting 10 minutes to place cams on a freezing windy day (luckily my friends were spotting and encouraging), and somehow walked on top of Angel's Share (E8 7a or font 7c) after 4 days of sliding and falling off it's slabby green surface. (almost ruined 2 pair of shoes there!)

At that point spring was coming and weather started to become quite warm. I was still shut down by Careless Torque, was close to complete 8 Ball, and  still had the dream to try Gaia. As it was too warm to go bouldering I tried as many routes I could, not just to prepare for Gaia but because I really loved being out to enjoy climbing and rock in a complete new way. In fact I tried to flash The Knock (E4 6a), Nosferatu (E6 6b) and Balance It Is (E7 6c), but the last gave me some thrill when I took a huge fall ripping a small wire out of the rock desperately trying to jump to the top.



Fortunately last week turned out to be quite windy and I didn't miss the chance to climb 8 Ball (8b), being literally blown up by the wind! Then it came time to try the big one: the thing that made me dream about climbing for many years and now I felt finally ready to try. We set off to Black Rocks on a pretty warm sunny day (almost 20°!), a nice breeze was blowing and it was just perfect to keep me cool without being annoying (I hate to be up a scary route with strong freezing wind!). After some practice on a top rope I found an easy way to do the crux move at the bottom (which at first seemed quite hard sweating in the sun), and I soon felt ready to try, as I could easily walk up the upper section. So I did: I left the ground and thought only about the moves till I found myself looking down with a big smile; my feet safely laying on the final sloper. It was a great feeling, not as challenging as trying something ground-up but I finally brought up there the 14 years old boy who first saw "Hard Grit" on a dusty VHS in the climbing gym of Parma.

Time was running out and when you start to feel home you always have to come back to your real one. Careless Torque was still laughing at me and the list of things I wanted to try was growing every day bigger and bigger. I had the chance to climb Renegade Master (E8 6c or 7c+ boulder) with visiting John Partridge, and to see Dan's efforts on what later became Dandelion Mind, but my time was really over. I crossed the channel back on the 8th of April together with Dan, psyched to show him my projects and willing to bring back to Italy that feeling of "life" I found in England, in its climbers and in its climbing.

See you next year Sheffield!