Gran Sasso, the sequel

Text and pictures © 2011-2024 Guillaume Dargaud
Last updated on 2021/11/05

"Head for the Mountains."    — Anheuser-Busch beer commercial.

The pillars of Intermesoli

Left: The three shoulders of Corno Piccolo as seen from Intermesoli.

Right: Antonella and Jenny on a route on 'Le Strutture', on the right of Intermesoli.

Left: Corno Piccolo and Corno Grande seen from Intermesoli.

Left: Mt Intermesoli seen from Gran Sasso.

The shoulders

Right: Tonino on Naso Piatto, a hard to follow route. I kept missing the bolts.

Left: Tonino monkeying around on a slab. Yeah, right, do that on lead now !

Right: A view of Prima Spalla from the top of Seconda Spalla. The climbers are on the hard 'Kaisentlaia' and 'Il Filo di Arianna'.

Left: Tonino on Libera la Folia, yet another poorly protected route.

Right: Getting to the summit of Prima Spalla, with the Conca del Sambuco and the Campotosto lake in the background.

Left: When we climbed Naso Piatto, just in the right of the classic Aquilotti '72, we saw brand new bolts on the left of it, so a few days later we came and repeated the route, a nice and well protected 6a-4-6b-5c-5c-6a route.

Right: The classic view of the north face of Corno Piccolo from Prati di Tivo.

Left: Jenny on the new route. That route happened to be the latest creation of Big Fabio, the most active route setter of the last decade. It's called Spendido Splendente and you can find more info here.

Right: Jenny on the 5th pitch of the new route.

Left: Major runout on Zarathustra, Prima Spalla.

Right: Ending of Zarathustra.

Left: Hiking down below the Prima Spalla.

Right: Hardy flower growing in limestone.

Left: Prima and Seconda Spalla.

Right: The lift runs from 8:30 to 17:30, giving you barely the time to tie two routes up the spalle. You may make it or you may not, but either way you'll enjoy the view on the way down.