Melloblocco and last edition of 'Into Climbing'

Val di Mello town!

Back home from a long and ‘unexpected journey’ I feel fresh to focus on my studies again. Due to the amount of thoughts about what I want in the future with climbing and studying, I found new energy for to following exam period.

The last 6 days I’ve spent some time in Val di Mello with bad weather but did didn’t take away the fun of my journey. Without a tent or nothing else to sleep in I arrived in Val di Masino, where the Melloblocco event is centred. In dashing rain I searched the valley roads for a big white van of a British friend, Josh. The van is recognizable thanks to the flashy red-yellow lines on the back with a writing that says ‘Highway maintenance’. 

Frustrated, such big walls and not able to climb them! 

Not completely sure if he would be in the valley I was relieved to see his van on a parking lot. I found him and some other people bouldering underneath a tarp in the rain. I quickly joined them and we bouldered the whole afternoon on a little piece of rock inventing some moves and eliminating holds to make the climbing more interesting. I found myself being mentally a little lost on boulders. It’s been so long ago that I had bouldered and I had to come back into the mindset of trying one or two moves over and over again and cranking on hard to do a move. This made me realise I should boulder a little more because it’s a lot of fun to be out with a group of people braking our head (and skin) on single hard moves on a piece of granite.

Basically I climbed only a couple of boulders on those six days due to the bad weather. I have to say that even me, as a Belgian, was really impressed about the amount of water the sky pored down on the heads of many climbers during this Melloblocco festival. Because of all this wetness outside we climbed a lot indoor on a 30-degree training bord, crucial to keep in good shape! I also used the rainy weather to study everyday, trying to keep track of the classes I missed last weeks. 

I'm so excited! 

My study room during those six days! 

I walked around in this big valley and the granite walls look so amazing! It’s like they say the little Yosemite in Europe, I’m excited to return and try some of the big faces in Val di Masino and Val di Mello! Basically I came here to do some traditional climbing but with the big amount of rain it will take a while to dry out. Tradclimbing in this valley will remain a dream! And yes, I will come back!!! 

100sations Blocs and Into Climbing

Right now I’m back home for a little bit and tomorrow (4^th of May) is the last time I will give the lecture ‘Into Climbing’! This time it will be in the climbing gym ‘Entre Ciel et Terre’ in Louvain La Neuve. The lecture will be following the boulder competition ‘100sations Blocs’. This will be a friendly competition where 120 climbers get the chance to climb 100 boulders in three and a half hours! The coolest thing about this is that you get to try a lot of boulders who are spread out over the whole (big) climbing gym, the gym offers a lot of space! 

So I would like to invite you all to come climbing tomorrow, boulder as hard as you can, have a lot of fun in so many boulders, and afterwards enjoy this last edition of Into Climbing where I will share experiences of my trips with the highlight of the Venezuela expedition. For more information take a look at the blogpost ‘Into Climbing’.

The lecture will be in my best French ever! For people who don’t speak French and wanted to see this last edition, I can secure you it’s still worth to come and look! The images are amazing and my French is a basic French, you will understand! 

Trailer - Big Ass Jungle Climbing from Siebe Vanhee on Vimeo.

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