Introduction
The success of Rock Paradise , proven by the large number of routes opened over the last years, and the ever growing frequentation of the Orco Valley, especially by people from abroad, have convinced the editor and myself to prepare the publication of an altogether new edition, both in Italian and in English. Personally, I consider the writing of the original book, Rock Paradise, an experience of its own, which is, under certain aspects, unrepeatable due to the particular historical background it was set in. Deep inside me, I wished to create something new, rather than merely re-editing the original guidebook with some up-dates. At the same time, I wanted to maintain some of those “historical” texts that had aroused such large interest, making Rock Paradise be appreciated as a somewhat “different” kind of guidebook. Before thinking too much about what my new book and its possible editorial line were supposed to look like, I simply set to work, starting to gather all the useful data and information. In general, I immensely enjoy working on the actual terrain; whoever knows me knows, that I like to do more than just have a look, take a couple of photographs and collect new information. What I like to do most is go out and physically repeat each one of the routes I describe, besides, of course, opening some new ones! As a matter of fact, I have always felt unable to return to this valley without trying to discover something new, some rock I just felt compelled to climb myself… Over the past years, I have developed a true passion for clean climbing, stronger than ever. I’ve travelled to England and Canada, and then it was in the United States that I had the opportunity to learn many things by testing my personal experience on that very ground that had historically given birth to clean climbing. Thanks to my new experiences, the Orco Valley appeared, once more, under a new light: wherever I looked, I managed to see both new lines and untouched possibilities; which is quite surprising, if one considers that this valley is one of the mythic sites of Italian rock climbing. That’s why I could hardly believe that nobody else was there, ready to seize these opportunities: all modern climbers’ efforts,
their eagerness to put up a new line, seemed to crystallize, over and over again, within the very same restricted areas, saturating the historical walls beyond all limits. It looked as though each single climber was just out for his own little piece of glory. Manlio Motto, the last person to go for the unexplored in the Orco Valley, had, some years before, stopped opening new routes; at present, there was no such leading figure to drive on the others and be looked up to… Although the publication of Rock Paradise had largely increased the frequentation of these rocks, and fulfilled one of the book’s original scopes, one cannot deny that the choice of innovative ideas, displayed on the tray of the present day, appeared to be rather limited. The Orco Valley too, meanwhile risks to give way to the latest of fashions: the fashion of pleasure climbs and of anything that is easy and safe. This trend was already raging throughout all the other valleys of the Piemonte Region. The attempt of re-launching clean climbing in the Orco Valley, and thus exploring it in a new way, seemed, to me, a worthy cause for writing a new book. And so I simply set out and started work, searching through each corner of the Valley, in search of rocks and walls suited for climbing in accordance with the philosophy of clean climbing. At the same time – believe it or not – a group of English climbers appeared to see exactly the same things I saw: they had already started to explore the most remote spots of the Valley, climbing up those minor rock faces that nobody had ever thought of tackling: things went so far that they eventually wrote on the website www.planetmountain.com that the entire Orco Valley was yet waiting to be explored! These most recent events definitively confirmed the grounds for my inspiration, making me believe that my idea was not at all wrong: the track I had chosen was definitely right! Through my books, which I consider to be something more than common guidebooks - where you can read the grades and names of several lines - I have always tried to inspire the new generations by suggesting a direction to follow. Especially during the stages of climbing history, when one a certain creative weariness was in the air. The