Bouldering at Val di Mello and Valmasino

Val di Mello and Valmasino are located in a high alpine valley, where thousands of boulders litter the valley floor. These boulders are situated in lush alpine meadows and shaded woodlands and provide a good range of problems across all grades on beautiful granite rock. Val di Mello has quickly become a top European bouldering venue complete with its own annual festival, Mello Blocco, which is help every spring. 

Generally the landings are very good, and the heights of the boulders are suitable for everyone, from perfectly amenable to definitely highball. It is possible to boulder in these extensive areas throughout the year, though for Valmasino the best time is from October through to April, and for Val di Mello the best time is March through to November. Being in a mountainous area, rain can occur at any time, though the boulders do dry quickly afterwards. The Mello Boulder guidebook is the most comprehensive guidebook describing the bouldering at Val di Mello and Valmasino.

Situated in Valchiavenna close to the border with Switzerland is the excellent bouldering area of Cimaganda.  This bouldering area is situated both along its river bed and amongst peaceful pastures of an alpine meadow.  The boulders along the riverbed are smooth and frictionless, whilst those in the meadows are course and have excellent friction.  Again there is a good range of problems from easy to Fb 8a on gneiss rock that is all very accessible from the road.  At an altitude of 900m, the best time of year to boulder at Cimaganda is from March through to October.

There is a great variety of bouldering options in the Valtellina area other than Mello and Cimaganda.  There are many rock types to explore range from granite and gneiss to serpentine and limestone, plus there are problems of all styles across a wide range of grades.  Some of the other larger bouldering areas within Valtellina are Prestone, San Cassiano, San Giacomo Filippo, Bregaglia, Gerola Alta and Zoia.  Due to their location and altitude it is possible to boulder throughout the year in Valtellina by choosing your crag carefully.

Both Cimaganda and Prestone are covered in the Valtellina Bloc Guidebook that details 21 different bouldering areas and is available to buy from our shop.

There are currently 3 guidebooks available for these excellent bouldering areas. 

The Mello Boulder guidebook only covers Valmasino and is the most comprehensive guidebook describing Val di Mello, Valle dei Bagni, and Piana del Remenno. 

The Valtellina Bloc Guidebook covers 21 different crags including Cimaganda, Prestone, Val Bodengo, San Cassiano, Selvapiana, and Spriana

The Alpen en Bloc 1 Guidebook also covers Val di Mello along with other areas in the central Alps.

All of these guidebooks can be bought from our shop.

Val di Mello is often described as “Little Yosemite” due to its towering granite walls. These walls provide many single pitch sport routes and multi-pitch trad routes that are equally famous and popular as the bouldering. Find out more about rock climbing in Val di Mello… 

The guidebook covering the single pitch and multi-pitch sport routes is simply called Val di Mello rock climbing guidebook. The multi-pitch trad routes at Val de Mello are covered in the Solo Granite Volume 1 guidebook, whilst the Schweiz Plaiser Sud Volumn 1 guidebook is a selective guidebook covering southern Switzerland and northern Italy including Val di Mello.