Muzzerone, 'Poseidon' from the Sea to the Pillar of Discord

Muzzerone, Via Poseidon

Luisa Siliani e Roberto Vigiani

December 2013

Difficulties : II S1 max 6c, Development260mt

Nailing: excellent at stainless steel fixings and chains at belays!!!

Sometimes you think you know a few walls perfectly and that nothing more remains to be discovered: no surprises, all sold out, no possibility of opening new routes.

I have been frequenting the Muzzerone crags for forty years this year, and I honestly thought I knew them well enough to claim that, apart from a few 'viette', the best had already been done.

More than new routes, Muzzerone would need a general re-equipping to make some sectors safe and to recover others now abandoned due to the danger of obsolete bolting. In July 1983 I opened "Chi vuol essere lieto sia" (Who Wants to Be Happy) on the Bunker pillar, inaugurating the exploration of the Parete Striata, and after thirty years I find myself amazed at this umpteenth surprise that Muzzerone has reserved for me.

As I climbed 'Trident' each time I noticed to the left this beautiful spur rising from the sea. I knew the effort, especially cleaning, that it would require, so I always put it off until a better time.

This year I decided to check if my hunch was right and with Luisa we abseiled from above, cleaning the possible line of ascent beforehand. On the way down I immediately realised that the line was there and that surprisingly it was on beautiful rock all the way to the sea. The rest is the story of days spent bolting and cleaning from the earth and shrubs what, in my opinion, is the most spectacular route on Muzzerone and certainly one of the most beautiful in Italy directly down to the sea!

250 metres of beautiful rock, from the sea to the summit terrace of the Pilastro della Discordia on sustained difficulty and generously equipped.

There is little to add, try it for yourself and enjoy it on a winter's tramontana day as the sun disappears into the sea and Corsica and the Maritimes silhouetted on the horizon.

The name, after several horrendous proposals from me and Luisa, was found by Eva, my daughter, who proposed to call her 'POSEIDON' because in Greek mythology Poseidon is the god of the sea and the trident is his symbol ('Trident' part proco- right).

As I said above, the rock is almost always good and we cleared the route of unstable blocks and bushes as far as we felt was sufficient. Despite this, 'something' was definitely missed so, especially on first repeats, pay attention to sections where the rock is still not perfect.

Report:

AccessFrom La Spezia to Muzzerone (following the directions in Davide Battistella's exhaustive guide published by Versante Sud) park at the last hairpin bend before the end of the road leading to the Muzzerone Military Fort. From here, take the CAI path that descends along the ridge walls towards Portovenere; after about ten minutes, you will see an old abandoned electric cabin on the left. Go past it, continuing down the path for about 50 m and take a track through the vegetation on the right that shortly leads to the roof of an old quarry ruin. An iron ladder helps you to descend to the base of the ruin and a little further on, descend via a cable down a rocky ridge to almost its end. Just before the end of the cable, go left (face the sea) and reach an old iron post that marks the descent point on the route.

Descent: Descend the first ten-metre drop by abseiling tied up and using a piece of rope (which we left) to facilitate the descent/ascent to the first abseiling chain. From here four (80m single rope) or two abseils (60m ropes) depending on the ropes you use will take you to the terrace of the "Big Pine". A 40m abseil directly onto the pine (cordon with maillon) will take you to the "Grotta dei Gabbiani" from where a fixed rope allows you to reach the next abseil without tying you down. Another 35m abseil will take you to the last 30m abseil on which, on the way down, you should pass a few quickdraws to prevent the rope from ending up in the sea during the recovery and to reach the belay a few metres from the sea, moved further to the left than the vertical.

Ascent: follow the bolts and have a good climb!

Roberto Vigiani
Luisa Siliani