Description

🚶‍♂️ 0-10' - ⛰️ 480+ MSL - 🧭 NSEW - ☀️ from late morning

Drena Boulder is an interesting limestone boulder area between Drena and Braila small villages. In this magical place one can find a truly peaceful climbing experience, given that we are quite far from the roads and the area is not busy at all.
There are more than a hundred problems with grades mainly around 6B and 6C. There is something harder and easier too. The quality of the limestone is fairly good and the climbing turns out to be quite fingery.
Approach is generally short and boulder landings are good. This valley is a bit more fresh than the area of Arco, but we still do not suggest climbing here during Summer. The other periods of the year are better to get the best friction.

We kept the best part to conclude this description. Drena boulder is the home of the legendary Excalibur route, one of the hardest sport routes of Italy! This crazy steep overhang has been the war field of many top climbers as Adam Ondra, Stefano Ghisolfi, Jakob Schubert and Will Bosi. The Excalibur sword was finally extracted by Stefano Ghisolfi in the first days of February 2023.

Drena Boulder has another interesting feature. Just around the boulder area, there is the Open Air Gallery, a path in nature created by the artist Annabella Hoffman where you can find sculptures and works of art while walking. The arts are made from recycled materials but unfortunately it is slowly degrading. We hope that in the future the local municipalities will restore this gallery.

History

Best history part of Drena is for sure the battle for first ascent of Excalibur route won by Stefano Ghisolfi on the 3rd of February. This line kept the strong athlete quite busy for many attempts, but in the end, with really cold conditions, he managed to get on the top!
We have to thank Cristiano Dorigatti and Morris Fontanari who are the bolters of Excalibur and had the great vision of this masterpiece line.