Diga del Luzzone 6a+

Just when you thought you'd seen everything.

Is it silly? Perhaps. Is it nevertheless worth doing? Definitely. The exposure on this sheer, concave dam is incredible, and following the artificial holds is a straightforward yet, particularly in the final two overhanging pitches, awesome experience.

Easily park at the base of this massive dam and walk over to the obvious beginning of the route. As you reach the base you'll notice that no holds exist for the first 25 feet of the climb and a ladder, that's totally stored and locked right there, is needed to access the first holds and bolts of the route. You'll then need to locate and obtain the key for this ladder.

A cool and classic looking little restaurant and bar is located at the top of the dam. The restaurant employees say they open at 9am (some of the comments below allude to it actually opening at 8am) but it wasn't a problem showing up earlier, which is good as this is where you get the key to unlock the ladder that's stored at the base of the climb. You pay whoever is working the bar a €100 deposit, and a €20 per climber fee so they give you the key that works for this lock. Also be prepared to sign some type of Swiss waiver before they give you the key.

After you top out (final belay is the railing that runs across the top of the dam), you walk back across the dam to the restaurant, give them the key back, get your 100€ deposit back and walk back to wherever you parked your car. You can only park at the base of the dam or the top of the dam and it's a super beautiful 25 minute stroll in either direction. Enjoy an adult beverage or 3 after the climb and enjoy the stellar views!!

The dam sits at around 1,400 meters above sea level, is exactly 541' tall, and is west-facing. It is the tallest artificial rock climb in the World.

~More information and topos can be found in the Schweiz plaisir-sud or the SAC Ticino guidebook.

From Blenio, stay on the main road where you look for a pink hotel (hard to miss) and turn right, keep driving up and through Campo Blenio and climb up and out of the valley floor via a road with many hairpin turns. Make your way to the base of the dam, before continuing up to the reservoir and restaurant above. Look for small signs and use your ingrained "climber intuition skills" to navigate all through here.

The route is very well protected with bolts, really solid bolts. Take 20 draws of various lengths. All the pitches are a bit over 100' and there's a very deluxe belay ledge for your feet at every belay so we experienced zero "hanging in the harness" discomfort. A single 70 meter rope is fine and having to bail and rap off this rig looks as if it's no big deal. We didn't encounter one single spinner hold, missing hold or anything. The whole route is crazy bomber.