Rocca Pendice

Mount Pendice (304 m) "Rocca pendice", located in the Municipality of Teolo (PD), is the most important cliff of all the Euganean Hills. Its conformation, the particular phenomenon of erosion of its structure, has allowed a vertical blade formation that characterizes it due to the rather bold rocky consistency. From both sides (East about 200 m, West 100 m), the rather solid rock (Trachyte) offers a rock climbing school differentiated by difficulty and also - only on the eastern side, also of climbing climbing simulation in perfect alpine style and in safety. The view from both sides is formidable and offers around the horizon the size of the province of Padua, part of the Vicenza area (Berici Hills) and perfect weather conditions (something quite rare, the view of the sea and of Venice.
The first historical ascension of the east wall took place already in 1909 by the spouses Carugati, Mariano Rossi and the very famous alpinist writer Antonio Berti. Subsequently the main exponents of the Paduan mountaineering took part, among which Antonio Bettella, Franco Dorna and others and also the famous Emilio Comici (1939) of Trieste, inventor of a climbing-style and author of indelible traces on Alps that made and still make alpinism history ; the gym on the East wall was then dedicated to the exellent mountaineer.
Nowadays a considerable number of itineraries crosses the walls of the Rocca Pendice, both classic and modern with maximum difficulty according to the modern scale of difficulties. Of the "mountaineering" walls the classic ways to mention to date are:

_Le creste: development: 200 m; difficulty: III-IV and 1 step of V.
_Spigolone: development: 135 m; difficulty: V steps di V+.
_Diedro Carron: development: 135 m; difficulty: A2 e V+.
_Direttissima: development: 200 m; difficulty: V steps di VII-.
_Dorna: development: 160 m; difficulty: IV-V e 1 passo di VI-.
_Bianchini ( degli Strapiombi o Via Comici): 160 m; difficulty: IV-V e 1 step di A0 o VI-. _Carugati: development: 180 m; difficulty: III-IV.
_Diedri Sandi development: 180 m; difficulty: V.
_Spigolo Barbiero: development: 160 m; difficulty: IV+ ed 1 step di VI.
_Gardellin-Munaron: development 100 m; difficulty: A2 e IV.
"The rock climbing hall of Rocca slope is particular in its kind, as it is not made of limestone but of trachyte" (alkaline quartzite), a rock of volcanic origin "formed in the Euganean Hills for an orogenic curiosity that can be reason of "Geological Site of European value""
"Trachyte with plate structure and cracks for all sectors except that of caves which is characterized by many limestone-like holes." On the walls there are almost circular cavities due to air bubbles during the eruption; these are currently used by the Peregrin Falcon (Falco peregrinus) so that on a large part of the East wall there is a ban on climbing to avoid nesting disturbance.

The gym wall is the most affordable and can be climbed almost all year round both for exposure and for the exclusion of ice formations from spring waters on the wall.
The use of magnesite is not recommended in order to avoid smoothing and consuming too much rock and staining it.
The so-called Lower Numbered Ways (numbering from L to R and each start as well with a nikename) located in the lower part of the West wall:
Spigolo, 5c, 18m ( Edge)
_ Fessure di Steffy, 5bc, 18m ( Steffy's fissures)
_ "Via senza nome", 5c, 18m (Way without name)
_ Soraparona, 5b, 18m _ Pol Pot, 6a+, 18m
_ Ghiro ghiro tondo, 5b, 20m
_ Tirami sù, 6a+, 20m
_ Sikh, 5c/6a, 20m
_Idi Amin, 5c (fissure w/out nails!), 20m
_Tienanmen, 6a/6a+, 20m
_Papa doc, 6b, 25m
_ Baby doc, 6a, 25m
_Nuova etica, 6a; L2, 6a, 25m + 10m
_Viadotto, 6b+ diretto o uscita a sx, 6a; L2: 6a, 25m + 10m ( Viaduct direct or left exit)
_Pompieri si, belli no, 6b+, uscita a dx, 6a+; L2, 6c, 25m + 10m
_Fessura Nord, 4/5 (traditional nails: 3/4 chiodi su 30m), L2, 4/5, 30m + 30m
_El topo, 5c/6a, 22m
_Passerina, 5c, 22m
_Erendira, 6b+, 20m
_"Via senza nome", 6b, 20m (Way without name)
_ Valmentina la dolce, 6a+, 20m
_"Via senza nome", 6b+, 20m (Way without name)
_Pensionato, 6b, 20m ( Retired)

I wanted to linger on this list because I am connected to both gyms for training on Rocca Pendice for 4 years when I was studying in Padua, 50 years ago !!
Moved I redid the perimeter together with my wife and find myself in the place where I invested a lot of time and who knows maybe opening involuntarily some new tracks or variants of existing tracks. Everything is lost except the memory of those exciting and indelible times !!
The path along the west wall is challenging (1st degree) for a 30-meter stretch and chains are laid out to aid the less experienced.

Curiosity: on top of the Rocca there are the remains of Speronella Castle, a dominant position compared to the other hills and valleys below.
It is a fortress never conquered and was erected before the XI, owned, ceded and repossessed by civil and ecclesiastical powers. Even Barbarossa and Cangrande della Scala was the owner, followed the Carraresi and eventually the Republic of Venice arrived.
Many legends surround the fortress as well as the intentional or accidental deaths that the cliff below silently numbers over the centuries.
A mysterious halo for a beautiful girl named Speronella who was locked up in the castle by the imperial vicar Pagano in the 12th century and who was then freed by Paduan rioters.