Once a humble Italian spa town, Arco is now one of the world’s premier climbing centres and somewhere that has changed the whole face of the sport. William Boston reports

Driving north along the shore of Lake Garda, limestone cliffs rise out of the Valle del Sarca like gendarmes guarding against ancient invading armies. From the road you can still see the shape of the old fortress near the fortified town of Arco, before you wind your way upwards through medieval streets, cypress woods and olive groves, finally reaching the ruins of the old castle on top of the crag. Just like the armies of old, today’s legions of tourists invade Arco each year intent on defying its natural fortifications to conquer the towering cliffs.

The crags around Arco have been inhabited since prehistoric times. The castle was built as part of the Trentine fortifications to hold back the expansion of the Venetians to the north. After World War II, the village became a sleepy spa resort. But since the invasion of the rock climbers, Arco has transformed itself into a mecca for outdoor sports enthusiasts, attracting thousands of climbers, mountain bikers, paragliders, hikers and skiers each year. The active season begins as soon as the first rays of sun begin to warm the crags in March and extends well into the autumn. Climbers muscle their way up the vertical rock walls in the sun while in the distance windsurfers can be seen on Lake Garda with the snowy peaks of the Alps visible on the horizon.

While tourists below in Riva carry blankets and sun lotion to the nearest beach, the climbers of Arco haul their ropes, helmets and gear, browse the climbing shops and maybe stop for an ice cream in a local café.

Arco is one of the few places in the world that is essentially a climbing town. Chamonix, at the base of Mont-Blanc, is another and so is Boulder, Colorado, in the Rockies. All three are meeting places for those who share the passion to climb.

‘Arco has become a centre. There’s a community here and the people of the town really support the climbers,’ says Lynn Hill, one of the best climbers in the world. A Boulder-based American, Hill has put up superb routes on Yosemite’s El Capitan and has been returning to Arco to climb since 1986, repeatedly winning the Rock Master sport climbing competition.

That community contains a mix of locals, such as local mountain guide Mauro Girardi, who runs the Friends of Arco outdoor recreation business, and ‘Pio’, the friendly owner of Conti d’Arco, a rustic café that stubbornly resists the passage of time and whose clientele includes both cigar-puffing local men sipping espresso and climbers who come to celebrate their latest feats. Conti d’Arco and Bar Centrale, another local watering hole, are famous for late-night celebrations involving hordes of climbers who have had a long day on the crags.

Then there are the outsiders who have felt the pull of Arco’s crags so strongly that they have abandoned their lives in faraway cities to put down roots here. German mountain guide Hans Martin Götz, 53, is a typical example. He has been scaling the hills in Arco for more than 30 years and quit his job as the director of the Patagonia outdoor equipment company’s German business in 1996 to live here. He opened a bed and breakfast, Guesthouse Arco, to provide his peers with somewhere to stay and himself with a base for his hobby.

‘Tourism is the biggest business here and the tourists of Arco are climbers,’ says Götz, just back from a climb in shorts and a T-shirt on a warm February afternoon. ‘Twenty-five years ago, Arco was a poor little town. Now, it’s booming.’

There are hundreds of climbing routes in the surrounding crags. By far the most popular crag is Massone, which is just as well known for its well-protected beginner and intermediate routes and family-friendly climbing areas as it is for world-class routes, such as the extremely difficult grade 9a route called Underground.

Any climber who has the day off can always take a boat trip on Lake Garda to appreciate the enormous forces at work as glaciers carved out a more than 300m-deep ravine during the last ice age, leaving behind the cold blue lake when the ice receded. Or they can drive for an hour to the romantic city of Verona, which in summer puts on a series of opera performances in an arena originally built to host gladiatorial combat.

Arco is historically significant in the world of rock climbing. In the 1970s, free climbing was evolving fast as equipment and technique improved and the sport began to catch on. Climbers were increasingly climbing ‘clean,’ placing pieces of rectangular metal – ranging in size from as small as a fingernail to as big as a fist or larger – into cracks in the rock. The rope is then connected to this metal protection, which jams itself tight into the crack under pressure, catching the climber in the event of a fall. The protection is removed as the climbing party advances, leaving no trace behind, unlike the previous practice of hammering pitons into cracks that damaged the rock and littered routes with metal for years afterwards. Clean climbing became the prevailing ethos of American and British climbers in the 1970s.

But for the first climbers who began coming to Arco in the early 1980s, the local crags presented a serious problem. Limestone does not have cracks like those found in granite and other types of rock, which meant they needed another way to protect themselves in order to develop routes in the crags in and around the town. So instead of clean climbing, the Arco climbers drilled metal bolts into the face of the cliff, which became a permanent fixture in the rock and gave birth to what is known as ‘sport climbing.’ Initially quite controversial in the US, sport climbing took off in Europe. It provided solid protection on hard routes and made limestone crags accessible.

‘Arco was one of the first places in the 1980s where sport climbing really began to explode,’ says Michael Meisel, 37, author of an Arco climbing guide. ‘The first grade 9 routes were put up here and Arco became really important for the development of climbing internationally.’

The town also made its mark on the climbing community with the Rock Master climbing competition. The first one organised in Arco took place in 1986. It was a wild affair, and the event’s hosts actually carved out routes in the rock of local crags. Climbers competed against each other and were judged on how fast they could scale difficult routes. In 1988, an artificial climbing wall was built and since then the Rock Master has been held on it instead of real rock and has become the top international competition. The early Rock Master festivals drew fewer than 200 people. But last September more than 2,000 enthusiasts attended the 20th Rock Master Competition in Arco.

The town’s main street, Via Segantini, is lined with boutiques, ice cream parlours, restaurants and climbing equipment stores such as Vertical, Gobbisport, La Sportiva, Salewa and North Face. The main village square in front of the church is crowded in summer with tourists and locals sipping drinks at Café Trentino, a restaurant with an internet café at the back, and the rows of vendors under cloth-covered stands at the open market sell everything from local olive oil, wine and truffles to inexpensive sunglasses, handbags and shoes.

As the number of climbers travelling to Arco has increased each year, so has their impact on local business. The economic opportunity was not lost on city officials. They encouraged the development of climbing here by building trails to make it easier to access the crags, adding car parks nearby and maintaining the routes to keep them safe. Girardi, the owner of Friends of Arco, has been commissioned by the city to maintain the crags. He says he and his staff spend about a month out of the year replacing old bolts on routes and making sure the established routes are safe. They will also continue to develop the climbing areas to accommodate more people.

‘We’re planning to build a new parking lot and install toilets in Massone this summer,’ he says. ‘We’re also reaching out now to the camping grounds and hotels to get people visiting involved in outdoor activities.’

WHERE TO CLIMB
The most popular routes for both beginners and experts are at the Massone crag.

CLIMBERS’ FAVOURITES
The hardy might be tempted by Zoo Camping and Camping Arco, both of which are within walking distance of the crags. Others may be tempted by Guesthouse Arco, which offers affordable rooms with Mediterranean flair for individuals and groups. Be sure to book in advance.

WHERE TO EAT AND DRINK
Climbers gather for café lattes and drinks at Bar Centrale and Conti d’Arco, the centres of Arco nightlife. Café Trentino, on the main square, is also popular and has an internet café inside. The restaurant at Albergo Pace, a hotel in the city centre, has good pizza and offers a range of tasty local specialities.

WHAT TO SEE
In Arco, the Castello di Arco is worth the hike and Lake Garda is just 5km away.
The canals of Venice and romantic Verona – with Juliet’s balcony and opera in the arena – are an hour’s drive from the town.

WHERE TO STAY

PARK HYATT MILAN
Via Tommaso Grossi, 1 Milan
Tel: (+39) 2 8821 1234
www.hyatt.com

ANTARES HOTEL CONCORDE
Via le Monza, 132 Milan
Tel: (+39) 2 2611 2020
www.antareshotels.com

SHERATON PADOVA HOTEL
Corso Argentina, 5 Padova
Tel: (+39) 4978 08230
www.sheraton.com

FOUR SEASONS HOTEL
MILAN
Via Gesù, 8 Milan
Tel: (+39) 7708 1488
www.fourseasons.com