Pretty pictures, terrible writing.

My good friend Daryn came to visit for a couple weeks. We had a blast, had lots of adventures, generally misbehaved, and plan on doing it again. While I'm absolute shit at bringing my camera along, and even worse about taking photos when I do have my camera; I managed to get a few shots I thought were worth putting up here.

To start things off, I put up what we're pretty sure was a first ascent. We're calling it "Monet Crack" because it looks good from far away, but when you get up close it's not so nice. It tore me up, and I had to hang on a few pieces of pro, so can't really claim it, but I did make it, so that's gotta count for something right?

Our plans to camp at the top of San Gottardo pass were scrapped and we decided to head to my company's main base in Ilanz to do a ducky trip on the river (and to do a bit of drinking with the boys). Here's a shot heading over the Oberalp pass near Andermatt. The views around here are terrible.

After hanging out in Ilanz for a day it was time to head back to Ticino. Going over the San Bernadino pass, you go by this castle in Mesocco, which I've been meaning to check out.

The giant waterfall behind the castle.

The campanile inside the castle.

We were the only people there. Literally. Anywhere else this thing would have been crawling with tourists, but we hung out for an hour, climbed the walls, explored the whole thing, and never saw another person. Crazy.

After many aquatic adventures (ie. places where my camera doesn't go), we decided to check out more castles. The city of Bellinzona, near my house, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for the three castles that decorate the city. After raining all day, the weather suddenly turned and the sun broke through a couple hours before sunset. Here's a heavily edited shot of one of the towers.

The middle castle, from above.

Looking down the valley from the upper castle.

Crazy lighting on the Castlegrande.

After checking out the castles we headed down to the lake. The town of Vira on the west shore of Lago Maggiore.

For all the Cal fans out there.

And a parting shot, looking across the lake towards Locarno and Centovalli.

The end.