climbing finale ligure, climbing in finale ligure, Marco Tomassini Thomas

Marco Tomassini, formerly known as Thomas,

was born on the 3rd of March 1971. He became interested in the outdoors in 1986 when he first went on a couple of outings with members of C.A.I. (Club Alpino Italiano), section of Genova Sestri Ponente.

The following year in 1987 he continued his trips and became a scout in A.G.E.S.C.I. "Ge 45" (Sestri Ponente) and later in a different group C.N.G.E.I. "Ge 5", with which he remained for about 3 years and which is also located in Sestri Ponente.

After having initially attended a caving course, organized by the Gruppo Speleologico "Gianni Ribaldone" of Genova Sestri Ponente, in 1993 he then became a caving instructor under the SSI (Società Speleologica Italiana), for which he has run various courses.

In the meantime in 1991, he took up climbing at the crags close to Genoa like "Cravasco" and "Pietragrande". Making use of his previously acquired caving techniques he soon started to develop a new crag called Carpenara (Ge-Pegli), where he opened up 43 new routes placing more than 300 bolts on his own (unfortunately climbing at this crag is no longer possible as it is located on private property and access to climbers has been denied by the new owner!).

In 1994 he attended a climbing course run by the U.I.S.P. (Unione Italiana Sport per Tutti) of Genoa and the following year he became a certified instructor himself and ran various courses.

In the meantime, in the years from 1994 to 1996, Thomas was an active member at the alpine club C.A.I. of Genoa "Bartolomeo Figari" initially as a collaborator and later in the role of an assistant instructor. During those years he put up 15 routes at the small crag "La Serra", a crag bolted specifically for children.

In 1996 Thomas put up, accompanied by Gianni Vistarini and Laura Calisti, 16 routes at the cliff Placche di S.Lorenzo (TO) and Coronello. From 1998 to 1999, together with the U.I.S.P., he re-bolted the crag "Pietragrande" in Genoa, which houses 25 routes.

The major part of his work as a developer of new climbing areas and as a re-bolter has however been in the surrounding area of Finale Ligure, where he has over the years (starting in 1994 up to today) equipped (or re-bolted) many routes in the sectors described in this guidebook (for now... a total number of 202 routes!).