Category: Italy

At 6 am we were on the road. When the alarm clock rang at 5:15am I hated myself  It was still quite dark outside and quite cold but what we could see the weather looked good. We left the Rifugio at 6am after heaving a quick “breakfast” (actually it was just biscuit with butter and marmalade). We had no coffee since it was too early…what a great day……. (it is hard to imagine what a strong influence a coffee in the morning can have on ones mood…). We climbed up to a pass on about 2850m. From here we continued 20 minutes to the summit Monte Bellino on about 2900m. Here and there we saw some old bunkers…so this mountain probably played an important role in the war. At the top we made a long break. Now I was glad that I got up so early. We were completely alone – the only thing which disturbed the silence was the wind. Up to the horizon in each direction the sky was dark blue – there was no single cloud. I felt I did not want to leave this place again  Finally, we had to go…we climbed down back to the pass and then descended through a long and broad valley to Rifugio Campo Base on about 1600m.

Since we arrived at the previous hut we had no mobile signal and trying to call Rifugio Campo Base from this hut also didn’t work – no one answered the call…oh yes…and at first we had a wrong phone number. So we were not able to reserve in advance. The hut has about 35 places to sleep – so we were optimistic that there was still a place for us. And again…we were wrong – it was already fully booked. However, we were offered a “container”. The container had 8 beds inside and was very small. Still we decided to take it because we were completely exhausted. In the end we were still lucky since we were the only guests in this container while the other guests had to share a room with 8 other people – and we even paid 4 euro less per person  The dinner was extended to 2 hours! Not because there was so much to eat…just because it took so long to serve it… Personally I did not see many people which were so unorganized, before  But beside that the food was quite good. Tomorrow the weather might get worse…so we decided to get up even earlier in the morning. Our plan is to leave at 5:30am with headlights. Again we will miss the breakfast…and the coffee….great…. But getting up early is the only thing we can do to reduce the risk of getting into bad weather…maybe we worry too much.

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Today there is not much to write. We just walked for one hour to the last possible accommodation before the “great move”. Tomorrow will be a quite long day and there is no hut and no bivaccio in between. So we will start very early tomorrow to reduce the risk of bad weather. We will leave 5:30am. So today we take a break in the sun with lots of food  Our accommodation today only costs 35euro per person – full pension! – and we have a double room! And it is nice! This is great 

The breakfast this morning was formidable. We had different kinds of cornflakes, bread, cookies and coffee of course. The first hour we walked along a lake up to a small village “Ponte Chianale” where we were able to buy bread, cheese and sausage. Buying something in Italian language already works quite good – as long as no further questions result from the order  From here we climbed up about 700m to a pass. From here we saw Monviso one last time. We then followed a long long long road down to the next valley. Our plan for today was to walk to Rif. Meleze. When we arrived in the valley on the main road we still had 1 hour to walk. However, within the last 20 minutes the blue sky turned very dark. It was quite scary. On one side (where we didn’t want to go) the sky was blue. On the other side (of course where we wanted to go) the sky was closed by dark clouds. Somehow this situation reminded us of the day when we arrived in Usseglio – when the thunderstorm started. So we decided to walk to the direction where we actually didn’t want to go – to a small village named Chiesa. It was only a 15 minute walk. During this time we were overtaken by the dark clouds above our heads. When we realized before we were right on the boundary between blue sky and dark sky. So far there was no rain…just clouds. We even made some photos and some jokes about this weird situation – we will be safe in 15 minutes. “orage” the French word for thunderstorm is one of the first words we learnt in France at the beginning of our tour. So we created the word play “l’orage der Arsch” (“Arsch” is the German word for ass)  . We checked the weather reports to be sure (the Italian one, the German one and the Italian map for extreme weather). Everything was fine…and despite that it was just 1pm. Just seconds later a loud kaboom came from the dark clouds. Then a heavy rain started. We ran like idiots until we reached a mountain hut in the village nearby. We were quite glad that we again escaped the thunderstorm in the last second. Outside the heavy rain and thunder party started…and lasted only for 20 minutes. Then it was gone as fast as it came before. Unfortunately the mountain hut was already fully booked. So we had to find another accommodation for tonight – probably because it was Saturday. By phone we called another hut to make sure there is still a place left for us. This was difficult since the owner only spoke Italian and French. Actually no problem but via mobile phone and a bad connection the communication was quite exhausting. Anyway there was still a free room and so we walked to Chiazale about another hour. One thing to mention is that we passed another small village named “Celle” – actually the name of the village where I was born in Germany  Anyway…the room was ok and the dinner as well.After this experience with the weather we descided to split the path planned for tomorrow in two days. The weather forecast does not look so nice for tomorrow.

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Today we walked above 2500m for almost 5 hours. Our destination for today was Rifugio Martre where we reserved a room with shower The path today led us below the Monviso along a very huge area on 2600m. We passed multiple lakes an saw many different flowers. It is very nice to wake up at 2800m and just start to walk without any ascent on more or less the same altitude  The sun was again very strong up here – I think when we are back we will be close to black  Our accommodation for today was absolutely great. I think the owner was a star cook in his prior life. He served things I never heard before – which were absolutely great. The desert was a kind of cake with chocolate and cheese. This sounded strange but was wonderful. Tomorrow we continue to walk to the sea. The next two days we will need to pass over to the next mountain group. Hopefully the mobile signal will be better there. Then we can post some photos.

Our plan for today was to walk from Rif. Jervis to Rif. Giacoletti. We assumed to need about 7 hours. The weather forecast was quite good – just a few clouds in the afternoon. After a very good breakfast we started quarter past 7. The first 30 minutes of the path were just road on the same level. Then the road turned into a path and we climbed up to about 2400m where the next hut was located. On this path we found the “valley of mosquitos”. There were so many mosquitos even above 2000m – I did not expect this. But I guess this is already the effect of going further into the south. Not only the mosquitos are higher in the mountains – also the trees and the grass is much higher than where we started.
From the hut we continued further upwards to a pass on about 2650m. This pass was very interesting – on the one side completely blue sky on the other side completely fog. Unfortunately we had to descent to the side with fog. So for the next 4 hours we neither saw the sun nor the sky. We further followed the path to our destination. The last part was very steep and we walked through a big snow field. The hut was completely hidden in the fog – we saw it just 20 seconds before our arrival. Later the fog disappeared by magic and we had a great view on Monviso – which is 3841m height. Tomorrow our plan is to continue to Rif. Martre which is a quite new one. Lets see how far we come this time  Actually I just realized that we already completed 2/3 of our path to the sea. This is a great feeling 

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