Monat: September 2021

From the Refugio Madonna delle Neve we went through a forest down to the valley. From there it continued along the road up another valley again and later finally through a piece of forest again to Santuario San Giovanni d Andorno. The building there was badly damaged by a huge rock. Then we continued up the road, which was closed to traffic, always up the switchbacks, as the path through the forest was not visible at first. Later it went again over open meadows steeply up to the slope. On the other side, the huge basilica in Oropa was already visible. So I went down and after some time reached my hotel in Oropa.

From Refugio Rivetti we went down about 1800 m into the valley of a small village. On Sunday there was an immense amount of activity there. Since I was quite fast and the route should be short, I strolled a bit through the village and supplied me with some stuff from the small store. At the other end of the village it should go over a bridge. The bridge was destroyed, however, so that I did not quite know where to go. I wanted to go first along the road and then up the mountain on the other side, until I saw some people walking over the large rocks in the river. So I followed them and crossed the river to the actual route. When I thought that it would be easier now, I was deceived. Due to a storm in 2020 were several rock slides to cross what was partly quite troublesome. After a while, however, I had arrived at the top of a thin ridge where the Refugio stood on a unique position. There you had almost a panoramic view through the magnificent position of the Refugio.

The second part of the hike on the GTA started right where the first one left off. I drove by car to Sant Antonio to the Refugio, whereby I was previously by masses of vacation travelers for hours in the traffic jam. This time I was not alone in the Refuigo as in June, but at least 4 other hikers were also there. I got my compartment and fell asleep early. The next day it went immediately the long hike to Refugio Rivetti which is not recommended for entry. I walked it anyway. At the beginning the route went very long through the valley, steadily uphill. Later in the steeper and at the first ridge extremely steep down into a kind of cauldron. The had to be crossed and then was again a pass. From the second pass it went quite laboriously over large rocks along a ridge to the third pass. From there there was a very nice view of the Po Valley and the Refugio was only 5 minutes away at an altitude of about 2300m.

The last stage of the first trip on the GTA. I left again quite early after I had slept again quite badly. The cook or owner (so clear to me was not) drove me early again the 5 km back to RIma and I went through the deserted village up the mountain. Again, everything was damp and in the fog so that I hardly saw anything. Nevertheless, the area was spectacular to look at and it went again to an altitude of about 2500m. After some time the pass was finally reached. Before that it went through some snow fields. At the pass was again not a particularly clear view and I went on to a refugio further down. A little further up from the refugio there should be a place called Belvedere, which should give an excellent view of Monte Rosa. The path was steep and somewhat exposed, in any case a bit more difficult to walk than my way before and with all the luggage. At some point I reached Belvedere and unfortunately had little view of Monte Rosa. Only briefly he was visible outside the clouds. After my lunch there I went back down, which was even more arduous with the luggage and the steepness. Now it went into the valley to Alagna, whereby shortly before Alagna still a thunderstorm came up that took place near the Refugio. From Alagna it was still forever far down the valley to the turn into the Vogna valley. There it went up again a few hundred meters to my final stop at the Refugio there in the evening. On this day I had completed with Abstandt the longest distance and the highest altitude difference.

Again I slept quite badly, because constantly bimmel of any animals was in the night. In addition, it was extremely warm in the room and no breeze moved. After the rather meager breakfast it went again up a slope and this time steeper than the days before. I also had to hurry this time, because thunderstorms were predicted. Unfortunately, it went from a certain height again completely through fog, whereby the visibility was severely limited and no visibility was there. On the other side of the mountain was again the same game as the day before. From a certain height, the sun came out again, but this time with some clouds in the sky. The thunderstorm stayed away, however, and I could finally spend a little south of Carcoforo in a hotel outside on the terrace and relax comfortably with tea.

Early in the morning we continued on the GTA in the direction of Alpe Baranca. The weather was again quite excellent and hardly a cloud was visible. First it went from Rimella the road down the mountain and then through a forest to the river that had to be crossed. Then it went an old path up the mountain on the opposite side again. A lonely village on the mountainside was actually still inhabited, although one had to wonder how people got there. We continued up towards the settlement on the meadow that could be seen from Rimella and before that even further up. Again we went through a lonely village past a refugio. The old village was only accessible via a path and a material railroad but the refugio actually had air conditioning. Then it went over the ridge on the other side down the mountain again. At a lonely church I stopped for lunch, where there was again noodle soup and the sandwiches from Rimella from the morning. Then it went through the blazing midday sun still down to the river and then laboriously up the road to the last village of the valley. The sun burned relentlessly and everything was again laborious after lunch. Even more laborious it finally became the steep track, the valley further uphill. At the beginning, the path was actually excellent and newly made and later still very well built as an old mule track. At some point I finally reached the late afternoon Alpe Baranca at about 1600m altitude where I was the only guest. I got tea and could choose a place to sleep at the top. Before I showered extensively, although the shower was very small. That could have been designed a bit better.

This was the beginning of the hike on the Grande Traversata delle Alpi (GTA) from Forno to Rimella. First, the path led lonely, because I really met no one until the afternoon along a river always uphill towards Campello Monti. The entire way to Rimella led over a pass at 2100 m altitude and then again quite steeply downhill. The weather was excellent for the hike and hardly a cloud was in the sky. But that also meant very strong sunlight and quite high heat, which only became bearable again with the altitude. Shortly after Campello Monti were finally no more trees and it went quite steeply uphill to the pass. On the pass was quite a nice wide view, with the 4500m high Monte Rosa also visible on the right. After that it went downhill again through open terrain and finally again through forests and some villages to Rimella. The hike took about 10 hours and had an elevation gain of 1200m, with about 1000m also going back down.

The crisis had improved dramatically in Europe by mid-June, making a trip to Italy possible. This time it was to go to a long-distance hike in Piedmont to the Grande Traversata delle Alpi (GTA). The GTA is a fairly unknown long-distance trail that crosses the Italian Alps on almost forgotten and centuries-old paths. Starting from the border with Switzerland to the Mediterranean Sea. The journey takes me from Germany through Switzerland over the Gotthart Pass. I could have also gone through the Gotthart tunnel, but there was enough time and a trip over a pass is always quite worth seeing. Further it went down the main ridge of the Alps again and finally along Lake Maggiore, where there is already a Mediterranean climate and palm trees grow in the middle of the mountains to my destination Forno in the Italian Piedmont.