Alta Via 2, September 2022

170km, brutal ascents, horrendous descents, fabulous traverses and sublime views. All in all, brilliant. Typical Day, Typical Scene, Typical Path and Ascent First of all, a huge "Thank You" to all who have donated to The Stroke Association. Your generosity has raised £1,140, over twice my original target of £500. Thank you, also, for those of you who have been following the rather erratic updates to the blog. Lack of network connectivity hampered daily updates and I found that most of my narrative was rather same-y. It was a bit like the "Oooh, Ahhh" of watching a firework display, so in the end I generally just used captions on the pictures. I've included a table of contents here, should you wish to follow our progress sequentially and each page has a link to its previous or next entry. Table of Contents Friday September 2nd- Day 1 Saturday September 3rd- Day 2 Sunday September 4th- Day 3 Monday September 5th- Day 4 Tuesday September 6th- Day 5 Wednesday Septem...

  Rifugio Boz to Croce d'Aune Although this was the last day of the route provided to us by Bookatrekking , it had in the region of 1000m ascent and 700m descent and was therefore hard work. It was also fairly misty at times- we were aware of the drop to our left/east but only occasional and brief glimpses of its scale. This was probably a good thing! Cloud cascade still happening, but less sharply Typical conditions and path for the last day The most "spicy" section of the day was crossing a very narrow path bridging a forcella, with steep drops either side. The southern end of the crossing was a set of steps cut into the edge, which I thought of as the "Stairway to Heaven". It wasn't the place to hang around to take pictures, but I did manage to get one: The narrow "bridge" Path ahead- narrow and rocky in the main First glimpse of Feltre through the clouds- our eventual destination Today's destination (to the left) was Croce d'Aune, 1½ ho...

  Passo Cereda to Rifugio Bruno Boz The first of two big final days. Starting out on a forestry road  Where we came from on Monday- in the clouds today The start of the last big ascent The ascent to the Comedón pass can genuinely be described as "Brutal". The first of the two following photos is a little hard to interpret. The second is an enlargement of the central section to the right of the optical artefact. Ascent to Passo Forcella la Comedón. See also below for detail Enlargement of photo above, showing Topper's son Gavin Gavin at the forcella- less weary than us! View ahead from Passo Forcella la Comedón AV2 "Triangles" are always reassuring and waymarks provided by C.A.I. Feltre Ever-changing landscapes- wider expanses of green now Ascent towards Bivacco Feltre-Bodo Looking down on Bivacco Feltre-Bodo- the red buildings centre-right Descent from second-left notch and down zig-zags in grass to left Traverse towards clouds More "Spicy" traverse to...

  Rifugio Treviso to Passo Cereda A relatively short day (but finishing with a long descent)- girding our loins for the final two big days. A better view of where we'd come from on Sunday with the descent through the forests Ascending past a very clear "Cloud Base" Looking over to Punta Caldrolon. We crossed Forcella d'Oltro, just to its south (right, on this photo) Path in foreground, destination: the valley, as ever A rock formation above us had a hole in it, visible in the shadow on the slopes opposite Mountain range providing barrier to clouds Traverse continues... ...and still continues Masses of pinnacles ahead Descent through the pinnacles One of the occasional "Rock Follies" Final stages of the descent was through trees, compensated by the views The approach to the rifugio was uphill, which felt a little unfair Next:  Tuesday September 13th- Day 12 Previous:  Sunday September 11th- Day 10

  Rifugio Pedrotti alla Rosetta to Rifugio Treviso This was a long day. The rain and hail that we'd briefly encountered on Saturday had cleared and it was cold enough for ice to have formed on the decking around the rifugio. Moonlit landscape with téléphérique station in background Alpenglow on the eastern horizon The day started with a descent into the Val di Roda Approaching Cima Val di Roda. Path ahead horizontal across grassy patch Descending from Col Delle Fede. Companion "Topper" for scale Further descent with "Topper" and Paul Start of a long descent after Passo di Ball towards Val Pradidali Path towards Passo delle Fede Looking back from Passo delle Fede Descent from Passo delle Fede; "Topper" on the move, Paul and I are catching our breath Rifugio Treviso is in trees on opposite side of valley ahead; path remains more or less horizontal Colourful Bivacco Minazio After another 850m descent and 200m sting-in-the-tail ascent, we reached Rifugio T...