Italian Alps – day 1
7.7.2024 Sunday
Domodossola – Bivacco Alpe Mottac
→ 21,3 km ↑ 2085 m
The heavy rain didn’t really happen overnight, we could’ve managed fine in the tent. After yesterday’s travel chaos and changing destinations we were pretty low on morale, and I’m glad we ended up booking a room in the end. We pack our things properly and set off at 10:30am, first toward Lidl to restock, then for coffee, then into Val Grande National Park. We start right in town and head toward the village of Trontano. There’s a marked trail, but clearly not many people walk it. In lower altitude it looks like some exotic country: hydrangeas, palms, figs, kiwi.
We pass a fairly high-elevation railway that I’d thought was out of service. In the village we find out it’s actually still running. If we’d known, we’d have taken the train and started from here instead. From Trontano we’ve got a climb of almost 2,000 meters ahead to Passo di Basagrana pass. It’s tough going, we haven’t been out with backpacks in a long while. We stop at Rifugio Alpe Parpinasca. It’s closed, so we set up outside and take a food break with lovely views.
There’s a bivouac sign on the door, so you could sleep here. Next is 1000 meters of climbing over 4 km. We go slow. Every so often we come across mushrooms. We pass old houses, and I wonder what it must have been like to live up here.
There’s drinking water every 500 m, so we didn’t even need to carry any. Higher up there are loads of blueberries, still unripe though, and fields of Rhododendron ferrugineum. Through a fairly rough climb we cross a lower pass and new views open up. We continue at a gentler pace, but also through snowfields (we hadn’t expected those at 1800 m), and mostly have to go all the way around them since they’re pretty unstable.
As we keep climbing we enter a cloud and it starts drizzling. The last 100 meters to the pass are genuinely tough.
It’s really windy and rainy at the pass, 13°C, and we think about putting on rain gear, but decide to just head down fast instead. Once we descend a bit, it stops. We follow a path traversing Pizzo Tignolino. It’s fairly eroded and we move slowly. It starts drizzling again, so we try out our umbrellas.
It’s nice, we just need to adjust how it’s attached to the backpack. We’re hungry again, so we have a quick snack. We join a trail running along the ridge, and the journey is better from here.
The last two kilometers involve some scrambling and climbing around rocks. I’m genuinely done. After the last climb I spot Bivacco Alpe Mottac, just down the hill from here, and I get a burst of energy right away.
There are already three German women at the shelter, so we chat with them for a bit. We move to the other side of the shelter, since it was really warm in their part. I go straight to wash up and get water. The spring feels really far away, but I still manage a proper shower. On the way back I meet a chamois. Our shoes are completely soaked, so we build a little fire too. I make herbal tea and dinner is mashed potato with tuna.
