Italian Alps – day 6
Meana di Susa – Colle delle Vallette
12.7.2024 Friday
→ 23,1 km ↑ 2068 m – total 116 km
Alarm’s at 6:30am, but I only manage to pee and go get water before it starts raining. Jozef says something was going on here in the night. The Swiss guys kept a fire burning until 3am and apparently didn’t get along with some Hungarians who arrived late at night. We have breakfast in the tent, pack up, and wait for the rain to stop. It stops at 8:30am. We’d hung our washed clothes in the forest, and they’re surprisingly dry. The Swiss guys leave. We set off at 9am, with a beautiful 2000 meters of climbing ahead of us. We can either take the road or shortcut trails between the switchbacks. After over an hour we reach the spot where we’d wanted to camp yesterday. Clouds are gathering all around us and we hear thunder too. We continue another kilometer and reach a chapel just as it starts raining.
We take a break for food and tea. It stops raining, so we continue. Ten minutes later it starts again, but it’s just a light drizzle, so we pull out umbrellas and keep walking. A car stops to ask if we want a lift or need any help, we decline. We climb along the road with a gentle gradient and lovely views.
We reach Colle della Finestre after noon and fuel up on chocolate. There’s already fog here, so we wait a bit to see if it clears. I check the weather, it looks okay, so we set off. Wild weather was forecast for today, so I keep checking it constantly. The trail continues along an old 18th-century military road. It’s a genuinely pleasant climb, just heavy fog everywhere, but at least the little flowers cheer me up.
We hear some thunder, I check the weather again. We’re about to cross a ridge, so I hope nothing catches us up there. I decide it’s fine and we continue. I’m a bit tired and hungry, so we go rest for a bit in a half-collapsed house. I check the weather again and continue toward today’s highest point (almost 2800 m). The views open up a bit. We’re already descending when I realize that those clouds ahead of us don’t look good.
I check the radar, the storm’s heading right at us, and it’ll be here soon. A few hundred meters further there’s another ruined house, we run for it. It’s in even worse shape than the last one, but it covers us a bit and it’s at a pass, Colle delle Vallette, between two tall hills. The storm’s coming closer, we find the best spot and settle in.
We wait. It starts drizzling. Judging by the lightning it’s 3 km away, closing in fast. Hail starts falling. We pull out the umbrella to protect ourselves. We do have a roof over us, but a good chunk of it’s missing. The intensity builds, 3 cm hailstones start falling. The storm’s directly overhead. The whole thing lasts about three minutes, but I’m a bit shaken by it.
The trail continues along the ridge, so a storm like this could catch us up there. I check the weather again and it looks uncertain, I give it half an hour. It doesn’t improve at all. I’m starting to get pretty cold, so we decide to just camp here. The thermometer reads 9°C.
It’s a fairly good spot, just no water here. First we warm up a bit in the sleeping bags, then I go collect leftover hailstones so we’ve got water. For a moment the sun even peeks out, and moving around warms me up too. Jozef melts hailstones on the stove and I write the blog.
We end up with almost two liters of water, which I then filter. It’s really windy here, slapping the tent around, so Jozef anchors it down even more. I’ve got the blog ready, but the signal is only up on the hill outside.
I put on more layers and head out to post it. I nearly freeze, but I manage to upload it. Jozef’s already waiting with dinner, a change today, mashed potato with canned chicken. I’m glad in the end that we stayed here, even though the storm never came back, I was pretty exhausted by that point. On top of that, tomorrow’s forecast is beautiful weather, so we’ll get stunning views.
