Italian Alps – day 8
Camping Chisonetto – Bivacco Giorno Casalegno
14.7.2024 Sunday
→ 26,9 km ↑ 1897 m – total 176,9 km
Since I went to bed pretty late and had some prosecco, I refuse to get up early. I finally wake up around 8am. We have a fairly slow morning, still charging our devices and having a hearty breakfast, since we’ve got a pile of food. We chat with a German who slept next to us, he is cycling from Munich to Nice. We set off at 9:30am. We descend gently to the village of Pattemouche. I’d wanted a coffee there, but nothing’s open. So we continue along the Torrente Chisone river. It looks like a pretty popular spot here. Lots of cars, people, and a really pleasant path that lets us move fast.
After 1.5 km we reach a hut, grab a quick coffee, and continue. We pass everyone. We go through Val Troncea Natural Park. It’s really beautiful here, though not quite as much as higher parts. After 7 kilometers the nice path ends, and so does everyone else. We start a climb of almost 1200 meters to Colle Clapis, not a soul in sight, just marmots.
The higher we go, the more beautiful the views. It’s tough, sure, but genuinely worth it. We really don’t get why nobody’s here. We conclude Italians just don’t feel like it. We have lunch at 1pm. Bread with brie, bacon, and we’ve even still got some vegetables. Ants pester us a bit there, which I really can’t stand, but I hold it together and don’t panic. We pack up and climb another 500 meters.
There are still occasional snowfields, which we try to go around. On one we even put on crampons. The views are unbelievable.
We’re at the pass by 3pm, and views open up on the other side, spectacular.
We descend the south side, where there’s no more snow and it’s a fairly nice trail, so we move fast.
I go pee, and one ant apparently stayed on my pee cloth and bit me right in my private parts. That’s exactly why I don’t like them! Jozef’s far ahead, so I hurry to tell him, hoping for some sympathy. After a bit the stinging fades.
We descend to the Alpe Plane hut, where I’d wanted coffee, but there are a lot of dogs there, so we’d rather continue. On top of that there are also some motorbikes and off-road vehicles here, so we hurry onto the trail. We even watch one off-road vehicle drive straight through a river, absolute mess. We shake our heads and continue on. We reach a lovely waterfall that needs fording below it. We take off our shoes and cross through the icy water, a pretty good refresher.
We continue with a gentle climb alongside the river and watch marmots. The real climb only starts on the last kilometer, 250 meters of elevation.
I’m quite hungry by now, so it’s tough going and I stop often. Before 6pm we reach Bivacco Giorno Casalegno. We’re pretty cold, since a chilly wind’s blowing, but also sunburned, since I forgot to put on sunscreen. Jozef reaches the shelter first and gets startled by an ibex that jumps out at him from inside the building. It’s a spooky building, with one end converted into a shelter. There’s a bit of a mold smell, but otherwise it looks great. A bunk bed from Ikea, a stove, a table and chairs. First we go shower while the sun’s still out. Neither of us really feels like it today. The water’s icy and the wind’s blowing on top of it. It takes real willpower. We manage it and go straight to make tea to warm up a bit. I pick some wild thyme in front of the hut. Since we didn’t buy a gas canister, we use the gas they have here. We cook a minestrone soup, then mashed potato with bacon, garlic and mozzarella. I go throw out the leftover tea outside and startle a marmot, which lets out a loud whistle from the fright I gave it. Then around 8pm two Italians startle us too, who’d just come to check out what the shelter looks like, thinking of sleeping here next time. Quite the startling day we’re having. No signal here, so I try to catch up on the days I’m behind on. The sun’s still out, but we’re already lying in bed, resting.
