That time ...
Aboard the camper to cancel out, think about how this started adventure. It 'was enough to see a picture of the crest of Lyskam in a magazine for wanting to go. It 'began as the usual search for information. This, to me, is a fundamental part of the tour: the recognition of specific places and points, read and reread, helps to make more real the trip itself.
Here we are at a time of
Gressoney la Trinité , with the camper of Elis, in fact. In this way we are able to leave on Friday evening and stop in the street, stopping the blow of miles that separated us from the point of departure. We park a short walk from the cable car that will give us a hand for the first thousand meters.
It 's a beautiful day in late July and begin the ascent to the refuge Quintino Sella
(3585) in short trousers. In the three hours needed to reach the goal, as we trudge from which protrude string backpacks, boots and ice axes.
The refuge, the starting point for the climb to the summit of Castor, another top group of M. Rosa, situated in a heap of stones. It 's very busy, but very large and therefore does not present problems of crowding typical of mountain huts. Rest lying on the rocks, watching and trying to guess how it will be the ride of three kilometers above 4,000 meters ahead of us tomorrow.
It starts, as usual, at times impossible, and in mass. Fortunately, most part of the mountaineers has the goal of the summit that Castor is on the left compared to our way, then, after an hour we find ourselves alone in the distance followed by a lone climber. He began the climb that will take us to the ridge. It 'a long sloping and exposed, but the track is clear and creates no problems whatsoever.
top of the hill and we are at the beginning of the much-coveted CREST.
You know that in many reports of trails cites "necessary firmness of foot? Well, here is the exact representation of the meaning of that quote. The space where to put your feet is really small (there are side by side), but the real surprise I get a bump after the course. Elidio I look behind me, because the slope stops me, but I warn him to watch the rope, and then I sit astride the ridge and proceed with pushing hands. I get goose bumps. I'm sitting on the edge joining two steep slopes of a few hundred meters. I had read of such things, but I had not given much credit. It takes only a hundred feet, after which I again set up and I stop. Elidio emerges from the slope and see the ridge. Even he does not feel like to stand and repeat my actions. Meeting we look and laugh. "Oh ... like real ones."
The safety technology in these paths, is dropped from the side which falls on climbing partner, so as to balance the weight and stop the slide of both. Fortunately we did not need to make sure if it works, because after the first impact, become familiar with the exposure and significantly improves our balance. Proceed a bit 'below the ridge on the north side, due to the frames created by the wind, which protrude on the south side of the vacuum. Trampling may cause them to yield results with little funny. Not for nothing that the ridge was called "maneater."
Apart from a small snag on the rocks to "scale down" the way is very enjoyable. You can see the Himalayan glaciers, the Matterhorn, the peaks of Monte Rosa and
Capanna Margherita (another impressive outing). We are constantly over 4,000, we are walking on the world, the feeling is this.
joints on the hill that separates the two peaks of Lyskam, it began rising again. "Cancel out, so 'strace'. Answer: "Hip me if fermemo every thirty yards." "Very well." Go ahead and after a while he 'stops to catch his breath. There is no oxygen. Again, this time into account the steps, fifty, sixty ... damn, I want to die.
Finally, we arrive on the second and last peak (4527). ENTERTAINMENT: blue sky tends to purple, there is not even much wind, the imperial day. The look goes anywhere without limitations. I know I repeat myself, but there is nothing comparable to the high mountains. From there, all downhill. We got such a feeling for the emptiness that surrounds us here and now that we are no longer the case in the maneuvers to be done to let the climbers who climb in the opposite direction. We arrive at the Colle del Lys (4153), end of the ridge, and take a look at the north wall of Lyscam. Awesome! Something to eat while admiring the impressive serac at the base of the south wall: it perceives the force of nature.
Bon, enough. I seem to be a newsreel of the two decades. "The heroic protagonists titanic efforts have dealt with the formidable challenge to the adverse nature victorious reaching the goal."
go down to the shelter
Gniffetti , along the deep trace of the normal route to the Capanna Margherita, meeting a crowd of climbers involved in the classic, beautiful, but super crowded slope. Stop at the refuge for bodily needs resulting from the abuse of prunes. You know, the fructose is a holy hand to replenish your energy. The fact is I come in "bath" sheet structure, with a central bore directly on the glacier below. Convenient, clean, comfortable. The only drawback, the cold air that rises from the ice reduces the reproductive system in a poor miniature of himself.
still go down to the pass Salati and then down again until you reach the cable car station that will take us back to the camper. More than 2,000 feet of descent with plastic boots on his feet. These things, in time, have always prevented the normal growth of the nails of my toes. When you arrive, speak briefly with the bladder the size of a two year old child who took life in my right heel, and I'm under the narrow, but refreshing shower in the camper.
go down in the country and we make a rich pasta and rich equally admiring birrona from below the route. A passerby, looking towards the tops, says, "In this heat it would be good with your ass laid there." No idea how close he came to reality.
In this third episode I think I stop the series, a bit 'because I only write on the blog and a bit' because I would not get bored.
Manrico
