Alpine Logistics

The valley of Monte Sordo is one of my favourite places in Finale Ligure. A dirt track road winds its way down the valley, whose limestone cliffs and dense mediterranean vegetation hide it away from the rest of the world.

The 20 minute approach is dotted initially with orange trees and lemon trees as it passes through a cluster of pink houses. The path then winds its way up through a series of terraces where a small cairn marks a deviation from the main footpath, taking a down-turn before making a panoramic high traverse.

Here the first rock outcrops begin to appear, from which you can already begin to get excited at the amazing quality of the compact, grey limestone found here.

Eventually, an apparantly dead-end cave opens up on the right. Just enough light gets in to allow you to make out its strange formations and if you venture to the back of the cave you’ll find a rope leading upwards into the darkness. At the end of the rope a small hole is just big enough to allow an adult to wriggle through and emerge into the world above; this is Grotta dell’Edera (Ivy Cave).

This is a very wide, 40 metre-deep hole in the ground whose walls are composed of excellent rock. Light enters from the hole at the top and through a large ‘window’ onto the outside world on the south side of the cavern.

There are a hand-ful of routes ranging from 6a to 7b+: enough to keep you entertained for a day or two. On one side tufas hang from a small roof whilst on the other vertical pocketed walls make for more delicate climbing. The varierty is great and each route follows its own distinct line. Several new routes have been opened here recently and I think there is still room for more.

As the name suggests a large ivy also hogs a significant section of wall, framing the cavern window. Everything about it is very suggestive and it certainly makes you feel as if you’ve been absent from the world for a day.

After several days of heavy snow the skies cleared and Sunday’s forcast was good. We got out our maps and identified a snow-shoe itinerary were the avalanche risk would be low. We found Punta della Pierre, a relativly low but very panoramic peak above the small village of Ozein in the valley of Cogne.

Getting up when it’s cold and dark outside is not my favourite way to start the day but as we drove into the snow-covered mountains of Valle d’Aosta with the sun rising behind them I remembered why I do it.

 ”I hope we don’t lose our way with all this snow” I said to Manuel as we approached Ozein but just a few minutes later we discovered that if anything we might lose each other in the crowd; there was a long line of cars parked and a great bustling of people kitting up on the road-side where the our trail began. Some had snow shoes and others skis with skins.

Fortunately the crowd thinned out further up and we were able to enjoy the scenery. The first half of the itinerary zigzagged up through a beautiful pine forest whose trees were laden with fresh snow. There was no wind and it was silent, something I very much appreciate as you rarely hear it in everyday life.

The going would have been a lot tougher had the trail not already been broken by those ahead of us but as it was we made good time and were soon above the tree line. From here a gentle ridge leads to the top of the mountain and offers fantastic views along the whole length of Valle d’Aosta. Although there was a thin layer of clouds hanging at about two-thirds height up the mountains, we could see the massif bulk of Monte Bianco at the north end of the valley and countless other peaks inbetween.

On the summit the ski-mountaineers peeled off their skins and disappeared down the side of the mountain in no time, leaving us to enjoy the warm afternoon sunshine as we descended, enthused and invigorated by our day-trip.