Alpine Logistics

One of Valle d’Aosta’s southern-most side valleys, Champorcher is still untouched by modern constructions. Driving up it is like entering into a fairy tail, where all the houses are small, pretty and quaint, the sun is always shining and the surrounding landscape is a flood of pink, purple, yellow flowers amongst the new grass and glistening streams.

At the head of the valley is Bec Raty; a 300m wall of gneiss with a fun 6a route following cracks, corners and bulges to its top. In no time at all Antonia, Manuel and I were on the final pitch before the short scramble to the summit. All of a sudden a loud clap of thunder in the neighbouring valley signalled that the day’s heat had reached a climax and storm clouds were accumulating out of sight behind the bulk of rock on which we were suspended. A cold breeze began to whip around us and it wasn’t long before the clouds started to spill over into the valley.

Feeling vulnerable we made a hasty retreat by abseil back to the base of the route. Thunder and lightning let rip as we hit the floor and made a race for the car under a hailstorm. Shafts of sunlight filtering through the clouds produced very dramatic lighting effects and the wet ground released a beautiful smell of pine.