Alpine Logistics

Whilst the rest of northern Italy was overcast with widespread rain and snow showers this Sunday, the mountains around Courayeur were blessed with blue skies and sunshine.

We drove to Morge, a tiny village above La Salle in the northern-most reaches of Valle d’Aosta, near Monte Bianco. The road zig-zags for several hunded metres up the mountain side, where a small car park and some footpath signs half burried in snow mark the end of the road at an elevation of 1600m.

We were heading for Testa d’Eifra (2818m) via Colle Felita. We put on boots, gaiters and snowshoes and began our walk through a sweet-smelling pineforests which, as I commented to Manuel, will forever remind me of bears in the Canadian forests of Banff National Park!

The air was still and the sun srong, it was very peacful and blissfully silent in the forest. We noticed the footprints of a snow hare which crossed our path and disappeared into the trees. It’s nice to be remindeed that we share the mountains with these wild animals even if they are rarely seen.

Eventaully we came across a group of old stone houses burried almost upto the roof in snow, before rising above the tree line into an open, white landscae dominated by the surrounding peaks. The wind picked up as we became more exposed to the elements but it was a beautiful day. It was hard to believe that just a few kilometres down the main valley it was snowing: we felt very lucky.

A few dots in the distance moved slowly upwards beneath our col. Ski mountaineers leave early in the morning to get the best snow during their descent…leaving it too late would mean skiing through mush. However our snowshoes are lighter than their skis so we caught up with them at the col. From here a wide but corniced ridge led in a short distance to the summit.

The skiers peeled the skins from their skis, put on a few more layers of clothes and waved us a cheerful ‘ciao!’ as they dived off down the summit slopes. Half an hour and they would probably be back at the car…we on the other hand sat down to enjoy lunch and the views before our somewhat slower descent on foot. Monte Bianco’s giant bulk was unmissable, it towers above the other peaks despite being further away, what a mountain.