Autumn hikingtrip to Northern Italy - Valtellina, 2004

Ok, I did'nt get a change to do any big trips during the summer. So when the lectures started at Uni, I found out that I didn't have that many lectures to go to. So I desided to take a break, and booked a cheap flight to Northern Italy.


To make this trip interesting, the flight departed from Skavsta Airport in Sweden, and I lived in Finland. So My journey began by taking the night cruiseship from Turku to Stockholm, but as I was short on cash I didn't get a room. Ended up sleeping a few hours on the skychairs, but before that I partied pretty hard at the Disco with the cruise passangers.


The following morning in Stockholm I killed some time before taking the bus to Skavsta Airport, roughly 200km from Stockholm. The I killed some more time there, and got safely to Bergamo, Italy. Sadly I missed the last train to where I was heading by a few hours, so I killed some more time in Bergamo. As the first train left around 5am, I desided to sleep in the trainplatform. Sadly the Policia had other plans, and they closed the station at around 1am, throwing me out. Oh, well I walk to the bus-station and slept the rest of my night there.


The train-rides went smoothly, but I had some trouble finding the bus stop for the bus up to the valley. Infact, I never found it. I got bored and started hiking up, following the roadsings to San Martino (9km, with 1500m of vert gain on tarmac), thinking I'll find the bus stop furher along the way. Luckily I also hitch hiked, and got a lift from a lorry driver. Well, it turn out that the driver spoke almost no english, and I don't speak italian. Luckily they guy noticed my ice axe, and asked (with sign language) where I was heading, and he even recognised my reply "Piz Badile".


Didn't get the lift all the way up to San Martino, but I did get past most of the uphill and saved roughly 6km of walking. I shopped for some food at San Martino, as well as gas. Well, nothing goes as planned so noe of the shops had the right kind of gas-canister. Damn, oh well life sucks. Ended up purchasing a new gas stove... After my shopping spree, I continiued hiking to the refugia near the Spa Bagni di Masino.




The spa, named Bagni di Masino on that misty autumn morning.



A small hole in the clouds. Tomorrow I should cross that ridge, roughly at it's highest visible point.



A view, the following day, near the next refugio.



Posing in front of the refugio. "Winter room" is that small building in upper right corner.



And me looking goofy, inside the "winter room".



A nice break in the weather, the clouds rose to rouhgly 3500m and finally I could see the sweet granit mountains.



A nice looking spike, has around 5 climbing route's up it's right flank. Height around 300m, and to my knowledge the left flank is still routeless (with a lot of potential).



The summit-register of Punta Torelli (3137m), after I had climbed the normal route up. Nothing special, but a few hairy moments in icy and snow covered ledges over a vast drop.



The obligatory summitphoto, notice the TelemarkTips -sticker in my axe.



That spike again, from a different angle.



S-face of Piz Badile lurking between the clouds.



Unnamed peak (3195m) between Piz Badile and Pic Cengalo, has a nice easy alpineclimb on the South Ridge pictured above. Mebbe I'll climb it in the future.



River at the bottom of the valley. The new snow made finding the path down a bit difficult, as the the path is marked by painting the "flag" on stones. It snowed around 20cm of pure fresh snow during the night. It was my que to head lower...



Nice waterfalls, and good stoke. If I'm not complitely mistaken, somewhere there is a f7b alpineclimb...



More scenic stoke: granit peaks, clouds and pine forest.



Fountain somewhere in Bagni di Masino.



Nice slab, got to come back and climb it...



A view to Val di Mello (also know as Little Yosemite), huge granit walls with literally hundrets of climbing routes.



Meadows at the bottom of the valley (Val di Mello).



Another scenic pic from Val di Mello.



My illegal "bivuac".



Scenic pic somewhere from Val di Mello.



Some Alpine-stuff, highest peak in the middle is most likely Mont Disgrazia.



The "hotel" in Val di Mello.



Scenic stoke, still from Val di Mello.



Another view for Mont Disgrazia.



The wall of Precipizio degli Asteroidi, boasting quite a few long rock climbs. Eg. Oceano irrazionale f6 something for 600m.



Another wall, somewhere in Val di Mello.



Some contrast, it had been raining in the valley, but snowing higher up...



The righthernmost butters is Precipizio degli Asteroidi, and you can spot it quite easily from the entrance to the valley.



A local...



Another valley and cirque, looking nice.



Me an the waterfall, there's also a climbing-route on either side of the fall. One is f7 something and the other f6a, atleast that's pretty close.



The new illegal "bivuac".



Me doing some bouldering... I think this route was F4a.



Nice colors, as the sun sets. The rockwall on the right is part of Sasso Remenno -boulder, I think its the largest boulder in Europe (over 30m high, above the ground etc.).



Looking at Val di Mello from San Remenno.



A view from Lecco on Lago di Lecco, with Mont Barro in the background (I think).