This weekend we climbed the mountains around Riva del Garda.

Riva is a lovely small town at the north-western end of Lake Garda, surrounded by the cliffs of Mount Rocchetta and Mount Baldo. This is a well known place for sailing and MTBing. We got there on Saturday evening, so we had time to enjoy the place, drink a Spritz in the main square and have a nice salmon trout. There were many tourists, mostly Germans.

The next morning we woke up early so that around 8:30 we were already boots-and-backpack at Pregasina, which is the starting point of our walk, 540 meters above the sea level. From there we took CAI paths 422 bis and 429 up to Scala Santa and Cima Nodice (~900m) where we could enjoy a wonderful view over the lake and Pregasina, giving us satisfaction for the altitude we had climbed so far (very steep!).

Moving ahead, we took path 430 towards the ridge and Cima Al Bal. Again it was a very steep path and I sweared at it. At some point there is a fork and the right path is for expert only. We preferred to take the easier one. Soon after that we found a military fortress that was carved in the rock during WWI. Nowadays it what’s left is a maze of tunnels unfolding inside the mountain (~1100m). Before Al Bal you also get a wonderful and unexpected view over the Ledro Lake valley.

At Cima Al Bal (1260m) you are on the ridge and find yourself walking on a blade-like path unfolding over a spectacularly thin line of rock, completely open on both sides and yet quite easy to follow. At Cima Nara (1376m) we were at the top altitude of our trip. We climbed 840 meters in approximately three hours. From there we followed the ridge to Mount Guil and Guil Greens, where a surreal bench stands right in front of the precipice and you can sit there gazing at the breathtaking landscape.

From Guil Greens, the farthest point in the trip, we took our way back through path 422 to Rocchetta Pass and then 422bis to Malga Palaer. Despite having 3 liters when we started, I was running out of water. Luckily enough there was a fountain (the only one we found in the whole trip) and that convinced me we could continue to Punta Larici where we easily walked to a overhanging rock dominating Limone and the most of the Lake. 422bis finally took us to Pregasina trough as an easy white road.

The whole trip lasted 8 hours and has been very nice.

This weekend I went with Fabio and Michele hiking on the mountains. I love hiking but it was quite some time I didn’t go, so I was a bit excited. Our target was Scaffaiolo lake (1775m), a place on the Appennini mountains between Modena and Pistoia, in the Frignano Natural Park area. The plan was to drive to hut Capanno Tassoni (1317m) and then walk up hill from there.

We weren’t equipped with complex stuff, in particular no crampons and no ice axes, so Michele called the hut’s caretaker to check for weather and snow conditions. Luckily enough, we were told there was some snow around 1500m but nothing difficult. My equipment was: a bottle of water, a couple sandwiches, one apple, some chocolate, a compass, a map, Aku boots, a waterproof wind-stopper jacket, hat, sunglasses.

Once we got to Capanno Tassoni – around 10am – we wore boots, reviewed the map, checked everything and started to walk uphill on trail CAI415, heading to Croce Arcana pass (1680m). Initial landscape was green forest. As expected, after a while we found ourselves walking over snow, but nothing too difficult. Luckily enough, my trousers turned out to be mostly snow-proof and the weather was warm enough so the thin jacket was sufficient.

In 80 minutes we made it to the pass. Up there you find no tree at all, just thin grass, and the pass is at the ridge on the border between Emilia Romagna and Toscana so the wind flows strong and steady moving between the two sides of the Appennini chain. A little cross and a military monument with a pair of howitzers mark the place. From there we switched to trail CAI00, that is walking east-bound on the ridge. The top of the mountains was mostly clean, probably because the south slope is more exposed to the sun and maybe also because of the stronger wind, so the walk was definitely easy with the added bonus of an awesome 360 degrees view on the surrounding valleys. Believe it or not, there were people jogging and cycling over there.

Moving forward we climbed mount Spigolino (1825m), rested a bit on the top and finally reached Lake Scaffaiolo (1775m) at 1pm, just on time to taste a big slice of hand-made blueberry cake at Rifugio Duca Degli Abruzzi. Good! Lake Scaffaiolo is a strange water basin on the top of the mountain. The ridge splits in two parallel lines and rain water (and melting snow) accumulate in the middle, forming a thin lake (just 2.5m deep). At least twenty people were there, resting, sunbathing, playing with their dog, having lunch, wetting their feet in the lake.

We tried to go down though trail CAI401 but bad signals hidden by snow made us get it wrong, so after some off-track we ended up on trail CAI333. No problem, the path was beautiful anyway and through CAI335 we quickly joined CAI401 in Cingio Ermidiano. At that point the weather got really warm. I had to undress to a simple t-shirt. From there we followed CAI401 to Della Riva pass and finally we took CAI445 back to Rifugio Tassoni. We walked 6h30 in total: whoa!