A Short Walk up Sas Ciampac

Wednesday is a day off for Collett's staff. There were no organised activities for us to be sociable on, and others felt our own plans would be too easy/hard for them.

So Sue and I set off on our own from the chalet at 9am down the steep path/road to Corvara village.

Sassongher (pictured from near our chalet) looms high above Corvara, but it wasn't our objective today. We were heading for the highest of the summits to the north east of Passo Gardena, Sas Ciampac, which at 2672 metres towers over neighbouring Sassongher by all of 7 metres. It's pictured in the posting from two days ago, just after our arrival here.

Having previously approached Col Pradat by a brutally steep path from Colfosco, #4A from Pescosta was pleasurable in comparison. It wound gently up through shady woods, past Fragrant Orchids and vibrant Moon Daisies (pictured).

At 1820 metres, about the height of the nearby Edelweiss Hut, we spotted our first flowers of that name on this trip.

After joining #4 at Col Pradat, we contoured amiably towards Forcella Ciampei on what proved to be a very busy section of path. The crossroads at the Forcella seemed like Piccadilly Circus, so it was with relief that we turned off Alta Via 2 onto path 2A shortly afterwards.

The ascent of Sas Ciampac from the sparsely vegetated limestone plateau then became a pleasure. We summited around 1pm and enjoyed lunch in our own company, having narrowly missed a coach load of Japanese!

It became busier after we rejoined AV2 at Passo Crespeina, but the route to Passo Cir and on to Jimmy's Hut was nevertheless a pure delight, firstly above a narrow valley of lush meadows bordered by steep cliffs, then winding between rocky pinnacles that remind me of the Trotternish area of Skye.

We were thirsty, so two schiewassers went down well. But the cost! Nearly €8 for two glasses of cordial! Ouch.

Flower (identification) stops punctuated our stroll down the easy #650 then #28 to Corvara. Lovely woods with open views, then a call into the supermarket before the final 150 metre climb up to Chalet Angelo to conclude an excellent day. We had walked about 16km, with 1300 metres ascent, in about 9 hours.

Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange