Trekking in the Alps. Kev Reynolds

Чтение книги онлайн.

      The Argentera is the highest peak in the Maritime Alps

      This route had been hovering at the back of my mind for a long time. It just wouldn’t go away. I’d read in an Italian Alpine Club magazine about a long-distance trail in Piemonte stretching over the arc of valleys and mountains that lay beyond the grand regional capital of Torino. But it was a hint from my publisher, Cicerone Press, that prompted me to set out. I found the idea of travelling across the Alps on foot hugely attractive, and spent hours poring over large-scale maps tracing the route and dreaming of the panoramas that my eyes would be treated to. The Grande Traversata delle Alpi – what an inspiring title! The distance was not to be underrated: a mere 200km as the crow flies but a huge 633km on the ground, in terms of paths and actual walking, accounting for a mind-boggling third (yes, a third!) of the immense Alpine curve.

      It was a terribly exciting prospect that would take me across the Western Alps on the very far side of Italy from my home in Venice. It also meant navigating across five of Italy’s Alpine regions – the Ligurian, Maritime, Cottian, Graian and Pennine Alps – past a procession of legendary stone giants from the Argentera, Monviso (Monte Viso) and Gran Paradiso, before the final crowning queen Monte Rosa. Brand new Alpine landscapes were to be revealed, along with captivating tales of the life of men and animals on the mountain slopes.

      The first year I managed to slip in a quick trip late September when the huts were beginning to shutter up as the season drew to an end. Contacts in the regional capital Cuneo suggested that I’d find comforting similarities with my beloved Dolomites in the limestone landscapes of the Ligurian Alps. This definitely proved true, but they omitted to warn me of the marvels of the adjoining Maritimes that took my breath away. That winter I found myself counting the months until I could go back, and the following summer ranks as one of the most memorable in the whole of my Alpine life as I wandered on for 36 blissful days, only a single short interruption due to inclement weather – zero visibility caused by dense fog and blinding rain.

      All I needed was on my back in my rucksack, and by my side in the shape of my companions, whose importance I never underrated. A motley crew of friends swept up by my enthusiasm joined me on holiday windows of opportunity, meeting up at strategic railway stations and bus stops along the way. I dubbed them my ‘shift walkers’.