Maso Corto, Alto Adige, Italia
07/10/2023
The next day was designated entirely to hiking the surrounding mountains.
After breakfast, the group met up outside our refuge to meet up with our guide Anna, a local and university friend of my brother. She nonchalantly told us that it had taken her about 45 minutes to walk the hike we had done the day earlier – taking 3 hours.
So with her as motivation and lead, we started our ascent up the rocky terrain. Though the trail was relatively stable in the beginning, the first couple of metres already showed us that hiking at altitudes of around 3.000m above sea level was quite something.
Cliffside
The higher we got, the rougher the mountain scape became. While the day before, we had started our climb surrounded by trees and grass, now the rocks were bare and the cliffs steep.
Glaciers Everywhere
We hiked quite some while, ever higher and higher to reach Punta Vallelunga, or Langtauferer Spitze, a plateau from which the view was simply phenomenal. This included seeing the glacier spanning the valley underneath us, as well as marvelling at the many glaciers covering the surrounding mountains.
While the ski season was far from starting, the icy slopes gave a first sense of the terrain and on some, the ski lifts made envisioning the winter season downright easy.
The Ridge
From the plateau, we followed a ridge that demarcated the border between Italy and Austria. In fact, I did not even realise it was a border until I did the research for this post.
We walked along the border (without any border controls, thank you Schengen!) and turned our attention back to the dry and barren rocks underneath our feet.
Back to the Roots
With the steep decline and not-so-stable ground, we slowly made our way downhill. The more we descended, the more the flora came back into the scenery. And after crossing some off-the-path terrain, we got back to our accomodation safely.
Lastly, here is the tracking data of our 7,5km hike that day. I always find it fascinating how high altitude climbs significantly affect the distance travelled. While on flat terrain one could have walked 25km easily in 5 hours, the 500m of height changed that to roughly a third.
Admittedly, the larger the group, the bigger the discrepancies in fitness levels and ambition, but in any case I got hyped more than ever for making hikes a bigger part of my free time. Just like with offroading, immersing myself in the untamed nature captivates me more than any everyday activity.
A domani!