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Recent Trip Reports
- Winter Weekend #2 15-17 March 2024
- WINTER WEEKEND #1 – 22nd TO 25th FEB 2024
- A point on OSMaps (or otherwise)
- MOUNTAIN FIRST AID 10-11 FEBRUARY
- RIBBLEHEAD HUT TRIP 09-11 FEB 2024
- Glen Nevis Jan 11-14th 2024
- First Footing mountains of 2024
- Embsay Moor Walk – 25 Novemeber 2023
- Lock in at Parthian Harrogate
- El Chorro – November 2023
An Italian Job
High in the Appenines, Lago Santo Parmenese sits at 1500 metres. The Rifugio Mariotti stands at the waters edge, gazing across to 300 metre cliffs and the Appenine crest...... an idyllic scene which echoed for me the sea-side setting of Guirdil bothy on Rum.
A plaque reads “ From this Refuge nine partisans after 20 hours of hard fighting drove off an overwhelming force of enemy.......... 19 March 1944”.
Lago Santo was the mid-point of our 4-day trek to walk the northern end of (this part of) the Appenine mountain ridge. (Having done 6 days southwards a few years back). In total there are 750 miles of these mountains. For days on end, the ridge runs along usually about 2 metres wide. Although it is mostly grass and just occasionally rocky, the sides are often fiercely steep: you very seriously wouldn't want to slip the 800 metres drop west into Tuscany !
As the ridge undulates at about 1800 metres, beech forests cluster around. In hot sunny weather, their shade was very welcome. The forest trails have seen monks and pilgrims pass by, smugglers, traders, charcoal-burners, and resistance fighters. We saw just a couple of eagles, and a very few humans.
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