In Toni de Tuni footsteps
Suggestions
Suggestions
“… Few English mountaineers are familiar with the Lanzo Valleys, which range from the northwest of Turin to the Alps dividing Italy from France. The few of them who visited them have certainly been struck by Balme position in Val d’Ala. The village is surrounded by steep cliffs and dominated by the gigantic Bessanese rocky massif (11.917 ft) closing the valley. Antonio Castagneri, the great Italian guide, lived here…” (W.A.B. Coolidge 1890, on “The Alpine Journal”)
Suggested period
From (mid) June to mid September
Starting point
Balme
Duration
2 nights – 3 days minimum
A trip to the origins , in the Turin mountaineering cradle, to discover historical routes on the Val d’Ala final mountains, on topographers and first alpine guides’ footsteps. Everything started in the 1857 summer. Engineer Tonini, employed by the Savoy royal land registry, and Ambrosini, his assistant for trigonometric survey operations, climbed the main Valley summits (Ciamarella, Bessanese, Croce Rossa, and Uja di Mondrone). Later on the English mountaineers accompanied by alpine guides, arrived.
A vacation, fit for you, devoted to classic mountaineering. Skill is required to judge and know how to tackle the climbing ground. The true difficulty is not climbing grades but the rock variety and your ability to locate clue passages, at times misleading. On your own or guided by experts’ skill, it will be possible to choose among several itineraries.