Alpe di Succiso, the most beautiful gift

When in April 2011 Alessandro found the courage to suggest the climb up Alpe di Succiso to me, I could only accept his proposal. True, even today I look back on those moments, because I felt that when things come true together, after being planned for a long time, they take on even more meaning.

That April 2011 not everything went the right way: a series of small decisions taken at the last moment did not let us complete the hike, and the summit remained only a distant mirage.

Alessandro and Elena lived that small defeat with me, but nobody could make any kind of recrimination; coming from far away, we were all fairly unprepared. We didn't know the area and behaved, on the whole, like a bunch of amateurs.

At that moment Valeria sees my disappointment and makes it her own... Having dreamt of that summit for so long, having brushed it and then missed it through an inextricable mix of mistakes, was a shared defeat. Valeria “lives” that disappointment with me for whole months, with the intensity of someone who had hoped in those days to be able to climb it together.

While the mists clear from my mind and while I take back my certainties, Valeria plans in great secret to return to Alpe di Succiso. A secret kept locked in her heart for months. Alpe di Succiso will be ours for my 40th birthday. It will be ours on that day and in the way we had always dreamt of it.

A few metres from the summit of the Morrone, on the green meadows of the Monti della Duchessa, Valeria announces the magic to me and, with a conjuror's trick, pulls her birthday present for me out of the hat. I am completely wrong-footed, touched and at the same time proud of the woman who chose to walk beside me through life.

Thursday 5 July 2012

After a hearty breakfast we leave the Hotel Cristallo at Cerreto Laghi; it is 8.00 in the morning and the air temperature is perfect. It is neither too hot nor too cold, the vapour trails of the planes in the sky don't fade away, there is no wind and the feeling is that the weather will hold all day.

The aim is to repeat the same ascent as the year before, trying this time to understand where I had gone wrong the year before.

Just below the Passo della Scalucchia (1367 m) we find a small car park and a wooden table; we get ready quickly, almost impatient to be immersed in the wood. Near the dirt road there is a no-entry sign. This is the (wrong) path we took the year before. Close to the dirt road there are signs of a path: scant, indeed very scant. A sign shows path no. 667. I remember Giuseppe Albrizio's report by heart: perfect, it is impossible to go wrong. You take these few signs of path buried in the tall grass. Then all of a sudden the path becomes clearer and well defined. One clearing, two clearings, and then waymarks appear on the trees.

This is the ideal path for Valeria, who loves the gentleness of well-marked routes. There are no stones, no obstacles to climb over. We go at a steady but constant pace. This is what sets my pace, sometimes impetuous and aggressive, apart from Valeria's. She is constant, dogged, she doesn't give in even when the fatigue becomes pressing.

The wood shields us from the sun almost up to 1700 m. When we leave the wood we follow a couple of bends and straight away Monte Casarola rises in front of us and, on the right, Alpe di Succiso.

We know that now comes the most demanding part. In the sun and on this slope, climbing the last three hundred metres of height gain will take a bit of patience.

The flies and the mosquitoes are an endless nuisance and we keep swatting them away the whole time; we look like two lunatics. From the Costa del Mainasco we look at the valley below: at the bottom there is the Capiola spring and the dirt road we walked before. We realise the scale of the mistake made the year before. It is, in truth, a mistake worth at least 400 metres of height gain and a few kilometres of distance.

We follow the Costa del Mainasco up to 1905 m. Here a grade I move on small rocks and loose rubble. Valeria behaves superbly; she even climbs faster than I am able to. My worries vanish and at last all we have left is the last 70 metres to the summit of Monte Casarola (1979 m).

Alpe di Succiso and Monte Casarola were my two goals. So, once on the Casarola, I know that all we have left is to follow the long ridge to the summit of Alpe di Succiso.

The view over the valley of the river Secchia is astonishing. There is a great variety of summits and ridges... it is fantastic. Just being on top of Monte Casarola is already a first goal... we have only half an hour of walking left.

Valeria is starting to get tired and a tendon near her groin is hurting. But she is headstrong and dogged, oooh how dogged she is...

The ups and downs are in the order of tens of metres, nothing difficult. Now and then we have to use our hands to get over a few big boulders.

When we get close to the summit I let Valeria go ahead... as I have done other times in the past, I leave the conquest to my hiking companion. This summit, after all, is Valeria's conquest and I am only a spectator of her effort and her result. My heart overflows with emotion and pride bursts onto our faces in irrepressible smiles.

It is a goal dreamt of for at least six years, a priceless goal, an inestimable moment of true, genuine happiness.

We stay on the summit for half an hour, eat a sandwich, uncork the promised bottle of wine and enjoy the moment.

By now the worst is over but, as they often say in the mountains, a climb is never finished until you are down safe and sound. As we set off a gentleman is coming up towards the summit; we greet each other absent-mindedly and, without stopping, carry on with the descent. We are very focused, even though we know that only the short exposed passage on loose rubble awaits us. No other difficulty: once past that we will only need physical stamina to get back to the car.

Valeria gets past the rubble passage splendidly; I, on the other hand, as usual (it must be my height that pitches me forward), feel clumsy and slow, and in the end I get past too.

We stop often to drink and the weather is on our side: condensation clouds rise up, casting wide shadows on the mountain. The temperature becomes more pleasant and the descent less tiring.

When we enter the wood Valeria is not too tired, but the pain in her groin slows her movements and we go at a moderate pace.

The beech wood is magical and the path is impossible to lose. At half past four we are at the car; exhausted, we sit down at the table next to the car and eat the last sandwich. This too a moment of inestimable serenity.

All this the heart of a woman can bring about. All this a man can hope to receive... Doesn't one perhaps thank a wife for having thought all this through? Someone told me that husband and wife don't thank each other... I say instead that none of this is to be taken for granted at all. That is why I say it once more: thank you, Valeria.

A wonderful hike, in the end, a perfect hiking path. This ascent was a valid alternative to the usual normal route that climbs from Passo del Cerreto by way of the Pietra Tagliata. In fact Valeria could never have climbed by the normal route. The exposed passage of the Pietra Tagliata would have been too daring for her. For this valid alternative from the Passo della Scalucchia I must thank Giuseppe Albrizio, who before me was able to try out this path and make it known, and without whom this day could never have happened.