Monte Prena from Campo Imperatore

Saturday, 26 May 2007

The Gran Sasso offers a great number of possible hikes. We are talking about hikes of the most varied mountaineering difficulty. Perhaps that is why the group is growing steadily fonder of this magnificent and unspoilt nature park.

Monte Prena belongs to the eastern group of peaks of the Gran Sasso. Looking at Monte Prena from the surrounding mountains (Monte Camicia, Monte Brancastello) or simply from the plain of Campo Imperatore, it looks like a rather “rough” mountain. Its shape tells us of a young mountain still subject to erosion, a sign of the recent deglaciation of the massif.

This time the Aria Sottile Group is made up of a good 9 people. Andrea and Marco have joined us. We leave the car park at 8.00 in the morning. We all agree on the ascent by the Via dei Laghetti. The group is made up of people with mixed levels of fitness and skill; here… now… we all have something to learn.

Crossing the meadows of Campo Imperatore is a marvellous sight, especially in spring. Taking centre stage is the multitude of flowers freely showing off their colours and shapes.

You enter the Canala, a long glacial moraine of rubble and fine sand; bearing right we pass close to a little hut set romantically between two solitary saplings. At the foot of the Coste di Sferruccio, on the left, starts the Via dei Laghetti, so called because of the pools of water on small rocky terraces. The route is waymarked yellow and red with no number, and all the way to the summit it is almost impossible to lose the path (at least in summer conditions).

Andrea, Marco and Patrik, right from the first little grade II and III moves, made themselves indispensable in leading the way and belaying the less experienced. Some of us enjoy going over the rocks climbing completely free, to give full vent to our mountaineering creativity.

The scenery is stunning, for rock lovers the place is idyllic and everyone takes a great many souvenir photos; I myself put my newly acquired Nikon D40 to work. The last demanding move is a short chimney a couple of metres high that can be climbed with various techniques.

As Alessandro (also known as the Oracle) had warned us, the weather has got worse. With extreme precision he had forecast clouds on the peaks of the Gran Sasso. After a stop on the col that leads to the south-east ridge we decide to go up to the summit and come back down by the normal route. For some of us the climb to the summit ends with a long, breathless walk.
The stop on the summit lets us get our strength back; we refuel with water, sandwiches and fruit, and set off on the way down. As we near the Vado di Ferruccio, Alessandro's forecast becomes reality. The rain starts to soak us but it is not unpleasant. The sky is lit up now and then by lightning. Looking carefully we notice that it is lightning from cloud to cloud. None of it comes down to the ground, so we walk calmly along the perfectly waymarked route as far as Fonte Fornaca.

Walking in the rain has something soothing about it. The flowers on the plain of Campo Imperatore seem revived by the fresh water. From Fonte Fornaca you head towards the Canala, leaving Monte Paradiso (a tall grassy pyramid) on your left. Past Monte Paradiso you come in sight of the gravel road that leads to the stazzi (shepherds' stone enclosures) and to the edge of the Canala. We take all the time we need to enjoy a bucolic stroll we had long wanted to take across these enchanting, unspoilt meadows…