Italy - the Attack of Balzo Nero

Unwisely Non- Chalanting the Appenines
A few miles from our home base of Bennabio, near the village of Vico Pancellorum, we parked the car at an innocent looking trail mouth.

We were there for the Balzo Nero, a five-thousand footer that we figured we'd knock off in an hour and then celebrate over lunch.  The sign pointed to what I thought was a distance of 2.3 kilometers.  Turns out, the 2.30 represented the two and a half hours of uphill that lay ahead.

 

From 11:00am to 1:30pm not a single step taken was lower or even level with the previous.  It was an unrelenting slog up, mostly through dense forest, thankfully.

We were undone by the arrogance of our recent Nepal trip.  "How bad could it be?" we'd asked each other, laughing it off as we packed two measly water bottles and a few small chocolate bars.

After an hour, when we'd emerged from the shadows into a clearing, I thought we'd reached the summit.  I turned on the narrow hairpin of path to look up and see thousands more feet above us.

It was no use complaining.  We'd already bragged our way into a dead end.  We'd underestimated it to a degree that our pride wouldn't allow us to turn back.

The trail became laughably narrow.  Wide enough for a single foot.  A few hours later I would slip exactly here and probably would've gone a few hundred feet if I hadn't grabbed onto the tall grass with a death grip.

We alternated between forest and meadow following the painted trail signs. 

As was the case in Nepal, every break made you that much more tired when you restarted.  I was taking half sips of water, knowing I was going to run out well before the end of the hike.

I was out of breath the entire time and didn't feel well.  I was still jet lagged.  The only thing that kept me going was the view.  Spectacular and getting better as we neared the peak.

We knew we were close as the wind began to pick up.

We slowed our pace to scramble across the rocky fingers of the peak. 

From the top the 360 degree views were splendid.

After such exertion and unparalleled views across the Garfagnana region, the tiny plaque marking the peak seemed less than adequate.

Dodo sat and caught her breath but got up to her feet for a celebratory photo.

This is a video from the top.