Hello all
I plan to start on a backpacking trip this friday June 20th.
The destination is Val Grande National Park. There are some unactivated I/PM summits that I plan to activate during the trip.
Hope to see you on the air.
Best regards
Yoshi
Even though I concluded the trip earlier than initially planned, I am quite satisfied.
Day 1
I started the first day one hour late because I missed the train in Locarno.
Getting to Pizzo Ragno was easy enough. Due to the delay I decided to not attempt Pizzo Stagno on the same day and instead headed for Alpe In La Piana with the option to continue to Alpe Mottac, which would get me closer to the summit of the second day.
The descent I chose from Pizzo Ragno would take me along a path that is described in the map’s explanation as “dangerous path no longer maintained”. What it really turned out to be would be better described as “no path whatsoever”. I still went this way, because following a maintained trail would have meant a lot of additional distance and ascents/descents. My pathless route still cost a lot of time and energy.
I finally made it to Alpe In La Piana a bit after 2100 local time.
The decision was made not to activate the summits of the third day (Pizzo delle Pecore and Pizzo della Rossola), because from inside the Val Grande National Park, they are only accessible by paths of the “no path whatsoever” kind. It would have been necessary to leave the park, take the train and approach these summits from another direction.
Day 2
On the second day I got to Testa di Menta easily enough. I activated it with CW only on 20m.
Due to the considerations of the previous day, I then returned to Alpe In La Piana and decided there would be enough time to make it to Alpe Scaredi. This last part was very exausting though, and two out of three hours between Alpe In La Piana and Alpe Scaredi were spent in thunderstorm rain.
I spent a great evening and night at Alpe Scaredi. However, I decided to only activate one more summit, as the first two days had been very strenuous. I obviously chose Pizzo Stagno as the last summit of the trip, as it is a similar distance from Alpe Scaredi, but as of yet unactivated.
Day 3
For Pizzo Stagno, I started early this morning with a light pack (I would pass Alpe Scaredi again on the descent) and got to the peak at around 0800 local time. I activated CW only. Adding 40m instead of my usual 20m only worked great this early in the day.
Many thanks to the chasers who put up with my lousy CW.
APRS worked well on all three summits. Cellphone reception was good on Testa di Menta (I haven’t tried anywhere else).
I can really recommend a visit to the Val Grande National Park. Alpe Scaredi is fairly accessible (only 600 vertical meters from the parking in Valle Loana) and it offers great views and decent facilities.
