Daily Archives: 17 August 2015

August 17th

Well, the forecast good weather did not come!  Peter and I left the hut at 7 a.m., the sky was completely overcast and it had rained during the night.  We headed up towards the buttress that is the “voie normale” up the Piz Badile.  Then it started raining gently and fog covered the top of the mountain.  Not wanting to climb wet, cold rocks, we turned back.

Distance: 3,2 km
Time: 90 minutes
Vertical distance: 375 m, both up and downhill

We had another problem – we had just about used up our Euros because 3 places in a row did not accept credit or debit cards.  The hut warden’s wife assured me there was a working Bancomat in the village of San Martino below and that the bank there was open on Monday afternoon. So I decided to go down and get some money.  By now the rain had stopped and the weather improved slightly. Peter preferred to stay at the hut.

It was 1200 m down to the Bagni del Màsino – there are hot springs there – then another 300 m and 3 km to San Martino.  The path was very stony and slippery because of the rain, so great care was needed.  Nevertheless I reached the Bagni in 2 hours and the village centre 40 minutes later.

The Bancomat was out of order!  The thunderstorm of 3 days ago had knocked out the connections. And the bank was open only on Monday morning, not the afternoon, closing at 12.30 (I got there at 12.50).

Then I was lucky:  I noticed a bus going to Val Màsino and got on just before it left for the Bagni and saved me an hour’s walk. The remaining 1200 m took me 2 hours 45.