Departure: Forca di Presta - 1,534 m a.s.l.
Height difference: 904 m
Time required for uphill climb: 2.30 – 3 hours
Difficulty: medium gradient 20° - 30°
Castelluccio di Norcia
The car carrying two pairs of skis on top on the 2nd June, Republic Day, did not pass unnoticed. We were at Castelluccio di Norcia, in the heart of the Sibillini Park between the regions of Umbria and the Marche in central Italy.
This year there had been plenty of late snow but the Saharan temperatures in May made things look bad. The Americans call the last skiing of the season “The 4th of July chute” which coincides with Independence Day, but they ski at quite different altitudes... here in the Central Appenines we have to make do with the 2nd of June as our last skiing date. What we do have in common is that we all wish the ski season would never end.
It was early morning and a lot of visitors had come to the Park to see the famous sight of the lentils in flower on the Great Plain and the Lost Plain, which recall the windswept highland plateaux of central Mongolia.
We had arrived at last! After bad weather had already forced us three times to put it off, we were now ready to face the last flice of snow of the season. As usual, the setting was the central gully of Mount Vettore which, at 2,476m , is the highest peak in the Sibillini Mountains.
We had tried to persuade some of our telemarker friends to join us, but either because they had various ceremonies to attend or because they were reluctant to make a long climb up (913 metres ) for just a few minutes’ skiing down, most of them declined; except for Alfredo, and he decided not to ski but to reach the Lakes of Pilato on foot. Bad storms were forecast for the early afternoon, so we decided to set off early, and by 9am we were ready to start the climb at Forca di Presta. We got strange looks from trekkers who were also going up... you can’t really hide a pair of skis, and the predictable witty comments in local dialects about our going to pick daisies did at least make the uphill trek more enjoyable!
The sight that lay before us was breathtaking. The Great Plain was shrouded in thick mist, the sky was crystal clear, but the peak of Vettore was covered in towering cumulus clouds which did not look promising. In an hour and a half we reached the Zilioli Refuge, 2,200 metres high. After a short break here we split up : Alfredo set off down the other slope towards the Lakes of Pilato, while we continued climbing up towards the peak of Vettore which we reached in half an hour. We hadn’t quite got to the top when it started to rain. This year bad weather has characterized our alpine skiing. So we gave up the plan to stop for something to eat and got ourselves ready to ski down. But it is a well-known fact that the Sibillini Mountains have been considered magical since time immemorial, and today was no exception. Just as we were putting on our ski boots and cursing the weather, a fox appeared right in front of us like a mirage. We were amazed, but that wasn’t all; we dived for the camera and started taking photos, and the fox became suspicious and stopped still. She was wet, she looked cold too – maybe she was hungry? As if she were an ordinary dog, we started calling to her. After all, Assisi is not far away from here and St. Francis’ way with animals is well-known. Perhaps in places like this animals are used to listening to people who approach them peacefully. The fox hesitated for a moment, then came up to us; she must have realised we were not hunters but merely a couple of peculiar “Franciscan” telemarkers who were after the last patch of snow of the season. It was the fox’s lucky day as we had cheese and biscuits instead of chocolate bars. She was so hungry that she stood on her hind paws to get our food, almost as if she had escaped from a circus act! In a few minutes she had devoured our entire lunch! And right then, as if someone above wanted to acknowledge our gesture, the sun peeped out through the clouds. The fox was full while we were hungry... to cut some curves! It was time to ski back down.
With an average gradient of 25° the central gully of Mount Vettore is not steep. The broad tongue of snow exposed on the north-facing slope is the last place you can ski in the Sibillinis. When the season has been really cold, you can even find snow there in July. The gully is famous as it has hosted the last ski race of the season in central Italy for more than 50 years. However, it is nothing like a usual busy ski resort – here there are no ski lifts, and equipment is carried on mules which make the event more like a step back in history.
After a few curves we noticed that the fox was following us – maybe she too like so many humans was suspicious of this strange way of skiing. Foto 4 We skied sparingly, not wanting to use up all the 348 metres of difference in height too soon. We looked back to see all the tracks we had left in the snow and were sad to realise that the fox had gone. The magic had finished with the long ski season. The sky looked threatening again, we met Alfredo coming back from the Lakes, and so we decided to return to the car; and although we were caught in a downpour only a few metres from it, who cared, we had an unforgettable day.
Height difference: 904 m
Time required for uphill climb: 2.30 – 3 hours
Difficulty: medium gradient 20° - 30°
Castelluccio di Norcia
The car carrying two pairs of skis on top on the 2nd June, Republic Day, did not pass unnoticed. We were at Castelluccio di Norcia, in the heart of the Sibillini Park between the regions of Umbria and the Marche in central Italy.
This year there had been plenty of late snow but the Saharan temperatures in May made things look bad. The Americans call the last skiing of the season “The 4th of July chute” which coincides with Independence Day, but they ski at quite different altitudes... here in the Central Appenines we have to make do with the 2nd of June as our last skiing date. What we do have in common is that we all wish the ski season would never end.
It was early morning and a lot of visitors had come to the Park to see the famous sight of the lentils in flower on the Great Plain and the Lost Plain, which recall the windswept highland plateaux of central Mongolia.
We had arrived at last! After bad weather had already forced us three times to put it off, we were now ready to face the last flice of snow of the season. As usual, the setting was the central gully of Mount Vettore which, at 2,476m , is the highest peak in the Sibillini Mountains.
We had tried to persuade some of our telemarker friends to join us, but either because they had various ceremonies to attend or because they were reluctant to make a long climb up (913 metres ) for just a few minutes’ skiing down, most of them declined; except for Alfredo, and he decided not to ski but to reach the Lakes of Pilato on foot. Bad storms were forecast for the early afternoon, so we decided to set off early, and by 9am we were ready to start the climb at Forca di Presta. We got strange looks from trekkers who were also going up... you can’t really hide a pair of skis, and the predictable witty comments in local dialects about our going to pick daisies did at least make the uphill trek more enjoyable!
The sight that lay before us was breathtaking. The Great Plain was shrouded in thick mist, the sky was crystal clear, but the peak of Vettore was covered in towering cumulus clouds which did not look promising. In an hour and a half we reached the Zilioli Refuge, 2,200 metres high. After a short break here we split up : Alfredo set off down the other slope towards the Lakes of Pilato, while we continued climbing up towards the peak of Vettore which we reached in half an hour. We hadn’t quite got to the top when it started to rain. This year bad weather has characterized our alpine skiing. So we gave up the plan to stop for something to eat and got ourselves ready to ski down. But it is a well-known fact that the Sibillini Mountains have been considered magical since time immemorial, and today was no exception. Just as we were putting on our ski boots and cursing the weather, a fox appeared right in front of us like a mirage. We were amazed, but that wasn’t all; we dived for the camera and started taking photos, and the fox became suspicious and stopped still. She was wet, she looked cold too – maybe she was hungry? As if she were an ordinary dog, we started calling to her. After all, Assisi is not far away from here and St. Francis’ way with animals is well-known. Perhaps in places like this animals are used to listening to people who approach them peacefully. The fox hesitated for a moment, then came up to us; she must have realised we were not hunters but merely a couple of peculiar “Franciscan” telemarkers who were after the last patch of snow of the season. It was the fox’s lucky day as we had cheese and biscuits instead of chocolate bars. She was so hungry that she stood on her hind paws to get our food, almost as if she had escaped from a circus act! In a few minutes she had devoured our entire lunch! And right then, as if someone above wanted to acknowledge our gesture, the sun peeped out through the clouds. The fox was full while we were hungry... to cut some curves! It was time to ski back down.
With an average gradient of 25° the central gully of Mount Vettore is not steep. The broad tongue of snow exposed on the north-facing slope is the last place you can ski in the Sibillinis. When the season has been really cold, you can even find snow there in July. The gully is famous as it has hosted the last ski race of the season in central Italy for more than 50 years. However, it is nothing like a usual busy ski resort – here there are no ski lifts, and equipment is carried on mules which make the event more like a step back in history.
After a few curves we noticed that the fox was following us – maybe she too like so many humans was suspicious of this strange way of skiing. Foto 4 We skied sparingly, not wanting to use up all the 348 metres of difference in height too soon. We looked back to see all the tracks we had left in the snow and were sad to realise that the fox had gone. The magic had finished with the long ski season. The sky looked threatening again, we met Alfredo coming back from the Lakes, and so we decided to return to the car; and although we were caught in a downpour only a few metres from it, who cared, we had an unforgettable day.
Text & photo contributed by Roberto Ciarmatori and Oddo Broglia