Taking advantage of Labor day, we escape into the Great Paradise for one more backcountry ski outing...probably the last of the season. Gran Paradiso is a nice 4000m peak that it is skiable late into the season. At this time, you can only start skiing from the refuge Vittorio Emanuel II at 2735m which means you still get 1300m of skiing. The snow was really great.
Thinking that we could ski up to the cabin, we started up really early in the morning, but we would soon find out that our early start was unnecessary. We loitered around at the refuge for one night; I must add that the reading material is weak, as in two or three non-italian magazines!, so next time bring a book.
Our breakfast is at 5am on the summit day. The good news, is that we won't be freezing our butts off. The bad news is that it is snowing. We go for it anyways, interestingly not too many people have headed out yet. We are a group of about 10. The route finding is difficult as there are no traces and visibility is low. Usually one just follows a super highway that is traced on the snow. The good news, is that this means great untraced snow for the descent!!. We make it to the summit after using our navigation skills (i.e. altimeter and compass). The mountain will not reveal its views this time. We head down as we want to go all the way down. Although we don't get the views, we get great snow (read powder) for the descent.
Julie's selection of pictures.
Topo Skitour
