I climbed a path I knew well from Valcanale through forest and past an abandoned ski area to the tumbled stones of a broad moraine. For another hour I picked my way up the moraine, often sliding back half a step for every one gained. Finally I reached this point, with a ledge to sit on and eat lunch and gaze at the dizzying view straight down a thousand metres to the valley. I took a reading with Peak Hunter and saw that I was at a little over 1900 m. Here the track became in parts an actual climb (grade I or II), needing both hands and feet.
Looking up, I saw grey fog pouring over the pass. I was climbing alone, without equipment, on a path I didn’t know. And I’d have to come back down the same way. As I’d started this part of the ascent, up the moraine, I met three men, whom I asked about the nature of the path. They told me that the last stretch was tricky, requiring you to climb (bisogna arrampicasi) much or all of the way. I watched the fog obscuring the rock faces around me and concluded that the sensible thing to do was to turn back. But I will return … supererò Passo del Re. I will go over the King’s Pass.
Passo del Re