Refugio Pastore

We took the gondola down from The Rifugio Oberto Maroli to Macugnaga and then started walking from the village down the valley. We then turned up the Valle Quarazza. It was a long approach to the start of a very steep switchback trail built by the Italian Alpini. This is the part of the trail where a Gwilym had so much difficulty last year. He did it a month earlier and it was snow covered. We had lunch and had a herd of cows come by and pestered us for food. We saw several groups of cows during our ascent. We could hear the bells around their necks as we were approaching from a distance. Farmers here keep their cows in the villages during the winter months and then bring them to higher grounds in the summer months. It is common to see groups of cows up at 2000m in the summer months. We had lunch near a group of cows. They were curious and approached us. Hilary stuck out her pole as one approached her and it seemed to get a bit aggressive in response to this. One cow then approached Hamish, bringing his face inches away from Hamish. Hamish then rubbed the cow's face. The cow seemed really affectionate like a dog!! We had a long gruelling hike to the Colle del Turlo (2737 m) and it began to rain near the top, so we put on our rain gear. It was then a steep switchback downhill 1000 m to Refugio Pastore, with the sun coming out again. We had a shower and beers and nice dinner. It was a very long and hard day today.Read more