A day salvaged

By Kenny Stocker>

Today the fine weather returned to the mountains of Lecco and like a complete idiot I lay in bed oblivious to it all. You know how it is.. you wake at about 6.30 and decide to just have another half hour under the sheets. You lay there, waiting for that half hour to finish, or wondering if something will happen first to make you get out of bed, and before you know it it is mid-day and there is not a cloud in the sky. And what did you do with those precious minutes.. ab-so-lute-ly nothing.

I truly despise myself in these circumstances. What a waste of an opportunity, just what wasn’t I thinking?!!

I was up, I had to pull myself back together and salvage the day. The car needed a short run out as cold weather and limited use had discharged the battery. It had been a while since I had been across to Valmadrera to climb Monte Moregallo (1276m) so I decided to give it a shot.

The weather was just spot on for walking. Chilly enough to wear my prototype Alpkit softshell while pounding up hill with a Bleat baselayer underneath. It wasn’t long before I had made it up to the chapel at S. Tomaso, in fact I had caught up with an old truck carrying wood.. maybe those extra hours in bed had done me good after all!

I didn’t have a map, which wasn’t really a problem as I could clearly see where the peak was, but the woods are criss-crossed with devious tracks and I was in no mood to get lost today. As it happens all went well and I traversed swiftly under Corno Rat.. I like that name.. and up past the impressive cliffs of Corno di Canzo and on to the Moregallo ridge, my 4 section CarbonLites chattering away on the limestone paths.

One thing that I always find a bit eery walking in these hills is the lack of animal life, I was lucky to catch a sight of 4 chamois but no bird life to speak of. I don’t really know if it is the impact of hunting, or the wildlife just does not inhabit the higher slopes. Either way it is not very cool.

The warm sun accompanied me for the best part of the descent, the limestone cliffs over Lecco were turning a shade of pink and my half day out was coming to an end.

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