Thursday June 20, Rifugio Antermoia to Pozza di Fassa
We breakfasted with the Lithuanians and the Belgians, all of whom were planning to head onward over Passo Antermoia and were reassured by S's snow report from his foray on Wednesday. We, however, planned to head more or less straight downhill to the Fassa valley and the town Pozza di Fassa, for another short hiking day, in order to do laundry and enjoy a (relative) rest day.
When I planned our route, photos of the trail below beckoned--but the reviews on Komoot mostly said "we couldn't enjoy the views because we had to concentrate so hard on not slipping," so we took a flatter (yet still impressively steep) route instead.
These hairy things are the seed heads of pasqueflowers:
Globe flower (trollius europaeus) was abundant. It likes soggy soil.
Looking back toward Antermoia:
Bladder campion (silene vulgaris) looking particularly happy:
S is peering into "Bus de la Giacia," a cave entrance with cool air seeping out:
Our first glimpse of...not Pozza di Fassa, which is further around the valley, but another small town, Mazzin:
Apparently I didn't bother to take any photos of Pozza di Fassa. Businesses in Italy often close mid-day, so we considered ourselves lucky that someone was at the reception desk at our hotel, and was happy for us to check in at noon. We took showers and washed clothes. We had been washing our shirts and underwear daily, but our hiking pants dried slowly enough that we didn't wash them often; the early check-in meant even the pants got washed--a luxury!
We next headed to the pizza place next door for lunch, and contemplated how we'd spend the afternoon. Rain was in the forecast, and the skies were looking a little ominous, but we decided to try our luck with a ski lift up to the meadow below the Rosengarten/Catinaccio massif, which we had missed by not descending via Antermoia Pass.
This plan meant first walking 1.6 miles to the next town, Vigo, where there was a gondola lift, because the Rules of Acrophobia clearly state that CHAIR LIFTS ARE NOT ALLOWED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, and Pozza di Fassa only had a chair lift.
Despite with the lift ticket says, the gondola ride was NOT "fun," but the views were great. It was raining by the time the lift arrived...and then the sun came out, and we enjoyed an easy 4 mile out-and-back walk.
More TP. We saw a lot of TP on this trip. What do people think happens to TP when it's left on top of shrubbery? Shrubbery is not a water-filled toilet, nor is it a landfill. The interwebs suggest that it takes 1-3 years for TP to biodegrade on shrubbery (longer if the shrubbery is sheltered from the elements, which the shrubbery below is not). Quit bringing TP on trails: use a Kula Cloth instead. Sheesh.
My camera is bad at showing elevation difference; the photo below is supposed to show a ridiculously steep ski slope that illustrates why the Rules of Acrophobia prohibit downhill skiing.
Near the upper gondola station, an antique stove posed on the meadow.
This field of wildflowers was behind the lower gondola station in Vigo.
Safely back in the valley, we passed the 15th-c. gothic church St. Giovanni on our way back to Pozza di Fassa.
We stopped at a supermarket to buy some apples and potato chips, but did not tank up at the wine pump.
We passed the Museo Ladin de Fascia (a museum of Ladin culture and history in Fassa). Outside was a sculpture that I thought might be the nymph who Ladin legend says lives in Lago Antermoia--but we learned the next day that this was more likely Conturina (think Cinderella, but ending with the evil stepmother having Conturina turned into stone on Marmolada).
The San Nicolo creek merges into the Avisio in Pozza di Fassa; the different water colors eventually blend together downstream.
By the time we got back to our hotel, our "rest day" had included over 15 miles of hiking, and we were wiped out. We split an apple and a bag of potato chips for dinner and called it a night.
Ta da! 15.4 miles, 1,050 ft elevation gain, 4,910 ft descent, including the 7.5-mile hike below.
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