This Hiking in April near Turin was very special for the Trekking Alps team! It was so special not because of the place: the refuge Balma and Monte Robinet is a super classic of April May season, but this time the group was particularly big and … fresh. Four American around their twenties (coming from various origins) and a German girl more the fantastic assistants, companions and friends Betta and World Path’s Attilio and Amber.
The freshness brought from having twenty years old came out strongly. Starting from clothing that was completely inappropriate to the situation. In particular for a possible ascent to Monte Robinet that with more than 2,600 meters has still a lot of snow this season. Joseph and Andrew thought that the shoes type clark were ideal for this excursion in the Alps. And do not think that I had not alerted them with photos of what kind of shoes to serve this trip. “We’ll suffer” it was their caustic comments with a big smiling.
As far as I am fortunately still not so far from having twenty years old, I just accepted with a smile this wild and improvised approach to the world. And I loved this fresh and rough way of living that relies on being able to take with irony the strong misfortunes brought by this total lack of planning.
The first adventures of this hiking in April came when Steven remained stranded under a rock for the snow now very soft at around 4 pm. Having jeans instead of pants gora-tex you can imagine the discomfort after remaining for 10 minutes in wet snow. Nonetheless this adventure did not minimally scratched their desire to nonsense talk, bringing to loud laughs. I is fantastic being twenty!
Another folly of Joseph and Steven is the logistics: arrived with the night train from Rome (!!) and started firectly for the mountain adventure they came back on Sunday night again with a train to return to Rome and then go to class at 9 Monday: wow!
In the morning, despite the blisters and little preparation, with hard snow and light backpack we easily reached the lake Soprano in an hour or so. At this point, to make a truly memorable experience and given the amount of pain tolerance of my crazy customers I decided to try the climb to the summit.
The final climb was quite difficult but the bold twenties triggered the win without even much effort. We reach the 2700 meters of the pass between Robinet and Rocciavrè and we enjoy the view over Val Chisone up to Monviso.
For the descent we opt for a worthy and continuous slip for wet slopes, causing laughter and bottoms wet. After a bit of adventure back in town and the last image that I carry with me is Andrew, barefoot, greeting me at the underground station telling me that this was one of the best experiences of his life.
This confirms that you can do trekking in all seasons on the western Alps, also in April.
