Monte Mars & Lake Mucrone
Letter #70: A surprisingly technical trek through northern Italy. ❤️
10/18/23
When Emilie and I set off the following morning—Thursday, August 17th—we asked one of the staff members at Rifugo Coda to recommend the best way to reach Monte Mars, the highest peak of the Biellese Alps in northern Italy. We’d then continue on down to Lago del Mucrone. She helped us piece together the route and calculate the hours based on when we were expecting rain that day. She told us to follow the path with the blue ball painted on the trail marker.
So we headed west, again surprised that we were the only ones on the trail. We knew there’d be ropes along this route, and I was glad I’d had the experience of via ferrata to prepare me. Again, the trail was mostly rock climbing, Emily and I laughing about how we were so sick of seeing rocks. Although my trek to Annapurna Base Camp was a long stretch into a high altitude (13,550 feet), I can, without a doubt, say that this trek through the Alps was way more technical, and to be honest, scarier.
There wasn’t always a clearly set trail, and we had to be careful to pick our way over the rocks. In some areas, one wrong foot placement could mean a tumble down the side of the mountain. Surprisingly, the ropes didn’t scare me. Sure, you had to trust that whoever bolted the hardware for the ropes into the boulders was testing their resilience regularly. But otherwise, they were fun to use to help us scale the side of these stone facades and climb even higher.
Emilie and I both regularly thanked our bodies for being so strong, and our ankles for being so nimble to the inevitable twists that threatened a sprain. Several times we nearly lost the trail again (which had just happened the previous day). We regularly had to stop talking to focus on where we were going, with me checking the paper map and our floating location on Google Maps.
It took us much longer to go from Punta Sella to Monte Mars than it should’ve—around 2.5 hours. I was surprised as the trailhead said 1.5 hours, but we decided to go slowly and not risk making a deadly mistake.
We reached the peak before the clouds began to set in. We could see all the way across northern Italy, down to the south of us where La Trappa lay in the valley, and towards Mont Blanc in the west. There was a statue of Mother Mary at the summit, Italy being a devoted Catholic nation.
We gave each other high fives, elated to reach our second peak, then sat down to plan out our next moves. We snacked on our completely crumbled cheese and jam sandwiches and the trail mix Emilie had picked up at a store in Biella.
We decided to skip a visit to Monte Mucrone since we could see the rain approaching from the distance, instead opting to head straight for Lago del Mucrone. We’d then continue down to Oropa, the town at the base of the mountain, where we could then begin our walk back to La Trappa. We were looking at at least another 4 hours of trekking.
We packed up again after saying goodbye to Mother Mary and walked towards the direction of the lake. Again, it was super confusing to get to, the trails poorly marked and the clouds setting in over the mountains. We could hear thunder behind us, so we picked up the pace to get to lower ground—the last thing we want is to be stuck in the peaks, aluminum poles in hand when the lightning began.
We finally saw Lago del Mucrone in the distance and began our descent. It began to drizzle just as we were reaching the lake, so we stopped for a water break and to throw on our rain gear—we had made it just before anything scary happened.
Had it been sunny out, I would’ve happily disrobed and jumped into the crystal blue lake in my underwear. But, unfortunately, it was too cold with the wind, so we said goodby to the lake and continued down to Oropa—it still took us another 2 hours. We were thrilled at all the wild berries we could eat along the way—blackberries, raspberries, and wild blueberries grew everywhere along the trail.
The sun was out by the time we reached Oropa, so we decided to walk into town for a beer and a panino at a local alimentari. We were both so happy to sit down after the long trek. We had wandered through the town, admiring the sanctuary and filling our water bottles in the middle of the square at the well. Neither of us felt ready to face the grumpy managers at La Trappa again, so we took our time in town.
Around 6pm we began walking back home, knowing it would take us another hour and half. We had been advised to try hitchhiking our way back to La Trappa, so we flagged down 3 or 4 cars but without any luck. Fortunately, Marco had been down at the river so he came to pick us up. We climbed into the van, apologizing for our sweaty stink, and he drove us back along the winding road to our old monastery.
Emilie and I both took turns taking hot showers, knowing Marco would be preparing dinner, both of us not caring to jump in and help with chores at the end of the day.
Dinner was uneventful. We shared some details of the trek as the other WWOOFer who had arrived earlier in the week was interested in going on a trek of his own.
We knew the next day would be pretty busy with work, so we went to bed early, looking forward to the rest after such a long day of trekking.
I left that Sunday morning with very mixed feelings. Emilie and I had grown very close, and we gave a teary goodbye with a long embrace. I was glad that we had gone through our time at La Trappa—and the trek—together. I knew I would miss her, Marco, Marta, and especially my favorite old man, Sandro. But I was so ready to get away from management. 😂 They just did not make my time there much fun, and I was ready to go my own way. I was almost dreading going to this next farm as so far I hadn’t had such positive experiences with WWOOFing.
Hey! Would you like to connect over creativity, self-growth, and problem-solving? Or just to have a virtual glass of wine or mocktail? Please book a time on my Calendly for us to chat! I can’t wait to see you. XOXO.
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