medium | ↔ 22km | ↗ 1720m | ↘ 1720m | 🕑 8h / 2 days | medium |
We started the hike in Olivone Municipio, where we arrived by the Postbus. Following the street a few hundred meters towards the red town hall to then turn right. We walked by an primary school with kids playing in the yard and a church. This town center has a romantic vibe to it, especially since most buildings here are in the typical Italian style with some of them having painting below the roof. Behind the church we turned right to walk between the old core of the village to a crossing, where we went left and walked on a dirt road to the district Marzano. To the right the assent to the Val di Carassino starts.
Through several serpentine the assents is following an old path used by shepherds. First one walks under the protection of a hazelnut forest, later one walks on an open path, crossing a small river before once again, we enter a spruce forest. Having climbed for around two hours we reached a plateau - on which several huge boulders are situated. This is a perfect place to enjoy the incredible view on the surrounding mountains and rest for a while. To your left a small river is forming a fascinating creek - worth a look.
After a short break we then continued to walk, crossing a small village on this plateau and joining from the dirt road onto a gravel and concrete road. This road you follow for around 2 km to then leave to the right on to an other dirt road. This crossing is easy to miss, but it is marked by a nice tree with a small white-red-white sign on it. Crossing a river, this time a small jump - or a big step - is required, before the final serpentine are taken. From this you have a great view on a small dam wall and the valley below it. After the serpentine there is a possibility to dont follow the path but to take a small detour to the foot of the dam wall. You will cross a small tunnel where you can see small stalagtites hanging from the ceiling and fascinating salt strucutres at the walls. Back on track, we then took a small break on the dam to take enjoy the view. Unfortunately the river did not have a lot of water, therefore the reservoir was not really full, leaving a lot of the building structure of the dam architecture open to sight. It is very interesting to see how exactly overflow safety measures etc are implemented. Now we followed the Val di Carassino, always next to the small river that feeds the reservoir. The river is ice cold, which Justyna experienced first hand, when she wanted to wet her feet in it. The path leads next to three alps, where you could buy cheese, and due to that, through several cow herds.
Later we even got company of two white donkeys - a mother and her child. First the child literally jumped around, later joining the mother in an observation of us. After the mother slowly approached us, the child again started running in circles and then to us. Both of them where happy to be petted, even though the child confounded my finger with something to eat. Both looked like a unicorn which lost its horn - story time.
The last few hundred meters to the hut and we finally arrived at the plateau at which the hut is situated. We could already smell that some sort of cake was in their oven - a nice welcome. The hut sits at the edge of a cliff, looking onto the Val de Soi which leads to an incredible view. Unfortunately it was foggy so the panorama was only guessable. We anyways took two cups of tea and sit outside the hut, enjoying the silence. Unfortunately it was rather cold too, pushing us inside the heated chamber, waiting for our evening meal, prepared by Berry, the Hüttenwart. We had a nice vegetable soup with bread, followed by some lasagne and a freshly baked apple pie. After the meal we chatted a little bit with two older men, which took their mountain bikes to the mountains. Really impressive stories that they told. There was a third guy, but he disappeared in to his room, directly after lunch.
The next morning we had a breakfast with yogurt, fresh milk, cheese and bread - a nice and rich start in to the morning. Fortunately the sky now was clear and we could enjoy the panorama, but also how the sun and shadows played with the summits and valleys. This is why the mornings in the mountains are so unique experiences - the light.
The main part of the second day was a steep and long descent through spruce woods. Again a perfect place to tell a few stories. After the main descent we crossed a view very small villages, or more correctly - assembles of empty houses. In the first of these “villages” two horses roamed freely through the town - a very romantic sight - so obviously we made a small break on a bolder, which sits in the middle of the houses, with a blue-white flag pole sticking out of it. The later path in the Val de Soi is an up and down through the woods. Since the final path towards Olivone was closed we stopped early and made the final descent to the road and waited for the Postbus towards Bascia.
The hike is a nice hike to get back into hiking after a long time. It has steep ascents and descents, some long flat paths in the valleys and very varied views. I can recommend the Hut and path to every one, who wants a short two day retreat into the calming nature of the mountains.
| Start | Olivone |
| Point of Interest | Alpe della Bolla 4:00h |
| Point of Interest | Alpe Bresciana 4:30h |
| Point of Interest | Capanna Adula CAS 6:00h |
| Point of Interest | Soi 8:00h |
| End | Aquila |
