Together with a team from Decom we took on the fantastic challenge of climbing a serious three-thousander mountain!
Written by: Nance van Bogaert
Waterfalls, ibexes and mountain peaks
29 August 2015 was the day that marked the start of the challenge week! We began our week of hiking with the impressive amount of over 4800 euros in the bank. We gathered at the base camp in Valsevarenche at the foot of the Gran Paradiso, Italy. Even just the journey over was a great experience as we went over the mountain pass of St. Bernard and through Aosta in the direction of the base camp. We passed through the long valley of Valsevarenche with waterfalls, ibexes and mountain peaks all along the way! Beautiful!
The week started off spectacularly with a rather stiff climb from our base camp. We hiked up to 1,200 meters in altitude through forests, alpine meadows and over rocks. We continued to the foot of the breathtaking Gran Neyron glacier at about 2750 meters.
We stopped there at the lake. The glacier stretched out above us to 3403 meters. From there, there was a glorious view and it turned out to be a nice goal for this first day trek. It had become a serious hike. So even though we were tired, it definitely had been worth it when we returned that first night to base camp.
We left around noon to get to the starting point of our next hike, towards Rifugio Benevolo (2285 meters). It was a relatively short, but also tough hike. We climbed 600 meters up to the Rifugio where we spent the night. That afternoon we had some wine, played some cards and had more great food in the hut. We went to bed early (boy did we laugh sharing the room together) and were awakened again at 5:30 am by Albert.
A gorgeous view had been waiting for us and we enjoyed it to the fullest. We did it! Our Decom flag proudly waves in between us, as proven in our stunning photo!