Thursday, May 22, 2014

Monte Resettum MTB

I decided to try climbing to Forcella Clautana from Mattan, just before Lesis along Torrente Cellina.  After the ride up Valcellina from Montereale, I descended from Claut to the river and turned right onto a dirt road at Mattan.  After crossing the river on a narrow bridge, I began climbing the concrete road steeply uphill.  The concrete road eventually ends and then resembles a logging road.  Generally not bad but there are many steep rocky sections.  

I continued switch backing up to 1300 meters and then large patches of snow began appearing, some completely blocking the roadway.  These I walked around pushing or carrying the bike.  The snowy stretches grew longer and more frequent until 1400 meters they were continuous.  I tried walking up through the snow for several switchbacks, thinking maybe it would become more sun-exposed and thawed, but instead it just got deeper, maybe a meter deep.  At 1425 meters I reached some snowshoe tracks coming down from the opposite direction, but had no idea how much further the snow cover persisted: was it just the mountain shadow of Monte Resettum or did it extend all the way to Forcella Clautana?  So I turned around and headed down.  Very long descent ( I went slowly) but once I got on the paved road I made up time on the long downslope home.   Will try this again- maybe by July the snow will have melted?   

Claut from 700-800 meters

Monte Resettum (2067 meters) from 1400 mteres on trail

The road becomes snow-covered, then gets deeper and deeper
the higher you go.

Beautiful wilderness to the east; note the pastures at Rifugio Pradut




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