Friday June 2nd, 2023
We leave around 8.30 from Barzio, in the direction of Valmalenco. Later we stop along the way to eat a croissant and recharge the car batteries. The refill takes little time, while for the brioches we wait quite a while. Finally, we arrive at the car park under the Alpe Gera dam around 12. Our backpacks are pretty heavy, because we will be sleeping in the refuge. We start the climb and almost immediately we see some ibexes on an abandoned concrete structure.
After reaching the top of the dam and choose the path on the left, the shorter one. We then cross the dam and climb towards the refuge which can already be seen in the distance. Behind the refuge we see the upper part of Glacier Fellaria. We reach our destination around 2 pm, settle down briefly in our room, leaving our backpacks, then eat sandwiches outside the refuge.
We go up a little above to a small lake and start the path that leads to the glacier, but we stop near a stream. There is still a lot of snow. We take some pictures, then we go back to the refuge. The sun has gone away, and the sky is full of clouds. We arrive at the refuge and shortly after it starts to rain. We play cards until dinner time. Later we walk around the shelter, take some pictures and then we run back to the shelter, at 10pm we have to be in the room because they close the door and turn off the lights. We go to sleep.
Saturday June 3rd, 2023 – Glacier Fellaria
Before breakfast we walk around the refuge, then around 7.30 we have breakfast and around 8.30 we leave. Now it seems a bit sunny, we hope it will be better when we will reach the lake under the Glacier Fellaria. We leave the larger backpacks at the refuge, while we take the smaller ones with us, with everything we need for our trekking. At the moment it’s sunny, but there are many clouds. We go back to the stream of the previous day and continue, following the signs for path C. There are 3 paths to reach the glacier and the lake below, path C is the simplest and shortest one. As we walk, we see a few marmots. We continue, the sky begins to cover and just before reaching the glacial lake, it starts to rain.
So we arrive at our destination in the rain, around 10. We venture a little along the lake shore, but the rain doesn’t leave us and a cold wind adds. Sometimes it hails. As a result, around 11.30 we arewet and cold, so we decide to give up and go to the refuge. After descending the moraine of the glacier, the rain stops, but the sun does not come. We are still cold and continue towards the shelter. A little before 1 pm we arrive and go inside to warm up and dry off. It’s time to have lunch. Then we arrange the backpacks, we take all our things and around 16 we are back to the car. After changing our clothes, rest a bit and set off again. We make 2 stops along the way and around 19.30 we arrive home.
The lake remembers me of the lagoon I saw in Iceland many years ago.
