58 | GREAT WALKS ANNUAL 2017 | WWW.GREATWALKS.COM.AU

Looking to from . | 59

GREAT ALPINE WALKS EUROPEAN FROM THE MED TO Huw Kingston spent a year circumnavigating the Mediterranean Sea by foot, kayak, rowboat and bike, a journey covering 17 countries and 14,000km. Here he tells of his three month traverse of the European Alps.

WORDS AND PHOTOS_HUW KINGSTON GREAT ALPINE WALKS 60 | GREAT WALKS ANNUAL 2017 | WWW.GREATWALKS.COM.AU EUROPEAN ALPS THE FRESH SNOW REQUIRED DELICATE FOOT “PLACEMENT ON THE ROCKY ASCENT. ”

Left: Camp on Strudelkopf, Italy. Below: Sunset on Aiguilles de Midi en route up Mont Blanc.

LATE afternoon on 4 August I shouldered my Osprey pack and turned my back on the Mediterranean to walk into the hills, up into the Alps and away from the sea that had been my home for the previous 100 days. Apparently there are something like 750 muscles in the human body. The hundreds that didn’t get used while kayaking ached like hell now that I was trekking. But it was great to be in the hills; where the water flowed vertically as opposed to the horizontal that had been my playground so far on my journey from Gallipoli. I hobbled my way on hot days through the Friuli region up from the Mediterranean. It was a sort of purgatory; my body not yet in tune with the walking, the walk not yet in the mountains proper. We all know beautiful women in our towards the Ortler range, the weather came in day-to-day lives; women that equal in looks Head in the clouds again for our climb to the highest point of the and way beyond in personality to any prissy From the kayak, whatever the weather, I trek so far; the 3,110m Passo Madriccio. The supermodel. So it is with mountains. There are was always under the clouds. Here in the fresh snow required delicate foot placement on those that everyone wants to ogle at, to climb mountains I was under them, above them, in the rocky ascent where a white-out greeted us upon. Then there are those more discrete but them. As each day went past I felt stronger on the pass. We scrambled beneath the near equally as stunning, more rounded. So it is in the legs; each climb of 1,000m or 1,500m 4,000m high Ortler, glaciers tumbling from in the Dolomites. At every turn a rocky spire, enjoyed more, each descent slightly less painful. the summit slopes, followed handrails cut into a beautiful face. But everyone wants to view Near Bolzano good friends Marie-Clare and cliffs and ran down endless scree slopes. After the Tre Cime di Lavaredo. Roads have been Jon arrived from the UK to join me on the trek a beautiful morning’s trek over Passo della blasted as close as possible to allow closer views. for a week. After over four months travelling Forcola and down the valley of the same name, I came from another direction to find them alone it was great to have company for a week. we hugged goodbye to silent applause from a half undressed, resolutely refusing to peel off We crossed the Flimjoch in wind that crowd of marmots. their top halves. pinned us to the rocks at times. Heading From here I pushed on into Switzerland. GREAT ALPINE WALKS 62 | GREAT WALKS ANNUAL 2017 | WWW.GREATWALKS.COM.AU EUROPEAN ALPS

Different landscapes, new mountain orderly Switzerland. Malena showed me the ranges, rock, tumbling glaciers, trails FOR DESSERT, racks of maturing cheese and I left with cheese clinging to cliffs. I laughed at the and still-warm bread for lunch. contorted madness of it all; madness in a “ON THE CLIMB I’D Back on track, I climbed to Giumela Pass certain type of paradise. where I sat warm and contented on the high PICKED HANDFULS pass for lunch, enjoying sun and the fruits of a morning’s kindness. For dessert, on the climb Step by step OF SWEET ALPINE I’d picked handfuls of sweet alpine blueberries, Most days I was on the hoof for 10 hours BLUEBERRIES. careful to avoid the blue tinged goat poo that or so, usually thinking, around 7pm, could confuse. of somewhere to camp. Another knee But now I had a quandary. I was about to jarring 1,000m descent from Passo Trescolmen, again. Breakfast was ready. As I” farewelled head into the corner of three maps; but had through steep gorge country, brought me in my hosts, Danilo slipped a bottle of beer into only two of them. I could see different trails fading light to the Swiss summer hamlet of my backpack with instructions: “For the next leading off the edge of the map. But to where? Valbella. I noted a fine grassy spot between an pass.” I could second-guess but I’d done that before unoccupied cabin and a tiny church and thought Somewhere in the forest above Valbella I and regretted it. it polite to ask at a nearby house if it is was OK took a wrong track and eventually popped to camp. Danilo couldn’t see a problem. out from the trees beneath a ramshackle cabin “We make fondue for you.” Danilo hollered perched on the mountain. I imagined I’d find Good company down from his verandah. I couldn’t believe an old mountain couple, eking out a living in A thin trail led across the mountain and it; my first meal in a Swiss house and they do summer from a few cows and the pigs snorting eventually down to a small alp and hut. I actually do fondue. The following morning as in the yard. Instead I found Nico, a wild Italian arrived to find a young lad sitting outside. I climbed out of the tent; sore head to go with man from Florence, and Malena, a young ‘Monster’ energy drink T-shirt, baseball cap equally sore back, knees, feet; Danilo hollered woman originally of chaotic Sicily, now of backwards, baggy jeans with his underpants Left: The glorious Mont Blanc summit. Below: Those boots were made for walking. GREAT ALPINE WALKS 64 | GREAT WALKS ANNUAL 2017 | WWW.GREATWALKS.COM.AU EUROPEAN ALPS

waistband proudly displayed. Alain was a shepherd, with 19 cows and a handful of goats in his care. In French and Italian, with two maps spread, I tried to explain my issue. Alain in return tried to outline a possible route for me that was not marked on any maps. Wary, I tried to ascertain the detail. Was there a track? How difficult? Alain placed his hand in the almost vertical position to indicate steepness then more vertically in the downward position “But there is rope there”, I got from his words. It all sounded a bit risky – no map, no track, fixed rope descent, late in the day. “Je viens avec toi” – I come with you – were words I was happy to hear. Alain hitched up his jeans and we set off. With three decades on me and not weighed down by a big pack, Alain bounded ahead up the ever steepening slope. Up on the skyline he pointed out roughly where we were headed and with a final steep scramble up a damp gully, we popped out onto a tiny notch on a narrow ridge. Alain nonchalantly took off over the edge. I followed to see him sliding down a 100m-long ramp through the cliffs, protected by some fixed cables and iron foot/handholds bolted into the rock. This deposited us onto steep slopes below a small glacier and, in the distance, Alpi di Seeng di Sopra, our aim point. A few hours of

CROSSING THE FENÊTRE DE “FERRET, I FAREWELLED ITALY FOR THE LAST TIME AND POPPED BACK INTO SWITZERLAND.” | 65

scree hopping, grass sliding and more cable and through superlative mountain country with ladders to finish saw us there as the sun set. I rarely another walker in sight. thanked Alain profusely before he bounded After views from all angles of the sparkling off in the dusk down a well-made track. Never white molars of Monte Rosa I soon had my judge a book by its cover. first taste of the decaying black fang that is the Matterhorn; for many people the most beautiful peak in Europe. And from the near On the up 3,000m Zube Pass I caught my first views of As my 50th day on the trek and 150th on the Mont Blanc. trip approached, I was trekking south-west Colle di Nana, Colle di Fontana, Finistra toward the 4634m Monte Rosa, one of the d’Ersa, Fenêtre de Tsan, Col Terray. Passes giants of the Alps. I was feeling strong now, passed in a haze of scree, scrambling, legs and lungs enjoying the climbs although my switchbacks, sunsets, shadows and streams. knees still protested the descents. I celebrated All under the bluest of autumn skies; the most with a high camp just beneath 2351m Col di settled period of weather I’d had on the trek. Termo just so I could watch the sun make her On the last day of September the weather final dance of the day. finally broke with fog and light rain all day. It was late September and already the shepherds had started to gather their flocks Above: Malena & her cheese stocks. and herds in readiness for the descent from the The greatest view Left: Camp in Switzerland. high Alps to the valleys. Their bells would fall Crossing the Fenêtre de Ferret, I farewelled silent along with the squeal of the marmots Italy for the last time and popped back into Below left: In the Dolomites. as they too prepared their burrows for the Switzerland. After trekking for 52 days in Italy, long winter. Most of the refuge guardians eight days in Switzerland and a few brief slugs had cleaned up, closed the shutters and, like of Slovenian air, I walked into France. Cresting mountain Elvis’s, left the building. Col de Balme and stepping from Switzerland Now I was headed for Mont Blanc; the into France; there was Mont Blanc. I doubt I’d highest point in Europe. The week that took had a more spectacular international border me there was on a glorious roller coaster crossing on my long journey. GREAT ALPINE WALKS 66 | GREAT WALKS ANNUAL 2017 | WWW.GREATWALKS.COM.AU EUROPEAN ALPS

An evening journal writing in Italy. WALK NOTES | ALPS TRAVERSE Time: Three months | Grade: What do you reckon?!

NEED TO KNOW

Mediterranean – a year around a charmed and troubled sea, Huw’s book of his walking, kayaking, rowing and biking circumnavigation of the Mediterranean, is published by Whittles in late 2016. Copies available from www.huwkingston.com

The opportunity to climb Mont Blanc, after winter room, stuffed overfull with Russians, stretching for kilometres. What a morning to starting right down on the Mediterranean, was French, Chileans, Bulgarians and now us. be where we were and where we were heading. too good a climb to miss. A friend of a friend, Twelve bunks squeezed in 20 bodies and I What causes that burst of cold just on dawn? Rick Marchant, was to be my guide for the slept not a wink. Rick and I reached for our down jackets and pulled ascent. I don’t think I’ve taken a guide before Rick and I rolled out into the darkness at on warmer gloves. The sun touched us briefly on but conscious of my time limits, not knowing 4.30am. Crampons on, we crunched across the Dome de Gouter with 500m of vertical still the mountain and wanting to increase my some snow and scuttled across the Grand to climb. But we were soon back in cold shadow chances of a successful ascent, I did for Mont Couloir, a place notorious for stone fall. A on the north-west face of the mountain. Steep, Blanc. I was glad for Rick was great company steep, 500m rock scramble led to a snow- crunchy snow up onto the Bossons ridge led to an and we had a ball. We left Les Houches at covered glacier at 3,800m. Sparks from our ever narrowing, airy snow arête that led straight to 3pm on 3 October for the 2,000m climb to crampons and head torch beams added colour sunlight, straight into the sun. the Tete Rousse refuge. It was, in itself, a top to the black night. Then this angled catwalk ended and we walk into the sunset and we arrived at the hut The first light glowed under the Aguille du were on the highest stage in Europe, 4,810m just on dark. The main refuge had closed for Midi. Soon after, the big cone of Mont Blanc above the Mediterranean Sea I’d turned my winter a week or so earlier but there was a cast its own shadow across the cloud below; back on 62 days before.