Hiking le Tre Cime del Bondone
Trip Details:
- Total distance: 6.7 miles
- Total elevation gain: 2,484 feet
- Route Type: Loop on maintained trails featuring via ferrata
- Where: Trento, Italy
- Season: Autumn
- How to get there: Take the B202 bus from Trento!
November 12, 1988
In honor of 3 decades (wtf tho), I bagged 3 Italian peaks, le Tre Cime del Bondone: Monte Cornetto, Doss d’Abramo, e la Cima Verde. It was kind of an allegorical journey: The first summit was a walk up, there was a cloud hanging out on top so I didn’t have a lot of perspective. The second summit had a via ferrata (iron steps / cable drilled into the mountain) to summit, not too hard to get up there beyond a little “ok this is steep and a little scary but up we go into the unknown, for science!”. However the via ferrata to de-summit the second mountain was totally fucking terrifying and I kind of clung for life to this iron cable on slippery rocks (it had rained all night) wondering why I always seem to find myself in these precarious situations… but as usual I reminded myself that panic is futile and the only reasonable (and unavoidable) move was to keep descending. And then, as I left the second mountain, there was a clear sunny path to summit #3, which I bagged in a jiffy, and then just oh-so-serendipitously spied my shadow centered in a sundog. Then I had truffle risotto and truffled eggs and Italian wine for dinner at Ristorante Giardino so overall 10/10, would turn 30 in Italy again.