The valley of lakes

The Valley of lakes

Exploring the Campagneda lakes for the first time

I have heard of this valley before, but it has never been really under my radar. I don't know why maybe because in was in a part of Valmalenco which I didn't really explore and knew. Until this summer.

The hike is quite easy, it starts which a big wide dirt road that leads to the mountain hut Ca' Runcasch. From there the trail becomes more similar to a mountain path. The whole plateau is used as a grazing so it will be common to encounter in some cows or even horses.

In less than ten minutes from the hut we hit the first lake, and then another and another and so on. There are about five lake or more before the Campagneda Pass. We set our tent down near the higher lakes right under the pass.

THIS PICTURE IS ACTUALLY FROM THE SECOND DAY, ANY WAY THOSE ARE THE LAKES RIGHT UNDER THE PASS. IN THE DISTANCE, IN AND OUT OF THE CLOUDS, MONTE DISGRAZIA DOMINATES THE HORIZON

Well, we took our time hiking the valley, exploring the lakes and looking for animals, and sunset caught us unprepared. We reach the pass right a couple of minutes before the sun set, it was a fast and crazy scrambling around looking for a composition. I eventually found this overview above the pass with the distinctive peaks of Pizzo Scalino and Pizzo Cianciano.

AND HERE YOU HAVE THE PASS WITH PIZZO SCALINO, ON THE RIGHT, AND PIZZO CIANCIANO, ON THE LEFT

Playing with Pizz Zupò and Piz Argient and the Fellaria Glacier

After sunset we head down to our camp and, since the sky was clear, we decided to stay awake for some astro photography. We set up some long exposure and started playing some cards games. But soon the clouds came and covered the stars so we had nothing to do but go to sleep and wait for sunrise.

The night went by very fast, it was actually warmer than what we expected for a September night high above 2000 meters. Anyway we woke up to a clear sky. Only to discover that the prominence of Monte Disgrazia played us. In fact its peak is a lot higher than the surrounding such that it developed its own clouds. The same happened at sunset with Pizzo Scalino. It was not that bad though, because the sky was also clear to the east, that meant to light up the whole massif and the clouds around it with beautiful red light.

Clouds catching fire

Right before the light, The peak is covered by the clouds generated by the prominence of the peak itself

This is what happen when you step into the

Soon after sunrise clouds started to develop all around us. It wasn't much until it all became mist. But before it we had time to pack our gear and head down to Rifugio Cristina.

Pizzo Scalino seen from one of the lakes

Since it was still early and not many people, actually it was only us for a while, we crossed our path with marmot. I took the long lens out and I tried to get as close as I could without scaring them.