On foot on the edge of the Po Valley: Monte Frioland

Finally the great day of the Frioland adventure arrived on Thursday 24-12-15. The mono-training technique allows all types of walking... Of course, many may think that on Christmas Eve there is better things to do, as very often happens nowadays, work leaves no way out and the free time to devote oneself to one's passions is to be seized in the only free moments. So after accurate analysis using cartographic technology directly from the home computer and various first-person steps on the spot, the time has come to 'put the puzzle together', prepare the ultratrail backpack with some clothing inside for the cold, a minimal reserve of water and food, with other little things... All in the name of lightness but attention, without ever giving up the indispensable. The mountain does not forgive!

A night of relaxation, even if it is never easy to remain calm knowing that from the next morning you will be out all day in the mountains, in complete solitude.
At 7.20 I left the Tempio del Fitness gym in Revello, then in the dark of that cloudy morning I went up the road to the bell tower, continuing towards the chapel of San Bernardo between Rifreddo and Envie. So step by step, now in the light of the just past dawn on this day among the shortest of the year. Some videos shot along the way but without ever stopping the pace I arrived in the Motetto area in the direction of the Po along the plain. Back up to Rocchetta I took the woods again to go downhill towards the Belloni plain at Paesana. Here I quickly crossed the town continuing from via Crissolo towards Ghisola. As soon as I entered the hamlet I started the climb which would never let me go until the end. I also met a four-legged 'travel companion': a cute little dog with one brown eye and one blue, already seen around Crissolo a few months earlier. A true globetrotter connoisseur of all corners of the Po Valley, apparently! A last paved stretch in the Pian Lavarino area and then take the dirt road for the rest of the way. Among a network of paths and abandoned villages I reached the ridge at Punta Selassa. The 2000m are always a 'pride marker', also because the right side of our valley is characterized by a sequence of peaks all above that altitude, for an 'up and down' between deserted pastures with a constant cold below zero. Apart from the dog that day, I didn't meet a living soul along the entire journey, which had a certain flavor of 'true nature'. It almost seemed not to be in Italy but in a remote place in who knows what part of the world. The kilometers flowed fast under my feet, even if energy decreased as I approached Frioland, but to compensate there was the apprehension of the imminent darkness that kept up the pace. The ridge that precedes the summit is really steep, a clear and narrow watershed between the Po valley, Infernotto and Pellice. The view is absolute By now I was near the 35th km mark on the verge of 2700m. Last steps, a first tip with a pylon, then a second later and here is the top of Frioland! There I shot a ritual video, with some photos. A 'drink' with the little snow that there was given the chronic lack of water on the route and off to the descent with sunset just around the corner...

 

It's amazing how when you get to the desired peak you think it's 'all done'. It hadn't been like this because the objective had been reached at 16.03, for a total distance from the start of 8 hours and 43 minutes. In fact, to return to the 'civilized world' it took me a lot of time to close the scarce 7km of descent that separated me from the car passage set in Borgo di Crissolo. There were countless mistakes on the road due to the darkness. Luckily I had the 'trusted gps' with me which always guided me, except those times, when due to fatigue, I forgot to monitor the route on the instrument. In reality, I realized several times that the dog that accompanied me from Ghisola knew the streets better than me despite the dark, so it was enough for me to follow him. Incredible!
After all the stress of the whole adventure and especially for those last kilometers of return, I arrived at 18.10 in Borgo for the now desired return by car. It all ended with a journey of about 42km over a timescale of 10 hours and 50 minutes.
There is also a LIVE video shot during the journey on youtube at this address:

 

All the preparation always refers to the mono-training strategy referred to the book published by Fusta Editore.

An article on TargatoCn follows: https://www.targatocn.it/2015/12/28/sommario/saluzzese/leggi-notizia/argomenti/saluzzese/articolo/da-revello-a-piedi-ai-confini-della-valle-po-il-monte-frioland-natalice-business-of-bartolomeo-dav.html

Thanks to the help of a friend, now the book 'Ultratrail with weekly Monotraining' is translated into English, I apologize for the approximation of the translation but it is a precious gift that was offered to me and I hope that the concepts are all understandable . All the material and EBOOK is available at this link: http://www.bertinettobartolomeodavide.it/ultratrail/index-ing.html

Hoping you enjoyed it, I thank everyone in advance for reading.
Davide

Below is the detail of the reference links related to my ultratrail and trail articles:

Very long distances | Routes | Competitions | Solo adventures | Publications | Training strategy | UltraTrail eBook  

 

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