A mountain trip in Adamello Alps (Italy), 25-31 August 2018

Day four. Passo della Lobbia Alta and Passo Adame. Good bye glaciers!

The descent from Passo di Cavento is equipped with steps, metal brackets and cables. The last few metres of descent are protected by a knotted rope. We used our own rope instead and rappeled everybody down the slope. This took a little time. There was no terminal crevasse on the glacier, but there is only enough space for 1-2 people to put their crampons on simultaneously. Then a short patch of wet glacier, so we roped up. There is a crevassed zone just before Passo di Val Fumo but it does not present any difficulties. The transition from glacier onto rocks is well marked with cairns. One can then cross a large boulder field all the way to Passo della Lobbia Alta (the route is marked with cairns, at least in the beginning), but this would be slow. We instead descended on a glacier and made a short crossing to the scree below the pass (marked with cairns). The descent from the pass towards the glacier on the other side is also marked with cairns. In order to reach Vedretta del Mandrone, one has to cross another rocky ridge. It took us a little time to find the path on the rocks. It is marked with cairns but is located further south than shown on the maps. From the rocks one can either descend on the glacier (this is what we did) or traverse south and then descend (both paths are marked). The ascent on the glacier goes through a zone of crevasses which can be bypassed on the right. There is also a path on the left crossing a wet glacier and leading to the flat section below Passo Croce o del Dosson. We walked around the zone of crevasses and then turned left and got to the same flat section, because we thought that there will be more crevasses further east. This was probably unnecessary, we could have headed directly to Passo Adame. After Passo Adame we unexpectedly found ourselves in the labyrinth of crevasses (bypassed on the north-east). We climbed up to Passo Salarno but realised that the path towards the Poia valley is on the glacier and not on the rocks. The plan was to either descend to the valley or climb the pass and spend the night in Bivacco Giannantoni. We decided to go down despite limited time before darkness. The path on the glacier is unmarked, the initial path on the rocks is marked with a few cairns but route finding is not trivial. The path goes down on steep slabs and scree, we were climbing down rather slowly. At some point we even considered spending the night on a shallow scree and collected some snow for dinner but the path went down a moraine and we decided to go further down. The path then follows a long section of steep rock protected by chains and cables. We got into the valley in the dusk, and had to light our torches before reaching the camping spot. This was a long day.

The read line shows our track. The arrow shows the direction of travel, and the tent icon shows our camping spot. Shift-click on the track link will open it in nakarte.me.

We got up quite early and enjoyed the sunrise.


Breakfast at sunrise...	Ready to start.

Anna is traversing a steep glacier. We roped up on a flat section.

The last few metres of descent to the glacier. Sonya is rapelling down.

No more technical difficulties, Vedretta della Lobbia is flat with few crevasses. Hover the mouse over the image to see annotations.

You can just step over a crevasse as narrow as this one.

Looking back towards Passo di Cavento. It is behind the rocks and is not visible. The bottle-shaped rock is called "la Bottiglia".

The glacier is as stripy as a zebra, decorated by the fresh snow.

Crossing the glacier in the morning is very quick, the snow is hard.

The streams on the glaciers are still frozen.

After we came out of the shade on the dry glacier, we packed away the ropes and continued towards Passo della Lobbia Alta. Walking without ropes is more enjoyable.

Small crevassed sections are easily bypassed.

A crevasse.


A crevassed blocked with compacted snow.	We found an empty grenade.

Last patches of fresh snow. Passo della Lobbia Alta is ahead.

We got to the rocks and packed away the crampons.

Moving fast on the slabs is very satisfying.

Looking back at Passo di Cavento and the summits of Crozzon di Lares (on the left) and Corno di Cavento (right). The cairns make the view more lively.

A patch snow field.

We now need to go back on the glacier. Finding the best route to descend was not so easy.

The scree goes up to Passo della Lobbia Alta. The brown patch on the right are not an unusual rock but a strip of barbed wire. Why is it here?

A snake-shaped stream on the glacier.

We did not stay on the pass for long and descended towards Vedretta del Mandrone. There must have been some fortifications here, we saw barbed wire, wood planks, tiles. Maybe there were military barracks here?

We got to the edge of the glacier again and spent some time trying to find the cairns which finally brought us to Vedretta del Mandrone.

Walking on the glacier is a lot faster than crossing large boulder fields. Passo Adame is ahead.

Unexploded shells on the glacier.

In the afternoon, the glacier becomes covered with little streams of meltwater.

A crevassed section. The depression in the ridge is Passo Croce o del Dosson. We saw 3 or 4 groups of people on this glacier, more than in any other day (but we did not get close to any of them).

The streams merge to make rivers which go down the moulins.

We got to Passo Salarno, looked at the yellow Bivacco Giannantoni and decided to go down towards the Poia valley the same day. The timing was quite tight.

The glacier ends with seracs and a powerful stream of water. The peak on the left is Monte Fumo.

We got to the rocks, packed the crampons away and started going down - we had 800 m of vertical drop ahead of us.

The initial descent is on the rocks.

Then we crossed a snow field (we had to cut some steps) and then went down steep rocks. Many sections were protected with chains and cables. We were moving quite slowly, as there could be only one person on each protected section. There are no pictures of descent, the camera was packed away.

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