Xi'an's Og

For our first hike in Cogne, we aimed at a lake located south above the town with a differential in altitude equal to 1200 meters. While the path was well-maintained and with no difficulty, this still was a long walk of seven and a half hours, especially because it was hot there, even at 2700 meters (22C)! Walking away from the Gran Paradiso and La Grivola peaks was nice, because the view of those two 4000’ers progressively unfolded and separated from the foreground peaks as we climbed… La Grivola really looks like a little Matterhorn, although it is smaller and easier to climb. There were fortunately very few people on the path, except on the walk back. We did not see large animals (besides cows), except for an ibex far away on a fairly impressive slope. But there were a huge variety of flowers, who were taking advantage of the few days of summer they could get to attract insects by displaying incredible colours! And flocks of small blue and orange butterflies along the brooks. Overall, a very nice walk to acclimatise to altitude.

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