Fonte Cerreto - Campo Imperatore - Corno Grande (direttissima) - Duca degli Abruzzi

Starting point next to the cable car building (Funivia del Gran Sasso), the path I choosed is all going below the cables and the visible red pillars of the cable car, this valley is called also “Tre Valloni” and is basicallly 1000 mt all straight up to Campo Imperatore.

Once passed Campo Imperatore and the astronomic observatory followed the main path reaching “Sella del Monte Aquila” where there are signs pointing also to la “Direttissima” which is the direct climb to get to the peak of Gran Sasso called Corno Grande; after 100 mt in this path I “met” a damn hard wind, 70 km/h wind never felt before, side wind coming from west, I kept going and luckily after 20 mins walk, a mountain wall was protecting and I had almost zero wind, my god, it was difficult to step the foot where I was pointing because the wind was moving my leg on the side. Few people told me about this kind of wind coming from time to time, but I was not believing it was that strong making my hands frozen even if the sun about 100 meter before in the path was clearly over 25° C.

While going on, direction north, on the right, it’s opening the view on a wide and long green wonderful valley, good inspiration to start the climb, at least helmet required due to falling rocks from people above, there are some steps exposed and not for beginners (steps with I° and II° grade) previous climb experience is needed. Well marked with red&white signs; just in the last part the peak is going to be visible.

Once at the peak few minutes to rest to eat something and enjoying the view. On the east is visible the red “Bivacco Bafile”. Looking far away at the horizon I could see the Adriatic sea, few pics, packing and start the way down through “Via delle Creste” (Ridges track) marked with rounded signs white and red until “Sella del Brecciaiolo” at about 2500 mt, where in the distance looking south the Rifugio Duca degli Abruzzi can be spotted. I pointed that. I checked the map and I could see that 2 more peaks were next to it, so I went for those 2 as well, “Picco Confalonieri” 2422 mt and “Monte Portella peak” 2383 mt.

All the rest was all way down, at half way down there is a water fountain (so nice refreshing moment after this long walk)

I set difficult due to the length, the exposition in the ridges, the wind that I was hitting and because the only water fountain in that side of the mountain is the one on the way down.

Wonderful day ! 😉