upper Gronda
In early May we got a week of rain in Piemonte, it was cold and thus the ceiling for the rain that fell as snow was low, in fact 1100m. When the sun found us again, it gave us a week for so on nice runs, a few projects were done, including this one, the Upper Gronda, plus the Middle Sessira, Lower Loana and Middle Storna!!
Ed Cornfield & Matt Tidy took a day to hike into the Upper Valley, some 3 km up from Rassa, to find a whole bunch of granite slide drop combo’s plus a few waterfalls to nail. An early start and quick hike lead us to a great slide, into a slide water fall combo, plus an excellent chute, a few big portages, then a hectic slide combi followed with a 12m waterfall. More action lead to some nice boofin’ and an early takeout to avoid more landslide trees.
When there is a lot of run off in Piemonte, its always a problem to find runable creeks that are not too high, as the bedrock style found there leans to closed out drops and meaty holes if you try to fire it up in the steep and tight runs. Thus another season and more research for the forthcoming Piemonte & Ticino Guide Book, in late 2008, for the 2009 season!!
All Images Kate Donnelly
