canyon exploring with Michele Angileri

Vallone dell'Inferno

We are on Mount Cervati, the highest in Cilento National Park. River Bussento is born by a cavern amidst beeches forest, in a place known as Varco La Peta. It is not a river yet, only a stream flowing at the bottom of a steep and narrow valley. But then the valley encloses between the high walls of a canyon, and stream enters dark meanders where waterfalls' rumble echoes. It's the Vallone dell'Inferno (Hell's Valley), one of the most interesting canyons in Campania.

I remember ...

You know, everybody goes through a canyon downwards. That's why height shown by an altimeter diminishes as you go through. It is obvious, isn't it?
not in Bussento canyon! time was flowing, we were going down waterfalls and stones, down and down, but our altimeter showed the same height, or a slightly lower one. Hours were passing by, and we were descending too slow though we never stopped ... We didn't understand how this could be
And the more we went on the darker and tighter the canyon became.

The top was when the second battery of my hammer-drill left us while drilling its second hole for a bolt (it should have drilled 6 holes at least!!). That made me sick ... without the drill many hours had still to be spent in the narrows, and only two hours of daylight remained.
But we were at the end, luckily. That hole for bolt was the last we needed!! the narrows opened in half an hour!

Photographs in this website show ultralight ropes (6 mm ropes made of high tenacity fibers). Read multimedia book Ultralight ropes canyoning technique to learn how to use them.

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