canyon exploring with Michele Angileri

Fosso Malopasso

At the border between Lazio and Abruzzo rise Laga Mounts. They are made of a stack of layers of sandstone more than 1000 meters thick, placed on marl layers. All layers immerse at east, so the western part of Laga (in Lazio) is much steeper and rocky than the rest. All mountaintops rise above 2000 meters (the highest is about 2500 meters). Winter climate is very cold and snowy in Laga mounts.

Laga mounts are rich in water, because it rains enough, but also because sandstone doesn't allow water to go undergroud. There are a lot of streams, and a lot magnificent waterfalls. In winter they are suitable for ice-climbing (in fact this is the southest place in Italy where doing ice-climbing). In summer the hardest streams are an ideal canyoning terrain with unusual features, long accessess, low water temperature (due to the height above sea level) and the presence of snow fields and tunnels till the beginning of summer.

The landscape in Laga mounts is really great!

In spring or autumn the rich waterfalls of Fosso Malopasso give canyoneer a descenti rich in fascination and beauty though poor in risk.

I remember ...

When we descended Fosso Malopasso for the first time (november 13 2005) it seemed unknown to any canyoneer. But we realized it had been descended before, more than once: there were many bolts, some older, some newer. Who knew that canyon? I couldn't find any trace on the web, and not any canyoneer I knew had heard about it before.
The strange destiny of Laga canyons ... Laga seems to be well-known to mountain enthusiasts, climbers, hikers, but it has still unknown corners

That day was the right day to descend Malopasso, because it had been a rainy autumn and so waterfalls were white because of sparkling water. A lot of water here brings almost not any danger, and this usually happens in Laga canyons. It would be perfect to take photographs, but our backpacks were too heavy to let us bring camera.
Two years later we had camera but there was only a grain of water flowing. We were in the wrong season, at the end of the driest summer following the driest winter in a century or so ... It wasn't worth to take photographs.

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.

Copyright © 2002- Michele Angileri. All rights reserved.