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Michele Angileri

Fosso dei Carbonari

Fosso dei Carbonari goes down the sandstone layers in the western side of Cima della Laghetta by an uninterrupted sequence of sunny waterfalls. Then it meets the marl rock and becomes less steep but still it has many cascades, though lower. The overall trail is long, not so difficult but phisically demanding. In the right season Fosso dei Carbonari gives canyoneers the typical emotions of canyoning in Laga Mounts.

Name Fosso dei Carbonari
Area Lazio, Monti della Laga
Nearest village Amatrice
Elevation loss 530 m
Length 1500 m
Highest cascade 45 m
Rock Sandstone, marl
Rating6
Shuttle No
Explored by Upper canyon: Michele Angileri, Andrea Pucci; june 22 2008
Lower canyon: Michele Angileri; june 2 2014

 

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What you find in the detailed description

I remember ...

Which is the best season to descend streams in upper part of Laga Mounts? Not winter, of course, when streams lie frozen under snow and avalanches.
In spring snow is melting, but in the bottom of valleys survive thick ice-fields made by avalanches. They melt in a strange way, being dug from the bottom by stream's water making unstable tunnels destined to crush down and to be dug again by water. Some people loves to descend a canyon in such russian roulette conditions ... not me. I prefer to wait for ice-fields to be completely melt.
Autumn is a good season for streams in upper Laga, maybe the best if it's rainy and cool, and if summer had been not too dry.

Is summer a good season too? At the beginning of season streams have good flow and no more ice-fields, i.e. the best conditions, but something else may give serious troubles: hot temperature. All canyons in upper Laga require long, steep and sometimes hard approaches, and heavy backpacks. Moreover great part of approaching hikes develope above the maximum height for trees, in high mountain meadows. Despite height it's really hot in summer: brown-grey sandstone absorbs sunlight transforming it into heat.

We were not aware of this when we began the approach to Fosso dei Carbonari. It was 10.30, and temperature in beeches forest at 1500 meters above sea level was 25 Celsius degrees, with very much humidity. We went up slowly, often stopping to rest. More than 2 hours were needed to reach the upper limit of wood. So we moved through high mountain meadows in the hottest hour.

At last we arrived at stream. We were boiled by the sun and hot air, we were wishing cool stream's water and cascades, but we had a bad surprise: water was warmed by the sun. Water's temperature and hot sun were something like a southern mediterranean beach in summer. Our heavy wetsuit had no use at all in such a hot place, at 1900 meters above sea level!

When I was on top of first cascade I realized I was not well because heat and big effort. My head was aching, my heart running. A boulder made the only little spot in the whole valley. I stood there, trying to find a bit of energy and self-control to descend.

What saved us was breeze coming up through Carbonari valley.


The first to go on the cascades of Laga Mounts were the ice climbers. In winter, however, the valleys of Laga have different features. The little cascades disappear under snowdrifts, so you can easily climb them walking on crampons. With crampons it's quite simple reaching the highest cascades from below or descending the steep sides of valley covered by icy snow.

At snowmelt the valleys change: water reappears, there are pools, rocks become very slippery and unstable, the highest cascades are higher because the cone of snow at their bottom (tall up to 10 meters or more) melted. Walking on the steep, unstable sides of valleys has become hard or even impossible, but you can still do it in some valleys, and one of them is Carbonari. But walking on steep unstable slopes following a stream that's hidden to the view tens of meters below is not "canyoning", it is another kind of outdoor adventure and this website is about canyoning, not about walking nor ice climbing. Canyoning is following the stream, the flow of water, rappelling the cascades rather than climbing to bypass them. So in this page the "explorers" of Fosso dei Carbonari are those that did the first canyoning descent ever, though the first to put their feet on the cascades were ice climbers.

Photos by Michele Angileri and Andrea Pucci

Copyright © 2002- Michele Angileri. All rights reserved.