cookieless, no-ads, no threats canyon exploring with Michele Angileri Fosso Dannote
At the end of Salto valley, a few kilometers from town of Rieti, there is an unusual canyoning place. The peculiar feature is pudding-rock in huge compact layers, giving landscape peculiar shapes and colors. Moreover pudding is also tender for water, so every little stream can dig a canyon. That's why we find a very high concentration of canyons here! Right side of Salto Valley in Balzi area is much steeper than left size. It has high and long walls, on which many
difficult free climbing paths are traced. 2 streams go down right side: Fosso
Pozzeria and Fosso Dannote. You can go down through them by a sequence of rappels very very near one another.
Both streams are usually dry (I guess they bring water only in case of showers).
  I remember ...Is january a good month for canyoning? Tradition says: no. "The right season goes from april to october, other months are wrong". But now we know they are fibs, because canyoning is being practised also in traditional "wrong season". Now we know we can swim comfortably in canyons having air at 0 Celsius degrees and water at 6 Celsius, wearing our usual 5 mm scuba wetsuit. And if there is no water at all? why couldn't we go in dry canyons in winter?
My partners look professional, very equipped. They have a notebook computer with all maps inside, and a cable to program GPS to follow the path represented in map. It will work, but only if paths in map (drawed 50 years ago) still exist ...
The road goes up, maybe too much ... We get a good point of view, and realize the right path is 100 meters under. I am tired, I feel my backpack heavy, and have no will to put into a third bush to get there. Elders content me, so we can find a good path do go down: halleluiah!
Is there snow? yes, 10-15 centimeters, but gives us no trouble in adherence. Dannote starts open (not engaged). Some rappel, some easy downclimbing, then a little engagement which brings us at the start of the first high dry waterfall. High! We tie togeather two ropes, anchoring on a tree which seems to be placed there for the purpose. But one rope would have been enough, because waterfall is only 35 meters (second half overhanged).
Fuck, how high is it? God, this one is really scary ... Single rope? double? from bottom we saw a ledge ... should we belay on it? Giancarlo believes no belay is necessary, ropes are enough. He wants to try: on worst case he will stop on the ledge (but he doesn't believe there is any ledge!!).
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