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Michele Angileri

Fosso La Ferge

The northern side of Terminillo is rocky and alpine, a majestic amphitheater shaped by glaciers that disappeared millenniums ago, at the end of ice age. Here, thanks to the exposure to the north, snow blocks the road until May, and in the higher parts frames and tongues of snow survive until the end of july. And this scenery can be seen from the car because here we find the highest road pass in the entire Apennine range. It is the Leonessa Saddle, 1900 m ASL, crossed by the road that joins Rieti to Leonessa passing at the ski village of the Terminillo.

Beyond the pass road goes down the Vallonina, a great silent valley covered by one of the most beautiful beech woods of the Apennines, below the rock walls of Terminillo. The upper Vallonina is made of two parallel valleys. Road goes through the wide and panoramic one. The other valley is tight and hidden, and if you try to go up through you will see it becoming very tight, not more than 2 meters, and a cascade will prevent you from going further. To go along it there is only one way: to make a wide turn that leads high on the alpine lawns of Monte di Cambio, bringing with you ropes and canyoning gear, and from there begin the long descent of Fosso la Ferge.

I remember ...

The first exploration of Fosso La Ferge was made by Cicconi, Colucci, Di Cecco and Del Grande in winter conditions. It was quite different from usual canyon explorations: the bed of upper canyon was hidden under a thick layer of snow that hid the smaller cascades or make them much higher. So the report published by Giancarlo Cicconi does not match the real morphology of the canyon: for example, Cicconi reports a 40 meters rappel while the highest fall is only 12 meters! In addition, the snow allowed them to progress with crampons. For all these reasons they didn't place any bolts or artificial anchors, while they are needed in summer conditions.
Moreover, in final narrows Cicconi & C. found pools made by dams created by little avalanches. They avoided them by climbing the side of canyon and traversing high above the narrows. They looked at the narrows from above, so their report is inaccurate for final narrows too. And also here we had to place bolts or we could not rappel.

In conclusion: the exploration in winter conditions was not a usual canyon exploration. It was rather a kind of advanced reconnaissance.

Video by Michele Angileri e Andrea Pucci

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