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Michele Angileri

Fosso dello Scoglio Rosso (ramo sinistro)

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The mountains near to the village of Poggiodomo have bands of pink limestone walls surrounded by green woodlands. One of these walls is the "Scoglio Rosso", whose shape reminds a red rock in a green sea. The rock bands are crossed by a creek that has numerous waterfalls and a beautiful narrow dug in pink limestone.

The upper part is made of two branches, both offering interesting canyoning trails. Left branch is more open and vertical, while right branch mostly develops in the narrow.

Name	Fosso dello Scoglio Rosso (ramo sinistro)
Area	Umbria, Valnerina
Nearest village	Poggiodomo
Elevation loss	315 m
Length	600 m
Highest cascade	21 m
Rock	Pink limestone
Rating	3
Shuttle	Can do without. Possible with 4WD vehicles.
Explored by	Upper canyon: Tullio Dobosz, Stefano Soro, Fernanda Vittori; 1994 Complete descent: Michele Angileri, Tullio Dobosz; october 1 1995

I remember ...

Fosso dello Scoglio Rosso probably is the most explored canyon in Valnerina, but it's also the less attended. The discovery is due to Tullio Dobosz, that in 1994 explored the upper portion together with Fernanda Vittori and Stefano Soro. In 1995 Dobosz and I did the first complete descent of the canyon. Once in the narrowest stretch, located at the confluence of the two branches of the Fosso, we found industrialfixed ropes (the ones that you buy at the hardware store). Clearly someone with no knowledge caving or climbing had reached the ravine coming from below or descending the right branch, who knows. There were also fixed ropes on next 2-3 cascades.
The next year (1996) Conti and Guido from Terni re-explored the canyon and called it "Fosso di Fonte Tagliole". They might not have noticed our anchors or they had not believed that someone else had made a complete descent of the Fosso before them. In fact we used trees as anchors on most cascades, without cord loops. We had put only two bolts: one (without hanger) on c21, the other in the cascade that ends in the narrow, but the latter had been placed on the rock pavement, and a flood could easily tear it away or cover it with twigs and leaves.

4 different explorations for this canyon, and probably no repetitions at all till 2013, when I did the descent again and took the photographs you see in this page.