canyon exploring with Michele Angileri

Torrente Finoieri

The systematic search of the waterfalls in the area of Sersale-Zagarise is part of the wider tourism development of the area's natural beauties, carried out by some enthusiasts who have engaged in the activity of environmental hiking guide.
Probably the search of the falls has benefited from European development programs and related EU funds.
What matters in the end are the results. Once discovered and exploited the now famous waterfalls of Uria now it's the turn of Finoieri creek and its numerous cascades. Like the Uria, the cascades of Finoieri can be accessed from the sides of the valley but the paths are far from trivial. In theory, the discoverers realized paths marked by signs, that lead to the main waterfalls, poetically named cascata della Pietra, degli Anemoni, delle Ninfe, del Tronco, dell'Aquila, dei Lupi, delle Grotte. In theory ... In fact, the path signs are hidden or quite invisible, so it is practically impossible to get to the falls without the help from a hiking guide in the flesh.

So the waterfalls of Finoieri are much less known and visited than the Uria falls. And they were never been rappelled before.

I remember ...

Waterproof cameras are very useful in canyoning, but sometimes they make you damn. The day before we had done another canyon descent, and at night we had slept in tents on the Sila, without being able to dry our equipment. The result was a terrible stain of moisture formed on the inside of the protective glass of the lens of my Canon D20. I could not even take a clear photo. Fortunately, Andrea had a camera that is not waterproof, so it was not wet and did not have that problem, otherwise we would not have neither picture nor a video of that day.

Once home, however, the moisture did not go away even with hours of exposure under the sun. So I decided to disassemble the casing of the D20, and the reason for that terrible moisture became clear: water had passed beyond the protection glass coming from glass' edge that, unbelievable, did not have a rubber seal!
But, I say, how you people at Canon can do such a thing? a camera that should be waterproof down to 10 m deep without any seal on the protective glass?

Disconcerting, really. However, the camera did serve me so I had to find a solution to make it really waterproof: glueing the glass with a waterproof glue.

Photos and video by Andrea Pucci

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.

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