canyon exploring with Michele Angileri

Fosso di Iaccio Porcelli

At the border between Lazio and Abruzzo rise Laga Mounts. They are made of a stack of layers of sandstone more than 1000 meters thick, placed on marl layers. All layers immerse at east, so the western part of Laga (in Lazio) is much steeper and rocky than the rest. All mountaintops rise above 2000 meters (the highest is about 2500 meters). Winter climate is very cold and snowy in Laga mounts.

Laga mounts are rich in water, because it rains enough, but also because sandstone doesn't allow water to go undergroud. There are a lot of streams, and a lot of magnificent waterfalls. In winter they are suitable for ice-climbing (in fact this is the southest place in Italy where doing ice-climbing). In summer the hardest streams are an ideal canyoning terrain with unusual features, long accessess, low water temperature (due to the height above sea level) and the presence of snow fields and tunnels till the beginning of summer.

The landscape in Laga mounts is really great!

Look at the western side of Laga Mounts. On the left (north) rises the tall elegant pyramid of Pizzo di Sevo. A bit south of it rises the tall square rocky Cima Lepri. Both are among the most beautiful tops in Laga Mounts. The saddle between them is called Vado di Annibale (Hannibal pass), because the charming trail leading to it (called Tracciolino di Annibale) goes on a wide ledge that looks like a trail for the mythical elephants with which Hannibal comes to Italy millenniums ago.

The streams forming west of the Vado go down steep by typical Laga cascades. Fosso di Iaccio Porcelli is one of them. Its descent is of medium difficulty and length, simpler, less spectacular and tiring than the near Fosso di Iaccio Piano.

I remember ...

Autumn here would be the most rainy season of the year, but it's not always so. It is some years that autumns are so dry that even the streams of Laga Mounts are going to lose their water. In these dry autumns temperatures may jump from winter to summer in a couple of days: yesterday there was snow and ice at 1500 meters ASL, tomorrow the burning sun at 2000 m ASL will let you complain for having left home your shorts and second bottle of water.

The day we explored Iaccio Porcelli had cold wind blowing fast from the north. Sky was of intense blue, sun was blinding the eyes but soil was frozen, and so would probably be the cascades of Iaccio Porcelli. That might have made our descent very problematic.
Luckily it wasn't so. There was ice but also water in cascades, and canyon was protected from the northwind. All went good and fast.

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.

Copyright © 2002- Michele Angileri. All rights reserved.