Aosta Valley, altitude 1700 meters, Valmeriana. 700 meters difference starting from Cloutraz. A cloudy day and the weather was expected worse, about the rest a wonderful thing for the body. Six, the kilometres on foot for admiring a magnificent panorama. Together with a good friend and hiking partner we decided to challenge the weather and reach the "goal of grindstones" at 1770 meters. Grindstones that we would never have seen because of the snow almost half a meter high that hindered our path. Our boots were not enough, they could not be enough to climb the last 70 meters of altitude too sloping and too snowy to allow us to reach our goal.
We didn't expect all this icy water which with all the probabilities would almost certainly bury ours aspired grindstones. Before arriving to the plateau we stopped for lunch break near a private shelter, we found the door open and we went in to take a look, everything looks okay and clean inside, even a cake on a table wrapping, probably some naive felt cold and panic broke through the door in search of warm himself, at least that passed in our minds.
From the plateau a view to almost 360° on the Alps from which to make some shots, dark and mysterious. Objective then failed, but a lot of satisfaction and a beautiful happy day in which to we where saying a lot of crap, dear grindstones, wait confidently, nothing is lost, sooner or later we will conquer you!
In the cover picture the Western Alps, down you can almost see the Châtillon village, where I live, below a series of Alps shots in b&w, I find that is more suited to a cloudy landscape like the day of our excursion. Pictures in RAW format that I modified later by changing white balance, tone curve, contrast and brightness.
Western Alps in the distance
The Black Summit, a name a program
To the right you should see the Matterhorn but is covered by clouds
Mountains that overlook the forest
A cluster of tumultuous clouds
Beyond the woods the Pennine Alps
