A long weekend in the Italian temple for the icefalls, the Val di Cogne. The Val di Cogne is perhaps one of the temples for the Italian cascadism, both for the huge number of icefalls in the same valley and for the quality of them.
In the valley there are some legendary pitches such as the "Repentace Super", and in the nearby Valsavaranche the legendary "Trip in the night", icefalls that were the highest degree of difficulty before the birth of dry tooling.
Even after this limit has fallen the Valle d'Aosta has always remained at the center of the development of dry tooling, and here some of the most important dry climbers have focused their attention: Stevie Haston opens "Welcome to the Machine" in the cave Haston in Valsavaranche putting the dry tooling in the limelight.
Staying near Aosta in the village of St. Pierre, we will allow you to wander between the Val di Cogne and Valsavaranche in search of the most beautiful icefalls and the most amusing "dry tooling" routes.

Program

• 1st Day
  Meeting at St. Pierre in the Verger Plein Soleil agritourism around 19:00, dinner and resolutions for the following days
• 2nd Day
  Day of icefalls in the Val di Cogne or Valsavaranche.
• 3rd Day
  Day of icefalls in the Val di Cogne or Valsavaranche.
• 4th Day
  Day of icefalls in Valsavaranche or in Val d’Igne.
• 5th Day
  Icefalls until 4:00 pm, greeting and departure.

Technical requirements
There are no meaningful technical difficulties, but a good training in mountain walking and a good climbing technique on the cliff are required. Some experience of climbing on ice is advisable.
The program can be modified or interrupted by the mountain guide due to the insufficient technical level of the participants or for meteorological reasons.

Equipment

• Harness
• Pair of ice fall axes
• Ice fall crampons
• High mountain boots
• A pair of locking carabiners and a descender
• Ski mountaineering or freeride equipment (skis, boots, LVS, shovel, probe)

Possibility to rent or, depending on availability, the material can be provided by the organization: harness and crampons.

Clothing:

• Sunglasses for high mountain / glacier
• Cap
• Buff – Foulard
• 2 pairs of high mountain gloves
• Breathable T-shirt
• Fiber turtleneck sweater
• Windstopper or fleece jacket
• Waterproof jacket (ex: Gore-tex, pac-lite, conduit…)
• Mountain pants in schoeller
• Mountain socks
• Gaiters

Inside the backpack [30/40 lt maximum]:

• One fiber T-shirt
• Thermal pants
• A pair of mountain socks
• Ski mask
• Extra light gloves
• A headlamp with new batteries
• Personal pharmacy kit (compeed patch, aspirin, high protection sunscreen, ...)
• Waterproof overpants (ex: Gore-tex, pac lite, conduit, k-way)
• Camera
• 1 lt bottle or Thermos
• Paper towels

Obviously small suitcase with a spare to stay in the city and the necessary for personal hygiene. 


Included
Alpine guide's support, common use material.
If the minimum number of participants will be not reached, the shares will be proportionally increased unless the event will be canceled.

NOT Included
Room and board in the hut/hotel and expenses of the guide and everything not specified in the item "Included".
In case of modification of the itinerary due to causes external to the organization (adverse weather conditions, technical level of the participants, etc.) the unforeseen expenses will be debited to the participants.

Useful informations

• Bibliography:
  Cascades autour du Mont-Blanc, tome 2
  François Damilano, Godefroy Perroux (1999)
• Tourism Office:
  Tourism Office Cogne
  web: http://www.cogne.org/default.html

For registration or information:
Email: mountainevolution@gmail.com
Phone: +39 3477661126