Alta Via 1, Day 9

Yesterday when walking through the forest, I bumped my right knee against a big rock, and today I woke up with excruciating pain. Sunny gave me some Advils and I popped one after breakfast, hoping it will carry me through the day. My knee still hurt, but it felt more manageable than yesterday.

I woke up at 6 like everyone else. It seemed everyone was eager to leave too, which made me feel a bit sad because Passo Duran was a nice place to stay and I would have stayed longer if I could. We all headed to the dining hall, with our backpacks packed and ready to go.

The first 2 kilometers of the trail was on the highway, then I took the trail to the left of the high way, and it was a lot of walking in the forest. Thankfully that also means shades. There were a lot of hiking through exposed scree rocks paths and boulders too just like yesterday, but they didn't phase me anymore. My eyes have gotten used to scanning for paths among all the white rocks, and my intuition seemed to have gotten better, which led me to navigate the trail efficiently without stopping every 5 minutes or so to make sure I was heading the right way. And then I realized that now I have become more familiar with the many different situation I could encounter on the trail, which made the hiking much easier.

I decided that I would stop for lunch once I got to Rifugio Pramperet. Pramperet was already closed for the hiking season at the time, so I could just stop on the trail and eat my packed sandwich from Passo Duran. After Pramperet, I knew that the only way is up and up and from that point, it was quite a slog. I told myself I would get there eventually, and I told myself not to rush, only to speed up again because I thought about the thunderstorm. But I was, at the same time, in a much calmer state, unlike my first few days on the trail where I would be caught up with the panic in my head.

I knew that despite having completed 3/4 of the trail, the most difficult part was sadly still ahead of me. First would be the exposed ridge in CItta del Sud; the guidebook mentioned that there would be a lot of hands-on scrambling. When I got to the ridge after that slog of a 5 km climb, I realized I was all by myself, and it was foggy. It scared me a bit but I got over it quickly and soon I found myself on a grassy flat ground, and I continued to make my way past the mountain peak. A woman I met earlier who was heading the other direction told me that once I am past the mountain peak, it will be all downhill.

At the time, going downhill after a 5 km climb seemed to be such.a relief. She was right, but here's the thing: going downhill was much harder than climbing up. I thought climbing up was difficult, but today I learned that descending was even rougher, especially when one of my knees wasn't at my best. I slipped a couple of times and I knew that the second most difficult part of today's trail awaits me: the steep narrow part to Pian de Fontana.

I was afraid that it was going to be raining because the heavy clouds were already following me, as if threatening me with a downpour anytime soon. I rushed and slipped again and repeat - it was very brutal on the knees. Eventually I saw Pian de Fontana but even then, there was still about 1 km of descent.

I made it, though as soon as I walked into the hut, it started raining heavily.

When I got there, the American woman who was hiking by herself greeted me. The other hikers have already arrived, and we gathered in the table, Phil sitting near the entrance by himself, Lee, a Korean woma, sitting nearby the power outlets. I was in the same bunk as Sunny and his wife again. They immediately informed me that there is no hot shower, but I didn't mind.

I did my usual routine: paint, drink hot chocolate. Lee and I started talking, saying that she's from South Korea and she's the woman that Patricia told me did the Camino and Tour du Mont Blanc on the same year. What a trooper! She said she likes hiking and volcanoes, but sadly her grown daughters aren't into hiking. She mentioned she would like to have grandkids, however her daughters don't want to because having kids in south Korea is really expensive and they barely get any help from the government. An hour later, Patricia walked in, to everyone's cheers - everyone was happy to see her here, including me, of course. I was so glad to see her there, especially after both of us wanting to bail the previous day. But we don't seem like the quitter type. She said she lost time after Pramperet because some people directed her to the wrong way, but what's important is she's here. We caught up, talked about our hike, talked about many other things going on in the world. I continued sketching what was probably my last sketch on the trail before I climbed up to my last bunk bed and went to sleep.