After four days in Amsterdam I flew to Milan, rented a car and drove up to Morgex in the Aosta Valley to visit my good friend Diego.

Diego is the owner of La Maison de Lise. A place I have no problem recommending for a stay in a perfectly gorgeous part of the world.

I had serious back issues leaving Amsterdam, partially the squash training, partially the standing in line at Schipol and partially the drive to Aosta (roughly two hours via the Autostrada).

Regardless, I was committed to getting in a couple of hikes/Via ferrata.

With it being the first week of October, everything was dependent on the weather and the weather did not dissapoint.

I had three full days in Morgex and each day was sunny, +20 Celsius. Absolutely perfect.

Very rare to have this cloud free view of the Mont Blanc Range

While I have done the Via Ferrata at Rhemes Notre Dame many times, I did have a bit of fear factor on the Tibetan bridge. Strange!

I got five metres in and started to shake. Twenty metres still to go. I stopped, rationalized my fear, figured I would be pissed if I turned around and then went on.

Perhaps it was because I was alone this trip and unable to share the fear with Kristin. Who knows.

It was a perfect day, only one other group on the mountain, a group of ten on a bonding exercise from the nearby national park. One woman, hysterical with fear. Not good!

Passing the group and a view to the starting point
The Tibetan bridge. There used to be two but the second one has been removed. Probably because the tree that anchored the far end is no longer there.
Traversing across the face, makes a good photo!
  • Here is a link to the Via Ferrata (Casimiro) near Rhemes Notre Dame: Via Ferrata Casimiro on Google Maps
  • This Via makes a perfect introduction to the sport. There is a short and a long version. The hardest part is about 5 minutes in, a crux of sorts that is easy enough to figure out and it takes roughly 3 hours to complete the first time.
What better way to end a day in the mountains. A delicious beer in Aosta.