High Valmasca or Valmasque is an area that remains of the Maritime Alps on the border between Italy and France. It should arrive in Ventimiglia then take the road for tents. Shortly before reaching it tends to take Casterino, a very nice country where several excursions in the "Parc national du Mercantour".
The interest in visiting this area is born thanks to my brother who first decided to go there. Seeing his photos from the wild and I was struck especially by the many wild animals such as chamois (symbol of the Maritime Alps Natural Park) and ibex that my brother was able to photograph a close with a simple compact!
Me and a friend had decided to go the route of the lakes Basto. The Maritime Alps are in fact characterized by the extraordinary wealth of lakes and mountain lakes. This is for the most part of glacial lakes and nearly all are located above two thousand meters of altitude!
The chosen route starts from the town of Casterino (1719 m) and after about 3 hours to get to the lake of the vessel at a height of 2341 m. The entire hike takes place in the Parc National du Mercantour by mule cart and well marked with no technical difficulty if not for the height differences.
Lakes Basto, Black and Green represent three major glacial basins arranged in tiers. Unfortunately because of the impressive snow, we were forced to stop Green Lake where the Rifugio Valmasque.
now room for a few pictures ..
This is the first point of interest is encountered during the climb: a beautiful waterfall that we fortunately found the water overflowing!
One of the innumerable marmots living in the vicinity of this beautiful waterfall ... I know that the bridge is convenient to them too:-D
After this waterfall the trail starts to climb dramatically, and after another hour you arrive in the beautiful glacial basin of Lake Verde ..
Rifugio Valmasque: ottimo punto di appoggio per effettuare le diverse escursioni presenti nella zona.
Lungo la via del ritorno abbiamo avuto la fortuna di assistere ad un evento un pò insolito: un camoscio in evidente difficoltà! Ancora adesso mi chiedo come cavolo ci sia finito su quella roccia: dietro di lui infatti la parete di roccia era completamente verticale e alta 4-5 metri!
Comunque dopo un pò ha preso coraggio (o forse si è spaventato nel mentre io e il mio amico cercavamo di posare un grosso tronco tra le rocce con l'idea di aiutarlo ^_^) and launched into the water then being able to go out with a few meters ... Unfortunately, during these excursions do not know where the journey time will be content to take the environment in times certainly not ideal to bring home great pictures, but remember that trip was mainly for the countless encounters with wildlife local marmots ... ... ... chamois mountain goats .... fantastic! :-)
certainly point to come back in autumn and again before the end of summer.
