Monte Siella, October 24, 2013, Parco Nazionale del Gran Sasso

Descending from Monte Siella Summit

It's always pretty depressing when we come to the final days of our visits to Abruzzo. When we first arrive, we marvel at all the time that we have and all of the things that we want to use that time to do. Then, in what seems like minutes, we are talking about how to maximize our final days before turning our attention to packing for the return. This year, we decided to make the Campo Imperatore the location of one of our last big hikes.

The Campo Imperatore is a grandiose, high elevation plain surrounded by the huge mountains of the Gran Sasso National Park. It's the home to the Corno Grande and a bunch of other jagged peaks that are evident from most points on the Campo.

We decided to climb Mount Siella, the smallest of the Gran Sasso peaks on the Club di 2000 m list. But in the Gran Sasso, "small" still means 6,500 feet! The trail starts off from the large car park at Fonte della Vetica, which also serves the approach trail for the very popular Monte Camicia. Getting on track is a little tricky. The idea is to locate the rifugio building at the far end of the parking lot and then follow a path leading into the woods to the left of it. The trail through the woods goes to Sirella; the trail to the left of the woods goes to Camicia.

As always, I needed the map and compass for way finding as the red and yellow blazes were faded and very inconsistent. The Gran Sasso map calls the trail that we were following "242." But we didn't see a single number the entire day. After a short distance of traveling to the northwest, the trail suddenly turns at a near right angle and then heads due west. It's a easy point to get off track.

After the shift to the west, the trail leaves the pine trees and goes up fairly steeply via switchbacks with amazing views back to the Campo and Monte Bolza on the other side.

It then arrives at an open meadow below the summit ridge. From the meadow, a long diagonal trail (sparsely marked) takes you up to a col between Monte Siella and Monte Tremoggia.

The col provided a nice picnic spot out of the wind and we enjoyed our fourth panini di porchetta of the trip - a new record!

Although the blazes are too faint to follow, it is easy enough to find the Sirella summit by walking along the summit ridge to the west. The summit is marked by a large cairn and stick. The view to the south reveals the long auto road that we drove on to reach the parking area far below.

Peak: Monte Siella

Elevation: 2027 meters (6,650 feet); Gain: 1,312 feet

Distance: 6.5 km (4 miles ) roundtrip, up and back

Conditions: Sunny, Windy, 65 degrees F