Matro (from Sobrio)

There’s not much to say about ascending to Matro. This peak, though, has a couple of peculiarities: the routes to the summit are varied and interchangeable; the summit itself is one of the least sexy ones I’ve ever seen. Having said that, and strong for having been there with Toto a couple of years ago, the idea of the day was to have Mad to the summit, knowing that the +1.040m from Sobrio is an ever-pleasing walk. Actually in 2012 the path leading to Cascine directly from Sobrio was, for some reason, not allowed. Now it’s again accessible and, no doubt, we went up that way which, actually, shortens the route quite substantially besides from being certainly more pleasant. So no problem until Cascine, where the path moves east and then south-east to contour Matro  along the thick wood before the steep going up to Bassa dei Cantòi. Well, that thick wood happened to suffer major trouble caused by last winter’s heavy snowfalls: countless trees had collapsed all along the path, sometimes dragging away quantities of rocks and earth. We ended up having to dangerously leap over/under the trees or eventually deviate from the path in order to by-pass. An enormous waste of time and energy and contless scratches on legs and arms. Toto, our brave dog, wasn’t at ease either. Actually we knew by a very recent report posted on hikr by cappef that the path to Bassa dei Cantòi via Alpe di Gardosa (and Capanna Pian d’Alpe) was similarly obstructed by a large amount of collapsed trees, and that’s exactly why we chose Sobrio as the starting point. Well, one way or another we reached the plain of Bassa dei Cantòi and rested a little while. From then onwards to the summit of Matro all was as expected and we summited happily. After a deserved meal we then went down the rather steep slope of Matro’s western flank and reached the nice little lake at 1.918m. Then down to Puscett, Cascine again, Usc and Sobrio, enjoying the extraordinary profusion of Alpine flora.