This trip Northern Italy to hike the Tor des Geants had been planned for 3 years - since we returned from Italy in 2018 and decided to complete the Tor des Giants in northern Italy. In 2018 we hiked the Gran Paradiso in Northern Italy. Half way through the walk, we realised that we were following a famous Ultra Trail Race held every year in Septemeber around the Aosta Valley. The first half of this Gran Paradiso walk along the Alt Via 2, was actually the first half of this ultra Trail. It was so spectacular that we decide that one day we would return and do the second half along teh Alt Via 1.
For the pastwo years, covid dominated our lives. But eventually we began to rise above the virus, and decided it was time to return to Northern Italy to complete the seconbd half of this Tor des Giants. After several months of planning, I thought that we may as well do not justthe half we hadn’t done, but repoeat the half we had already done and do ALL of the Ultra Trail called the Tor des Giants, combining the Alt Via 1 plus the Alt Via 2.
To make it even more interesting, we planned to time our walk so that we would return in time to see the actual start of the race in Courmayeur on September 11. And so the planning began. To put it in perspective, this Ultra Trail Race over 350k is deemed to be the tougest in the world ascending 33,000 metres and descending 33,000 metres. The winner of this race will complete it in 3 days. We intend to take 3 weeks and 3 days!