Passo del Tonale in rain, thunder and lightening!

This is my "I'm freezing" pose

Well didn’t get quite as far as I expected today due to some heavy rain accompanied by thunder and lightening but still got over the Passo del Tonale and have moved back into ski village country.

I awoke to some fairly hefty grey clouds this morning. It has been quite a while since I have seen anything but blue sky so was nice for a change and I expected it would hopefully mean a cooler day. After packing up and heading off to the supermarket next door for a stock up, off I went through the apple orchards for Passo del Tornale.

The road was generally climbing most of the way, albeit very gently, from the start. There were a few wee downhills but mainly just a slight incline. I was hoping to get some views of Lago di Santa Guistina (a big lake) along the way but I only got a really short glimpse through the trees at one point.

The road started to climb for the pass around Ossana. From around 1,000m at Ossana to the top at 1,884m the gradient is a fairly constant 6%. There is lots of forest around and the road was one of the busier ones I have been on (still relatively quiet mind you) but as with the gradient the view is very constant. There is an old fort dating back to 1860’s with around 6.5kms to go to the top, which is nice for a wee break if you are into that.

With about 2kms to go the road pops up to the plateau on the top and the gradient is less than 4% for the remainder of the climb. At the top was a ski village and and a lot of ski lifts. What was different though was the ski village had high rise buildings everywhere. Up to now, even the big villages I had seen to date all had big old buildings looking like something out of the Sound of Music, but this was obviously a newer ski field or a very popular one I guess.

Out of place sky rises to the left of the sign

At the top there was also a war memorial. First one I have ever seen with ski lifts in the background.

Hard to see but the hill behind is covered in ski lifts

At the top it was also freezing! I put on more clothes and headed down the other side before too long. The road down was a bit rough so I took it easy. That is also when the rain started. I am not too worried about riding in the rain, so long as you keep moving to keep warm. I got off the road for a bit to see if it was just a shower passing or not, nonetheless as it did start to get a bit heavy.  It did pass after a few minutes waiting but I could see a lot more coming. I decided to go down the road a few towns and stop early for the day. I thought if I stopped around where I did, that I could continue the route I was thinking of anyway tomorrow with no loss.

So I headed out again but got caught. The rain bucketed down and it got to the point where it was hard for cars to see me it was that heavy. I only had to endure it for a couple kilometres though before I got to Vezza D’Oglio where I thought to stay for the night. That was when the thunder and lightning all started, and I was really pleased to be off the road.

No pictures of the fort as was not that interesting but this old building I found between drenchings was

I have learnt to now just embrace the accommodation search; it is what it is. I went to the first place, the one with signs out with specials showing and all that, but the door was locked. I went to the bar next door and asked and was told in a way I should have known that no, it was closed. They did point me to another on in town which seemed open but the door was locked and no one answered the doorbell which had the sign above it “if door locked ring the bell”. So I looked on my Garmin and there was one other in town…up a steep, steep hill. I risked it and pedaled up, and as luck would have it it was proper open and they even had a place to stay. 

The riding was actually just normal today; nothing stood out of the ordinary to other days so I ended up not even taking that many photos. Bit of a bore I know. But the ride was still nice, don't get me wrong. Tomorrow I will do a loop over Monte Padroi, then Motirolo and back here.

Highlight: Finding out my camera still worked after getting a smidge wet.

Lowlight: Finding my camera a smidge wet. The dry bag that holds my camera is not waterproof it would seem. There must be a small hole somewhere. Not much water got in, but think I will not leave it out in the rain on my handlebar bag anymore.

Lesson Learned: Learning to just embrace the accommodation scenario; takes the stress of it off and allows you to laugh at the situation.