If You Have A Decent Memory, That Is
Bruno Pisani, the Italian hiker and mountain climber, who loves nothing more than to ascend to the very heavens atop jagged mountain peaks in Northern Italy, risking life and limb in order to document his journeys.
I'm glad I picked up on his recent trip to the Dolomites, because he includes a few film clips from 1915, showing the Italian Alpini troops in those very same Dolomites, except in winter. Bruno's recent excursion was in July, so he had the benefit of summer weather. Art!
This is the kind of terrain we're talking about, which is hard enough without having an enemy liable to shoot at you, or bomb you, or shell you, if they spot you moving around. Art!
This was Bruno's goal, a 'Bivacco' so remote it only gets visited by a few mountaineers every year. Can't imagine why not. It sits in the spot previously occupied by a military shelter put up there in the first year of the war. Art!
This shot gives you an impression of how steep the mountainsides could be, and the necessity of white uniforms to avoid standing out in the snow. Bruno then tells the tale of Capitano Sala, who was ordered to control one of the mountain passes over the Dolomites. Art!
The only way to control this pass was to establish a shelter on the other side of that mountain ridge to port (Cima Undice), which, at three thousand metres elevation, was a tad difficult. To be understatedly British about it. Art!
Alpini hiking up the mountainside. Note their characteristic brimmed hat, and how distinctly these troops, wearing summer greatcoats, stand out against the snow. Also note that only a few troops are carrying skis. Art!
This is the shelter they built on whichever side of Cima Undice this is, with all the wood and fittings and tools carried up on the backs of sweating Alpini soldiers. Make no mistake, this was an extremely hostile environment thanks to the bitter sub-zero temperatures, snowstorms and avalanches, quite deadly enough in themselves without adding the Austrian enemy to the mix.
Bruno is too modest to call himself a mountaineer, but he definitely is, as witnessed by horrifying vertical climbs he and his companion, Daniel, managed. Art!
This is a Daniels-eye view of Bruno climbing the vertical rock face, in light flexible shoes, and a helmet in case of rock falls. NO ROPES! or pitons or picks, his only tools being mutually-opposable digits. Art!
There they are on the ridgeline, which they will have to follow to reach the Bivacco, which is just visible as a small silver square slightly starboard of dead centre. Amazingly, there is already a trail to follow, so they are at (slightly) less risk of falling off the mountainside in a flurry of scree. Probably not a spoiler to inform that they made the Bivacco after their six hour journey, and signed the log. Art
Not sure if it's clear from the biro scrawl; the refuge's previous inhabitants came nine months earlier, in early October, when weather would have been worse and daylight hours shorter.
Shifting focus abruptly, you may be wondering why there haven't been any accounts I've quoted of British soldiers in these peaks during the First Unpleasantness, and the reason is that they were all infantry, foot soldiers neither trained nor equipped for mountain warfare. Art!
Shifting focus equally quickly back to our intrepid twosome, instead of a laborious six-hour journey downhill, they have paragliding kit in order to take a short cut. Art!
To an utter coward like Conrad, this looks even more frightening than their ascent, because it's an awfully long way down and human bodies are not at all aerodynamic. Still, they made it back safely, as you can tell by Bruno filming Daniel as he lands. Art!
Before you ask, no, this would not have been possible as a method of getting off the mountainside in 1915, nor any other year of wartime. Parachutes at the time were fairly rudimentary, not guidable and only used if death was the alternative. Thankfully designs and textiles have advanced in the past century.
Overnight in the Most Remote Cabin of Dolomites
That's the link to Bruno's full video.
An Answer To A Question You Never Asked
Going off at a tangent, which is one of our strengths, you may be familiar with the Vickers machine gun, because it gets featured in lots of clips and stills from the First and Second Unpleasantness. It's the classic heavy machine gun design: sturdy tripod, whacking big gun, fluted water jacket, condenser tube and can, and box of belted .303 ammunition. Art!
There's the Number Two loading another belt of ammunition, and you can just see emptied belts to extreme starboard.
Those belts didn't load themselves. Did a platoon of tommies spend hours loading them by hand, one bullet at a time?
No, they did not. Art!
Meet a belt-filling tool. You emptied bullets into the hopper, cranked the handle and it loaded rounds into the belt. I mention this because - Art!
Hand-cranked belt-filling tool as used in Ukraine in the year 2024, because they still use their old Maxim model machine guns, which take ammunition belts. Not bad for a design 140 years old.
Faster, Faster, Disaster Disaster!
Yes, we are back with Kyle and his Map Of Doom, which shows where in South Canada you are most at risk of being the victim (so far) of a hurricane or nor-easter, which are only two categories we here in This Sceptred Isle do not experience, thank heavens! even if our climate and meteorology is merely disgusting by comparison. Art!
RIVERINE FLOODING: One of the more prevalent types of disaster, this is expressed on his wall-map of woeful by blue. Art!
The blue area involves the giant mid-Western river systems and their flood plains, which typically get hit with extra-extra water during spring, especially when the snows of winter melt. People living on or near to the Missouri, the Red, the Mississippi, and other smaller rivers, are affected even if not flooded out, as power goes down, water is not safe to drink and schools or hospitals may close. Art!
Rather depressing, really. You can't mitigate ten million tons of dirty water inundating your town after all. Land of the free, brave and wet.
There's still another four types of disaster to endure <looks out of window at fog and is grateful>.
Why Trump Getting Back Into The Whitehouse Is A Good Thing
No, I am not taking Crazy Medicine. In fact, I an now nearly six weeks sober.
Yes, the Orange Land Whale's tenure for the next four years might well be an utter disaster for South Canada - they elected him, they get to lie in that bed - BUT just think of the potential content creation for us bloggers! Art?
Finally -
Baked a full-size cake for the first time in years: Apricot Coffee Bread, which is a kind of tea-bread that contains neither tea nor coffee. Pictures tomorrow.
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