Читать книгу Through the Italian Alps. The GTA - The Grande Traversata delle Alpi онлайн

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Argentera, the highest peak in the Maritime Alps

As of the road pass Colle di Tenda on the border with France, the Ligurian Alps are followed by the Maritime Alps or Alpi Marittime, which feature stocky 3297m Argentera. D.W. Freshfield observed them at length from the Côte d’Azur: ‘Day by day, in the clear winter sunshine, I had seen from the hills round Cannes the snowy chain’, later noting that they gave access to ‘views… of surpassing beauty’. On the other hand the rugged core was described for its ‘crests that are all exceedingly precipitous and narrow, sharp as knives and jagged as saw blades’ by Austrian naturalist Fritz Mader (1895). These dramatic mountains of igneous-metamorphic origin assume shades of grey, orange, Prussian blue and purple, while intense patches of red (due to the presence of iron) can even interfere with a compass. Granite is predominant alongside gneiss, from intrusions of ancient lava. A handful of modest ice and snowfields survive, and glacial modelling is widespread both here and in the following groups. The notably abundant wildlife is monitored by the competent Parco Naturale delle Alpi Marittime, which traces its origins back to 1855 when land was donated to the Italian king for the purposes of a game reserve; the largest park in Piedmont now covers an impressive 28,000ha.