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 Salt tablets or electrolyte powders to combat salt depletion caused by excessive sweating

 Water bottle

 Mobile phone, recharger and adapter

Wildlife

Animals

One of the main reasons for visiting the Gran Paradiso is the marvellous opportunity for observing wildlife at close quarters. To state the obvious, the best way to spot animals is actually to look for them – most are masters of disguise and perfectly camouflaged in their natural habitat. Desolate rock-strewn cirques may reveal fawn patches which, on closer inspection, turn out to be chamois. Levellish grassy ground is pitted with entrances to marmot burrows and abandoned farm buildings overgrown with nettles may be home to vipers. Uninviting rock crests are worth perusing with binoculars for the likelihood of ibex sentinels tracking the progress of walkers!

Naturally the formidable ibex, Capra ibex, is the recognised king of the Gran Paradiso. Also known as bouquetin or steinbock, this stocky wild goat is easily recognisable from a distance for its enormous backward-curving ribbed horns, which can grow almost to one metre in length on males, double that of the females. Well established and protected these days, they now number a record 5300, in contrast to the 300 reported by Yeld and Coolidge in 1893 and the 400 survivors after World War II. Males live between nine and eleven years and weigh on average 95 to 100kg. Females are smaller at around 65 to 70kg. It was the original Gran Paradiso stock that successfully repopulated the whole of alpine Europe.