Obrò Hoptie (2370m), trail 3B (TBC)
from Trail 3 to Trail 8
Trail 3B (code to be confirmed) starts from the junction with Trail 3 to Bivacco Gastaldi(2370m) and reaches the junction with Trail 8 to Rissuolo Pass.It is 2400m long. If traveled in this direction, you will go up 177m and down 269m. In the opposite direction it is obviously the other way around.
The approximate time for the route is 1h00. The trail will probably be rated EE difficulty.
It is a short connecting trail, joining almost horizontally two trails: trail 3, which leads from Gressoney-La-Trinité to the Gastaldi Bivouac, and trail 8, which leads from Biela, a hamlet of Gressoney-Saint-Jean, to the Rissuolo Pass. The connection joins Trail 3 shortly after passing the Spilmannsberg huts, and Trail 8 exactly at the Upper Ciampono huts.
It is an ancient trail restored in 2022 for the first Monte Rosa Walserwaeg trail run race. The trail code has not yet been assigned, but according to reliable sources it should take code 3B. Thus there are no signposts (only a few green/blue marks), nor is there any signaling at the two forks (which are, however, very obvious).
The view of La-Trinité
Although it is rather short, it is extremely spectacular because all along the way there are unobstructed views of the valley floor: shortly after the start, when you pass below the ruin of the Obrò Hoptie, one can overlook (by walking a few steps away from the trail) a grassy balcony vertiginously overlooking the town of Gressoney-La-Trinité. You pass several shoulders, each time accessing a new and different little valley, until you come in sight of the lower Ciampono huts.
There are a couple of places where a rope makes it safe to pass: in one of them, the rope is certainly useful in case of rain, because the path is for a very short stretch quite steep, and therefore potentially slippery. At the other point, however, the rope skirts a very steep section of the trail, and this is the passage that will probably cause this trail to be assigned the EE level of difficulty.
When you follow this trail, you will inevitably return to the valley at a point far from the start-the two points are joined by Trail 15, which runs along the valley floor.
