Lake trout

Lake trout are part of the changing life of the lake below Grenon, first encountered through Pietro and Bruno’s summer routine at Barma and later among the effects of a winter avalanche. Their two appearances connect food and companionship with a disaster neither man can control: in summer the lake supplies a meal, while in winter its frozen surface is broken and the fish are cast out of their shelter.

Summer Life at Barma

During a period when Pietro and Bruno live in relative isolation at Barma, the lake belongs to a quiet cycle of daily activity. They watch eagles and marmots from the mountain house, notice the occasional angler or walker far below, and wait until other people have left before going down to swim. The water is freezing cold; after competing to see who can remain under it longest, the two men run across the meadows to warm themselves. The lake is thus not simply scenery around their refuge but a place they approach physically and return to as part of their routine.

Fishing is another modest connection to the water. Pietro sometimes takes a simple rod, described as a pole with a hook, and uses grasshoppers as bait; he occasionally catches something. At supper, a trout is grilled over the fire, accompanied by red wine. The account does not make fishing a major undertaking or explain the catch in detail. Instead, the plain equipment and occasional success place the fish within the practical economy of their secluded life: the meal is part of an evening spent by the fire, after swimming and time outdoors. The trout is food, but its presence also marks the self-sufficient rhythm Pietro and Bruno have established together.

The Frozen Lake and the Avalanche

The lake’s later appearance belongs to winter, when Pietro and Bruno are inside the mountain house during heavy snowfall. An avalanche passes nearby, producing a deep rumble and a crash that they hear but cannot see in the darkness. In the morning, they discover that it has descended through the main gorge of Grenon, the slope Bruno had skied down only hours before. The snow has cut into the ground as it fell and, after a descent of five hundred metres, struck the basin with enough force to break through the lake’s frozen surface.

The ice, which Pietro estimates to have been half a metre thick, is shattered. Dirty snow and blocks of ice cover the place where the lake’s smooth winter surface had been; beneath them, the water has already begun to freeze again. Lake trout that had been in the dark water during their winter hibernation have been thrown onto the snow. Crows gather over the exposed fish. Pietro drives them away, while Bruno gives the scene a name: sky burial. That brief remark places the dead fish within a larger ritual image, though the immediate cause is entirely physical: the avalanche has broken the ice and disrupted the lake’s winter shelter.

Recurrence and Significance

The contrast between the two episodes gives the Lake trout a particular narrative function without turning them into speaking or acting characters. In summer, a trout can become supper within the shared domestic life Pietro and Bruno have made at Barma. In winter, fish that had remained beneath the ice are exposed by a force that also alters the gorge and the lake basin. The same body of water that supports swimming and occasional fishing becomes the site of an abrupt disturbance.

The winter discovery also changes the men’s relation to the mountain’s apparent quiet. The avalanche is first experienced through sound: its approach is close enough to shake the glasses, but its path remains unseen until daylight. The trout help make the consequences legible. Their displacement shows that the disturbance reached beneath the ice and into the lake’s hidden winter life, not merely across the visible slope. Against the summer meal, this scene emphasizes how much of the mountain’s life remains outside human control, even for people who have learned to live closely with it.