Swiss perimeter

September 2nd

It rained in Pontresina all morning and much of the afternoon, with all mountains hidden in cloud.  I visited the guides’ office to discuss the future.  The problem now is fresh snow on open crevasses so that many approaches across glaciers are now too dangerous.  Nevertheless I have provisionally booked a guide for next Monday to traverse Piz Palü and Bellavista at least;  all the forecasts agree on fine weather for that day, but we’ve heard such promises before!

Night: Hotel Station, Pontresina

September 1st

Itinerary: Forno Hut – Monte del Forno (3214 m) – Passo del Muretto – Maloja (car park)
Distance:  14,4 km
Walking time:  5 hours 50 minutes (plus 40 minutes for the stops)
Vertical distance:  900 m uphill; 1670 m downhill

The weather forecast was not good for the afternoon and neither I nor the guide wished to do the 4 km on the Forno Glacier another two times, which climbing the Monte Sissone, for example, would have involved.  So we chose to climb the Monte del Forno, an easier mountain with a marked path leading up it, albeit with a few chains, and not requiring ice axe or crampons.  We started out at 8.30 a.m. in cloudy and windy conditions, tried not to waste too much time and reached the car park at Maloja at 3 p.m. just as it started to rain!

Night: Hotel Station, Pontresina

August 31st

Itinerary:  Albigna cable car – Albigna Hut – Cima di Castello (3379 m) – Forno Glacier – Forno Hut (CAS)
Distance:  20,2 km
Walking time:  10 hours 15 minutes (plus 1 hour 15 minutes for the stops)
Vertical distance:  2010 m uphill; 1530 m downhill

Left Pontresina at 5.50 a.m. to meet the new guide, Lukas, at 6.30 at a large car park just below the Maloja pass.  He left his car there and I drove on to the Albigna cable car, where we took the first cabin (only 8 places) at 7.00.  We reached the Albigna Hut from the top of the cable car (just below the massive dam wall) in about 45 minutes.  I had camped near the hut with my brother Rolf in 1962!

The rest of ascent was uneventful except that the route to the summit involved ascending a crevassed glacier and Lukas got the hut warden to show the best path on a map.  This worked well and we found the best way through without once having to retrace our steps.  The way down to the Forno Hut led down another very crevassed glacier and again Lukas found the best (only?) safe route in an uncanny manner, helped by the hut warden’s sketch.  But he had also examined the route from the summit and taken a photograph which he later used.

At the end we had to go down some 4 km of bare glacier ice.  Although the glacier was quite flat, the surface was so irregular and furrowed with streams of running water that our progress was quite slow.  The hut was situated about 250 metres above the glacier level, which was tiring at the end of the day but offered a superb view.

Photos:

1 and 2.  Camping below the Albigna Hut, July 1962
3.  On the summit
4.  The Forno Glacier. The Cima di Castello is at the back on the right

August 30th

I tried to get a mountain guide in Pontresina for Saturday or Sunday, but they were all already taken – a weekend with good weather.  But I could have one for Monday, August 31st, for at least two days.

The day before yesterday, on Friday morning, after the hospital visit, I needed time to organise my stuff.  So I went by train to Pontresina on Saturday, August 29th, with lots of luggage, and once again enjoyed the hospitality of Fritz and Ursulina.

So what should I do on the Sunday?  I decided to use this day to do an easier section of the border without a heavy rucksack.  I chose the climb of 2100 meters from the Val Poschiavo to the first summit of the mountain chain to the east.

Itinerary: Campascio – Viano – Tegial – boundary stone no. 13 (pt 2648 m) – Pass Portun – Grüm Sur – Viano
Distance: 22.1 km (only 6 km along the border)
Walking time: 8 hours 30 minutes (plus 1 hour for the stops)
Vertical distance: 2220 m uphill; 1580 m downhill

To the east of the Val Poschiavo, the border goes straight up from Campocologno but crosses several cliffs and there is no suitable path.  The climb from Campascio was the only other option.  It was hot and I needed more than five hours to reach the highest point; all the upper part was done without a path, on steep grass and boulder fields. The almost vertical view down to Tirano is superb – see photo. Then I started the border ridge to the north but I had to turn around after a kilometre and a half because of large blocks and unclimbable vertical slabs.

Arriving back at Viano I went into a small restaurant to enquire about the timetable for the postal bus. There was none! Instead, one phones and the little yellow bus comes 20 minutes later.  I was the only passenger.  The journey of several kilometres, on a narrow road, partly carved into the cliff and with countless hairpin bends, led to Brusio train station.  The cost of this special trip, with a half-fare card: CHF 2,20, i.e. the normal price!  Fritz told me later that this is quite normal and cheaper for the bus company (La Poste) than offering a formal timetable.  I took the train from Brusio to Campascio (5 minutes) to pick up the car and drive back to Pontresina.

Photo:

View of the boundary stone no. 13, at 2648 m, with Tirano (Italy) behind, 2200 m lower

August 20th and 21st

I went to the main hospital in Lausanne (CHUV – Centre hospitalier universitaire vaudois) at lunch time on Thursday 20th, to the Emergencies section and was soon put in contact with the facial surgery department, who could not confirm an appointment but would call me back.  Late afternoon I got a message asking me to report at  8.15 the next day.

This I did and to my great surprise was very quickly being received by a lady doctor in the facial surgery department.  After a few tests she confirmed that I had no functional disorder and that there would be no need to operate.  The fractures were “normal” for this type of accident and were not misaligned.  But she wanted to see me again in a week (Friday 28th) when all the swellings had gone down.  My family doctor should take out the stitches around Wednesday.

Conclusion:  I will rest and eat a lot the next few days and will try to continue the circuit as from August 29th, weather permitting.

August 19th

Yesterday Peter walked back to Bondo but got tired, then benighted and took a couple of falls – not serious – and reached the car at 1 a.m. this morning!  Later, he drove to Fritz Hagmann’s place in Pontresina, arriving around 11 a.m.  Meanwhile Roger left Grandvaux at 5.30 a.m. and arrived in Pontresina just after Peter.

A nice lunch with Fritz and Ursulina, then Roger drove Peter and me back home – over 11 hours driving, a great effort, not to mention the day off work.

Peter will take the train to Milan tomorrow to be ready to fly back to the USA on Friday.

August 18th

I nearly gave this blog the heading “Disaster”, but it is not quite that.

Low cloud and some rain this morning,  so we gave up all hope of doing Piz Badile and other summits.  Instead, we would traverse along the Via Roma long distance path to the next hut (Rifugio Allievi).

After about 90 minutes I tried to take a short cut in a fairly steep boulder field but somehow slipped and fell awkwardly, crashing my face against a boulder.  A cut just next to my left eye and lots of blood.  No option but to return to the hut, with a makeshift bandage kindly provided by a German couple also on the path.

At the hut they cleaned me up, said it didn’t look too bad but immediately called a helicopter!

Peter decided to return to the car in Bondo, reversing what we did 2 days ago.

The helicopter took me to a hospital in Sondalo, between Tirano and Bormio.

Here I was kept waiting quite a while on a stretcher with an uncomfortable brace round my neck and had to fill in forms.  In due course I was wheeled into the radiography department for scans and X-rays.  Then after another long wait, they told me the results:  brain, left eye, neck, spine, etc all OK, but there were fractures of the cheek bone, which might require further treatment.  I chose to have this done back home in Switzerland.  Then they treated the wound – a few stitches – gave me a detailed medical report and the X-ray photos and let me go.

At 6 p.m. an old friend, Fritz Hagmann,  collected me and took me to his home in Pontresina;  over 90 minutes drive each way.

Result:  I will be unable to continue for at least a week.

August 17th

Well, the forecast good weather did not come!  Peter and I left the hut at 7 a.m., the sky was completely overcast and it had rained during the night.  We headed up towards the buttress that is the “voie normale” up the Piz Badile.  Then it started raining gently and fog covered the top of the mountain.  Not wanting to climb wet, cold rocks, we turned back.

Distance: 3,2 km
Time: 90 minutes
Vertical distance: 375 m, both up and downhill

We had another problem – we had just about used up our Euros because 3 places in a row did not accept credit or debit cards.  The hut warden’s wife assured me there was a working Bancomat in the village of San Martino below and that the bank there was open on Monday afternoon. So I decided to go down and get some money.  By now the rain had stopped and the weather improved slightly. Peter preferred to stay at the hut.

It was 1200 m down to the Bagni del Màsino – there are hot springs there – then another 300 m and 3 km to San Martino.  The path was very stony and slippery because of the rain, so great care was needed.  Nevertheless I reached the Bagni in 2 hours and the village centre 40 minutes later.

The Bancomat was out of order!  The thunderstorm of 3 days ago had knocked out the connections. And the bank was open only on Monday morning, not the afternoon, closing at 12.30 (I got there at 12.50).

Then I was lucky:  I noticed a bus going to Val Màsino and got on just before it left for the Bagni and saved me an hour’s walk. The remaining 1200 m took me 2 hours 45.

Itinerary:  Bondo – Bocchetta della Tegiola – Passo Porcellizzo – Rifugio Gianetti (CAI)

Distance: 18,8 km
Time:  8 hours (plus 1 hour 40 minutes for the stops)
Vertical distance:  2620 m uphill; 910 m downhill

Cloudy all day, just a few minutes sunshine;  light rain from 2.30 p. m . onwards.  Fog above about 2500 m.

Moved the car 3 km up the valley because the guide book advised against starting in Castasegna – path no longer maintained.  So we started at 8.30 at Bondo (820 m) for the long climb of 1670 m to the Tegiola pass.  All the way we had many boulder fields and stony paths.  Highest pass was the Porcellizzo at 2961 m.  Arrived very wet at the hut just after 6 p.m.  Hoping for better weather tomorrow.

August 15th

A rainy day.  I had forgotten that today is “ferragosto”, a public holiday in Italy.  But it made little difference.  Our hotel – Albergo K2 – was fine and our stay allowed us to get all our clothes and gear dry.  We took the bus to Chiavenna where we had time to do some shopping and have an ice cream.  Peter bought himself a new genuinely waterproof anorak for a very low price, his old one having let in too much water yesterday.  Then a second (Swiss postal) bus up to Castasegna, the first Swiss village.  We immediately found the car and checked in to a small hotel.  We spent most of the afternoon watching the rain, planning the next few days and updating our blogs.  Supper in a pizzeria just across the border in Italy, 2 minutes’ walk away.

Night: Hotel Garni Post, Castasegna