Swiss perimeter

Itinerary:  Alpe Cedullo – Indemini – Monte Pola (1742 m) – Monte Lema (1621 m) – Sessa

Distance:  27,5 km
Walking time:  7 hours 40 minutes
Vertical distance:   1320 m uphill;  2220 m downhill

Cloudy and misty most of the day.  Left Alpe Cedullo at 7.30 a.m.  Coffee in Indemini (see Frontier stories no 12, for further information on Indemini).  The last section down, at the end of the day, was very tedious as too flat – one only lost height very slowly, but did too many kilometres!.

Night: stayed in a small flat belonging to Christopher Lockie (a second cousin of mine), in Dumenza (Italy)

Photo:

Indemini

August 3rd

Part 1:  Kayak across Lago Maggiore, Peter and I in the two-seater, from Valmara to Dirinella, 5,4 km, 50 minutes.

Part 2:  Dirinella – Covreto (1594 m) – Monte Paglione (1554 m) – Oratorio di Sant’Anna – Alpe Cedullo (agroturismo).

Distance:  9,4 km
Walking time: 3 hours 40 minutes
Vertical distance: 1420 m uphill; 320 m downhill

A beautiful day, calm with no wind on the lake.  Very hot walking up in the forest in the heat of the afternoon.

Nona met us in Dirinella where we loaded the kayak onto the car.  Then she parked the car in Indemini and walked up to Alpe Cedullo (360 vertical metres).

August 2nd

Itinerary:  Traverse of Rocce del Gridone and Gridone itself.  Descent to Lago Maggiore!

Distance:  20,0 km
Time:  10 hours 15 minutes (including 55 minutes for the stops)
Vertical distance: 1690 m uphill;  2390 m downhill

After a long drive from the hotel at Premeno, Peter and I started at 8.30 a.m. at Pian del Barch, a small hamlet below the imposing north face of the Rocce del Gridone.  The path was well marked and led up some 800 m to the foot of the face.  This turned out to be easier than expected with some scrambling and 3 fixed ropes.  The traverse of the ridge above was exciting but time consuming, always well marked with red and white paint.  We reached the Bocchetta del Fornale in just under 5 hours instead of the 6 hours indicated in the guide book, probably because we were not using a rope.  Then another half hour took us to the summit of Gridone, 2188 m, obviously very popular – about 30 people at the top on this Sunday.  We then had to descend almost exactly 2000 m to Lago Maggiore. This took well over 4 hours and was very frustrating at the end since the roads and paths were not steep enough, going down in rather flat zig-zags.  Good weather all day.

Night:  Hotel Fiume (and Chinese meal) in Cannobio, Italy.

Photos:

1.  Peter on the Rocce del Gridone
2.  View of Locarno from the summit of Gridone

We could not traverse Monte Gridone as planned.  Drove to Locarno for ice cream, coffee and kebab take away lunch, then to above Verbania (Italy) to a cheap 3-star hotel.  Weather slowly improving but we were in no mood to kayak across Lago Maggiore.

August 1st is the Swiss national holiday (public holiday).

Night:  Hotel Moderno, Premeno

July 31st

Distance:  18,6 km
Time: 7 hours (plus 1 hour for the stops)
Vertical distance: 1190 m uphill; 2260 m downhill

Over 2000 m downhill seems to be a record so far.  Not the best thing for knees but they survived!  The valleys really are deep and steep here:  first we had the 700 m down from Alpe Saléi to Comologno, all steep, especially at the end going past small chalets and barns.  Had a coffee here, then had to drop another 230 m to get across the river.  Followed by over 1000 m steeply up a ridge to near Pizzo Ruscada, then down again over 1100 m to Borgnono and Camedo in the Centovalli.  Luckily we had lighter rucksacks since no rope, ice axe or crampons were needed.

I had been warned that below about 2000 m it is almost impossible to progress away from proper paths without losing a lot of time and energy because of the vegetation – mainly small junipers, bilberry bushes and Alpine rose bushes – and we experienced this ourselves yesterday when we went astray and tried to cut back to the correct path – so we chose marked paths as close to the frontier as possible.

One consequence of these deep valleys is that the frontier with Italy does not follow the watershed in the Valle di Campo and the Valle Onsernone but lies down below on the Swiss side.  The frontier follows ancient agreements on grazing areas for sheep and cattle and access to these areas was easier from the Italian side coming over the passes than from the Ticino side coming up the deep valleys.

We found a nice hotel in Italy – Albergo Bellavista in Folsogno (commune of Re) – quieter and cheaper than down the Centovalli in Switzerland.

Photos:

1. Peter and Nona at Comologno
2. Below Pizzo Ruscada

July 30th

Itinerary:  Cimalmotto – Passo della Cavegna – Capanna Alpe Arena – Passo del Bùsan – Pilone (2192 m) – Capanna Alpe Saléi (above Comologno)

Distance: 21,2 km
Time: 9 hours (including 45 minutes for the stops)
Vertical distance:  1480 m uphill;  1140m downhill

Left Munt la Reita agroturismo at 8.20 a.m. with Peter, me with two ski sticks and an elastic bandage around my knee.  A bit slow going downhill on stony paths, otherwise OK.  Lost half an hour when we lost the red/white markings but were saved by the GPS!  Sunny weather mainly, some clouds.  From Passo del Bùsan (2006 m) had first view of Lago Maggiore (and Locarno)!  Quite an emotional moment.

Nona drove the car round to Comologno and walked up 700 m to the Saléi Hut to meet us, also bought some Perskindol for me.

Photo:

At the Cavegna Pass

July 29th

Itinerary:  Grossalp to Cimalmotto

Distance:  9,4 km
Time:  3 hours
Vertical distance:  420 m uphill;  890 m downhill

Peter and Nona walked down to Bosco / Gurin for a good buffet breakfast in the hotel (Nona had done this yesterday).  I could not walk down so went by chairlift at 8.30 a.m.  No pharmacy in the village but managed to get some ibufren off the hotel first aid box, also a bandage from the minute local Coop.  Used wi-fi to partially update website blog.

Weather:  windy and rainy most of the day.  This and the state of my knee precluded any summit attempts.

At midday Peter and I took the chairlift back to the hut, collected our things and walked over the Quadrella Pass to Cimalmotto where we had reserved accommodation.  Nona went there by car.  My knee – bandaged – held out quite well.

Night: Munt la Reita agroturismo, Cimalmotto

July 28th

Itinerary:  Rifugio Piano delle Creste – Colle Crosa – Pizzo Cazzòla (2756 m) – Capanna Grossalp (Bosco / Gurin)

Distance:  13,0 km
Time:  8 hours 15 minutes (including 45 minutes for stops)
Vertical distance:  990 m uphill;  1190 m downhill

The endless boulder fields got me in the end!  Somehow I injured my left knee and the last hour or so down to the hut were slow and painful.

Nona met us at the hut.  She had brought my car (and the two-seater kayak) round from Airolo to Bosco / Gurin and walked the 700 m height difference to the hut with food for us.

Bosco / Gurin is a German-speaking enclave in Ticino.  They speak an upper Valais dialect.

Photo:

In a boulder field

July 27th

Itinerary:  Rifugio Corno Gries – Passo San Giacomo – Bocchetta di Val Maggia – Basòdino (3272 m) – Passo d’Antabia – Rifugio Piano delle Creste

Distance: 19,7 km
Time:  11 hours (including 40 minutes for stops)
Vertical distance: 1570 m uphill; 1800 m downhill

Peter and I left the hut at 7 a.m. and traversed to the San Giacomo pass.  Climbing the Marchhorn from here appeared too difficult (no snow in the steep couloir) so we took the well marked path to the Bocchetta di Val Maggia.  From here we had to descend some 250 m in height to traverse to the Basòdino Glacier below the Kastellücke.  About 2 hours on this glacier allowed us to climb the final ridge to the Basòdino summit.  Good weather, a few clouds on the horizon.  Descending the SSW ridge proved exciting (knife-edge sections of good rock), but the descent from the Antabia Pass was tricky and required two abseils.  Finally, we reached the Piano delle Creste Hut just in time for supper.

Photo:

At the San Giacomo Pass

Peter, Nona and I drive back in the afternoon over the Nufenen Pass and we go back to the Corno Gries Hut.

Distance: 2,3 km
Time: 40 minutes
Vertical distance: 310 m uphill