Daily Archives: 21 July 2015

July 20th

Start: Bivacco Camposecco; finish: Gondo
Distance: 24,5 km
Time: 8 hours and 30 minutes (plus 1 hour for the stops)
Vertical distance: 820 m uphill, 2300 m downhill

Off at 5.20 a.m., aiming for Rifugio Andolla that we should have reached the evening before.  It took us nearly 4 hours and allowed us to bypass the Portjengrat, necessary because all the guides advised against the long descent from the Portjengrat to the Andolla pass.  Breakfast at the hut, then up the 400 m to the Passo d’Andolla, followed by the long descent to Gondo, which we were committed to reaching today (meeting with Sally who came by train and reservation in Simplon Dorf).

Night: Hotel Fletschhorn, Simplon-Dorf

Photo:

Boundary “stone” at Passo d’Andolla

July 19th

Start:  Rifugio Oberto; finish:   Bivacco  Camposecco (CAI)
Distance: 19,9 km
Time: 12 hours (plus 1 hour for the stops)
Vertical distance: 1700 m uphill, 2140 m downhill

Good breakfast at the hut at 4.30 a.m., set off at 5.20.  Climbed Joderhorn (3036 m), then Spechhorn (3189 m) and Ofentalhorn (3059 m) further along the frontier ridge.  No paths at all, mostly loose scree and tiresome, unstable boulder fields and we realised that we were not moving as fast as expected on this sort of terrain.  The next summit, Jazzihorn (3227 m) and subsequent descent to the Altronapass were particularly time-consuming.  Clouds were building up and we decided to aim for the Italian  bivouac hut Camposecco over a small pass of the same name.  Here we went too far and reached the Vorder Latelhorn by mistake, in spite of GPS.  The descent back to the pass was graded “facile” in our guide book but we didn’t find the right route.  We had to put on the rope and do some delicate climbing just as it started drizzling and a thunderstorm raged the other side of the valley.  We hurried to get down to the bivouac hut and found we had been on the go for 13 hours.  I had to borrow  matches off an employee of the nearby hydro-electric facility (and also scrounged some beer off him) and we brewed some tea and ate what little food we had.  Comfortable night (mattresses and blankets in the hut).

Photo:

Dave on the Ofentalhorn, Monte Rosa behind