Monthly Archives: August 2015

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