Gridone

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