More rain and snow 1

October 4th

It had rained a lot during the night and the weather was still very dull in the morning.  After refuelling (0.92 ct/litre lead-free; duty-free zone!), I drove to “Baitel del Gras degli Agnelli” a small uninhabited house at 2099 m on the road to Forcola di Livigno.  I got ready to get some fresh air when it started to rain very hard, so I listened to music in the car for an hour. Suddenly the rain stopped and the sky seemed to be clearing a bit. So off we go!

Itinerary: round trip to La Stretta col (2465 m); distance 3.6 km, 375 m total vertical height both uphill and downhill, 50 minutes up and 30 minutes down again, with a light rucksack. Snow on the ground from 2200 m, covering the path entirely from about 2300 m.

I intended to perhaps go up to Piz la Stretta (3104 m) on a marked path, but everything was in the fog, I would have taken at least three hours round trip for the remaining 650 m height difference, with much deeper fresh snow further up, and the sky was closing in again (on the way up I had 2-3 minutes of sunshine and saw my own shadow for the first time in two days!)  The decision to turn back was quickly taken and mountain congratulated me by bringing me new gusts of wind and snow.

So off to Pontresina for a quick visit to Fritz and Ursulina Hagmann, then I returned to Vevey and Grandvaux in the afternoon.