The frontier around Livigno 2

October 11th

Itinerary:  Alpe Campaccio (1950 m, on the road Livigno – Forcola di Livigno) – Piz la Stretta (3104 m) – Monte Garone (3030 m) – Fuorcla Federia 2899 m) – Valle di Federia, pt 2010 m.

Distance: 24,3 km
Total time: 9 hours 20 minutes, of which 1 hour 20 minutes for the stops
Vertical distance:  1760 m uphill; 1700 m downhill

I decided to get my revenge on Piz la Stretta – where I couldn’t reach the summit because of fog and snow on October 4th.  This time it was quite sunny with only a few clouds.  The snow line had moved up to about 2800 m and the snow was hard and quite easy to walk on.  So this was an easy summit.

I also wanted to continue along the frontier to the north as far as possible.  But the way down to the north did not look good in the snow (see photo) and is not described in the guide book (is this ridge ever done?).  I tried descending the west ridge to the Fuorcla Chamuera so as to get back to the frontier further north.  It is graded “peu difficile” but after going down some very steep snow I was defeated by a rock band, only 3-4 metres high, that appeared to have no weak points.  So back again to the summit, having wasted a good hour of my time.  Then I found a cunning way round to the east but it involved going down 400 m and up again to Monte Garone, taking another 2 hours.  The next stretch of the frontier to the north went quite quickly; in fact the hard snow covering made everything much easier.

I had to stop at the Fuorcla Federia and walk down the very long valley to Livigno.  The next summits would have been more difficult and I was running out of time.  Sally and Roger had arrived that afternoon and Roger was able to drive up the Federia valley to pick me up, saving me the last 3 km.

Night: Hotel Bernina, Livigno

Photo:

Piz la Stretta from the north-east, north ridge on the right