Between the two branches of Lake Como, a ridge of mountains runs 33 Km from Como to the tip of the peninsula at Bellagio.
My friend Steve W and I set foot on the “Dorsale per Cresta” trail after a Friday evening flight and a morning train from Milan.
The scale is “Scottish plus a bit” rather than alpine. Indeed the succession of linked summits would have Sir Hugh writhing in joy as their number added up.. A more rounded, and slightly bigger version of the South Glenshiel ridge would be a fair parallel for this 18 km and 1200 metre first day.
The tree line almost reaches the tops and sometimes the route was under the canopy on ancient mule trails – a useful thing as the temperature was around 30 degrees.
Uphill in the heat. Isolated farms and barns becoming more remote, more ramshackle. Haze.
A single road crosses the peninsula roughly half way along at Pian del Tivolo. Here, in a high-level grassy bowl given to horse-breeding, there is an excellent farmhouse B&B called “Le Petit Vent”, and a lovely ristorante. We felt we deserved this after the heat, and carrying kit for 6 days
A second windless day of sun and heat took us up a long side valley onto Monte Primo, the highest point on the ridge at 1682 metres, often following a MTB track.
The path then changed savagely taking a series of very steep descents, and irregular underfoot. At one point we entered a trackless wood and spent a few minutes on the borderline between inconvenient and worrying as we traversed exceedingly steep "Grade 1" soft forest leafmould with a long drop below. Points scored by Mapy.cz nav app here. Down, down, down, down to Bellagio, to end the “Dorsale” Then a very necessary beer and a short ferry to the east shore at Varenna
The east shore is dominated by Grigna, the highest mountain in Lombardy (2410 m). It has a north-west to south-east alignment. On our third day, we were headed for Rifugio Bogani, very high up on the NE side at 1812 metres. Given some descent-reascent, the total climb from the lake is around 1750 metres uphill. Fortunately, a small bus on a ceaseless succession of hairpin bends takes the first 700 metres to the village of Esino Lario. The driver did it one-handed whilst chatting on his phone. Beep-beep !!
No sooner were we off the bus, than the rain began. A road became a track became a path up and up on the side of Grigna, in heavy showers and mist.
As the weather let up, dramatic rocky scenery of the upper Valsassina came into view.
The path led precariously across big cliffs, bridging gullies and with a couple of wash-outs requiring due care and attention.
And so to Bogoni at 1812 m, a family-run private rifugio. “Buona sera, Mariangela”. Late season, we were the only guests that Monday night. Mariangela brought us cannelloni and risotto. This might have been a bit sparse for a mountaineering meal, but we put the knives and forks on empty plates to show we had finished. “no no, no” she said '…. una cena sorpresa”. The suprise dinner after the first course was a table covered with beef medallions, mutton knucles, in amazing sauces, roast potatoes, polenta, salad, and cheese (all local). A lovely friendly place. Pity the weather forecast was for thunderstorms.
On the morrow, the day dawned sunnier than expected; so we thought that perhaps after all we might try a wander towards the summit. Above Bogoni, the tree line runs out.
The interesting-looking ridge of Piancaforma leads to the top, but includes rock pitches on its direct line.
Our converging path from Bogoni led up across a wilderness of irregular shattered limestone rubble. . It was very difficult to distinguish the path, which was marked at intervals, but not winning any prizes.
There are various very deep and unprotected sink holes, and the path led closely by their edges.
We were closing in on the upper part of the Piancaforma Ridge and scrambling on ropes and chains. But ahead, the weather was threatening and the mist-hakel had by now obscured the top. “D'ye know what ?” We concluded that we already had ample pictures of the insides of clouds, and it would be easier to pass the sink holes before the mist dropped further
.
Down we went passing Bogoni, and an hour or so beyond, we crossed the ridge crest from Valsassina on the NE side over to Val d' Era which plunges south-west to the lake.
Here is a chapel erected as a memorial to two brothers in the resistance, who were captured, tortured and shot by the Nazis in 1944.
Our destination was Rifugio Bietti-Buzzi which had been a partisan hideout.
This Rifugio is in a stunning position below the west wall of Grigna. The path to it traverses the dramatic cliffs for about 1.5 km.
On the way, there is a natural rock arch, the Porta di Prada.
The gloomy skies rather took the polish off the sensational views, but nevertheles........
Once again it was just us sleeping: although another delicious meal was shared with a young Belgian couple who camped nearby. They had a noisy night in their tent as the storm broke and it poured down.
Our final day was the descent from Bietti Buzzi to the lakeside.
Back across via Porta di Prada then directly down Val d' Era, it took 5 hours (including stops) to reach the outskirts of town. We passed through woodlands where a sea of limestone chippings had washed between the trees in repeated flash floods, abandoned charcoal-burning sites with stacks of timber still ready (after perhaps 150 years) and Stations of the Cross.
To close the afternoon, we took a pleasant section of the Viandante route slightly above lake level to the village of Lierna. A weather forecast confirmed that we would not be taking our planned further section of Viandante the following day. We got some beers under a portico and watched as the night sky went flash bang wallop.
In fact the forecast turned into a major weather event with flooding and disruption. It was clear that we were leaving at just the right ime, as a morning train whisked us out of the mountains across the flood-soaked plain to the sights of Milan. I sent my wife a photograph of a handbag on sale for 4300 Euros in the Galleria
ciao
ANDREW.
