Pomagagnon: Terza Cengia

Another forecast where the morning is better than the afternoon, so we plan something that's not overly long. We drive a bit up and out of town to park at the lift station of Col Tondo. Now up, up a bit on the trail towards Rif. Mietres, then turning left and following the road/trail towards P. Fames. Up a bit of the big scree fan leading to the Forc. del Pomagagnon and then following the signs to the Terza Cengia, which take us across to the foot of the wall. Around the corner and up, up some more until we get off the scree and onto the band we'll be following. Here we put on the klettersteig gear and continue up, up. 

The trail itself is really nice, a mixture of hiking and a bit of light scrambling, with straightforward route finding and not too much gross loose stuff. There's a cable wherever you really want one and in a bunch of spots where it's not super necessary. Big fun.

At the end we head up a bit to the top of the Punta Erbing, where we have a food break and enjoy the views. Then it's down, down, following the marked trail down to the woods running behind the ridge and then along further to the Forc. Zumetes, where we head steeply down on a nicely constructed path. Down, down we go on a nice trail, eventually ending up back in the woods and hitting the path we came up on in the morning. This takes us back to the car and the end of another nice day. 

Stats: 5:20, 12.2 km, ~1050m up and down

Sentiero Astaldi and the Grotta de Tofana

The forecast calls for a decent morning and rain in the afternoon, so we plan a day with some flex in it.

Part 1 is doing the Sentiero Astaldi, a simple klettersteig on the Tofana Mezzo. We start with the familiar (from last year) drive up towards Lagazuoi, but stop in a parking lot across from the entrance to the road which leads up to the 5 Torri. From here it's up, up through the woods to the Rif. Dibona. There's plenty going on here. We follow the trail along, past a group of Americans with a guide, and then up, up towards the Rif. Pomedes. After a bit we hit the trail which leads to the Sentiero Astaldi. Here we put on our harnesses, helmets, and the klettersteig sets and then continue. Some normal hiking along a trail that definitely sees some usage leads us to the beginning of the cable.

The route itself follows an obvious band back towards Rif. Dibona. It's not at all technically challenging, particularly with the cable there to use as a hand hold, and is certainly in the realm of stuff that we'd do without the safety gear. But it's still nice to have the gear. :-) The constant clipping and unclipping is a bit irritating, so we do the more straightforward bits either without clipping in at all or with just one carabiner clipped. After not nearly long enough we exit the band and come out with a view over the path zig-zagging up to the Forc. Fontanegra (and all the people on that). We do a food break enjoying the views and then continue on to Part 2.

For part 2 we traverse up and across the scree slope to join the big trail, which we follow for a bit before turning off onto the trail towards the Col dei Bos. This traverses under the big, impressive wall of the Tofana de Rozes. At big scree fan we follow the smaller trail (and sign) towards the Grotta de Tofana. This takes us up, a bit more, and into a narrow chute. Here we put on the helmets and then scramble up to a band which leads us across the face for a bit (there's a cable here too) before heading up again to a large cave mouth. This place is pretty popular, we've passed a couple of men with a kid and a larger group is leaving the cave as we arrive. There's a loop inside the cave itself, starting with a ladder and a bit of cable up and then heading into the dark. There's a set of stairs, the ceilings are high, the walls are glistening, it's super cool. Towards the exit we re-encounter the two guys with the kid, who now has an actual torch. That's a really cool effect. :-)

After exiting the cave we head back down and re-cross the bands. It starts raining along the way (expected), so it's on with the hard shells before continuing. We pass one of the groups who left the cave as we were arriving at the end of the band and then head down, down the scree slope to rejoin the main trail. Off with the helmets and then onwards and downwards through the light rain to the Rif. Dibona. We're both hungry, so we decide to stop and have a proper lunch out of the rain. Fortunately there's a table free, so we get to enjoy some nice pasta in the warm dry instead of snacking in the rain. :-)

After lunch we head down, down, along the now amazingly slippery path, and back to the car.

Nice day!

Stats: 4:50, 11.2 km, ~800m up and down

Hiking around Monte Faloria

The idea for today is to do a bit of warm up and say hi to the region again. :-)

We walking in town, past the gondola station, along a rails-to-trails conversion for a while, and then up, up on some road, past the golf course, further on the road, past a restaurant, and then onto the trail. This piece of the Alt Via Dolimiti 3 takes us around the corner and then efficiently up, up, up through the Val Orita. We stop towards the top to have a food break and enjoy the views before finishing the last bit of ascent and emerging next to the radio towers above the Rif. Faloria. Here we continue along the ridge and up a bit more, past the Rif. Tondi, then further along the ridge and down to the Forcella Faloria. From the ridge we have a great view of the crazy looking path which leads across the scree towards the Ponta Negra. There are a number of folks traversing this, but it's not on the program for today (need more time in the area before doing something like that).

Instead we stay on the Alta Via 3 and continue to traverse the slope towards the Forcella Marculoira, taking a food break along the way and enjoying the views (it's so nice to be in the Dolomites!). When we hit the spot we turned down last year, we descend to the next trail down and then follow that back to the gondola station at Rif. Faloria. From here we follow the scenic path with 5 benches around to the "Cliffhanger Hut". This is at the top of the trail which leads us down, down, down, into the valley. The first bit of this is unpleasantly steep, but we get used to it and/or it gets a bit less steep and we can enjoy the efficient descent. Once lower and back in the woods we turn off onto another trail which takes us to a road which takes us back to the rails-to-trails conversion which we follow back to the gondola station.

A nice start and warm up for what's to come in the days ahead!

Stats: 7:00, 19.4 km, ~1500m up and down

2021 Hiking vacation in the Dolomites

 We got super lucky with the weather this year and only had rain one afternoon.

The individual posts:

1. Hiking around Monte Faloria
2. Sentiero Astaldi and the Grotta de Tofana
3. Terza Cengia
4. Hiking the Seekoffel
5. Cadini Massif 1
6. Fanes waterfall hike
7. Karst on the Lastoi de Formin
8. Cadini Massif 2
9. Tofana traverse
10. History on the Col de Lana
11. Around the Tofana di Rozes
12. To the Bivacco Slataper

Overview map:

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Klosters to Chur

Great forecast for this weekend, with a chance of showers on Sunday afternoon but otherwise clear, so we opt for a trip with the bivvy bags. 

We take the early train to Klosters Platz, get the gondola up to the Gotschnagrat, and then start out along the red-white path under a lovely blue sky. Up and over the Casanna we go, down to the Parsennfurgga, past the lovely (and popular!) Grüensee, and along the very nice path (lots of wood walkways) through the moor landscape towards the Strassberger Fürggli. Along the way there we stop for a food break and enjoy the nice weather and views.

From the pass we continue along the ridge along a path which is newly marked, not on the map, and not frequently followed. This leads us under and around p.2430, then we kind of lose it and end up traversing a big patch of stinging nettle (yay) before redoing the ridge and heading to the Mattjisch Horn. Here another food break to enjoy the fantastic views and then we continue along to the Arflinafurgga and then to the Faninpass. We’re expecting to have improvise again here, but it turns out that there are old trail markers along the way we’re planning to go; easy progress! Onward along the ridge we go.

It’s time to start thinking about water, so we head off the ridge below the Dängelstöck with the idea of traversing to the Guotiger Brunnen spring indicated on the map. Fortunately, there’s a trough with a pipe we can access at the start of the spring just below Furgglis and we can get water there. After drinking our fill and pumping a couple of liters, we head back up to the ridge and continue past the Dängelstöck. Onwards along the ridge we encounter a herd of horses (very unusual) and take another break to appreciate the views before heading up and across the Ratoser Stein (which we’ve been calling "Ratloser Stein" all day). Down the other side and now we can see the Hochwang, which is our current planned stopping point. Up, up the last bit to the peak, some scouting around to find a good place to sleep, and we ditch the gear. 

The next step is collecting water; we take Andrea’s empty backpack and the bottles back down, down to the beginning of the valley under the ridge and find a good pool to pump from where the path crosses a stream. 6 liters of pumping later and we carry the water back up to our campsite. After getting a bit of setup done we head up to the peak to make dinner.  Surprisingly, a couple shows up as we're making dinner; they've come up just for the sunset. It’s a bit windy but the views are fantastic and we enjoy dinner with views and then a bit of a post-dinner stroll around the peak before heading to bed and appreciating the (mostly) full moon rising and moving in and out of the clouds.

Clouds move in overnight and it's pretty clear when we wake up that the planned continuation of the ridge wouldn't be a great idea. By the time we're done with breakfast we are basically in a cloud and it's starting to lightly rain. On with the rain gear and down we go. Down past where we pumped water, down, down into the valley towards Triemel. Along the way the rain stops... yay. At Triemel we opt to stay up reasonably high and traverse on the path to Bargun, then it's down, down to Castiel. Here we do a food break at a nicely situated picnic table above down, then continue along the road (unfortunately) to Calfreisen. Next it's up a bit more, around, and then down, down to Maladers. From there it's easy and efficient down to Chur, where we arrive with time to grab a beverage before getting the direct train back to Basel.

Day two wasn't what we planned, but it was a nice day of hiking. We'll have to go back and do the planned route for day 2... it looked pretty good! :-)

Track:

Stats:

• Day 1: 8:20, 22.2km, 1330m up, 1100m down
• Day 2: 5:00, 19.3km, 130m up, 2000m down

Hiking around the Capanna Cristallina

The forecast calls for rain and thunderstorms on Saturday night, but we want to camp, so we take  our new tent with us and head off to Tessin.

The usual early start from Basel and the train through to Airolo. Bus to the gondola and then the gondola up (with tons of bikes) to save ourselves the first 600-800m of climb. Good to do given the humidity and coming heat.

From the top of the gondola we follow the path for a bit and then head off along one of the service roads for the ski area. Up up and back and forth for a bit until we hit the old marked path leading towards the cliff. Now more steeply up, taking a food break along the way, until getting to the wall itself, a short bit of not-so-nice crossing of a gravelly slab, and then we are on a pretty easy to follow and occasionally marked trail that follows a weak spot in the wall to the top. Nice!

Up on the ridge we enjoy the views and then decide to follow the "trail” down, down the other side towards a herd of cows. Past the cows, another food break, and then onwards to a blue-white path which takes us towards the dam. This heads up a bit and then contours easily along the valley side.  A short break at Lago del Forna to appreciate the loveliness and then onward to Lago di Val Sabbia where we pump a bit of water and scope out potential camp sites. Continuing seems more promising, so on we go.  Down towards Lago del Naret (there is a road up to this and it is pretty busy), along the edge, and then up to Lago del Corbo. Here there are two tents right next to the path, but we continue to the end of the lake and start looking for spots above it. Plenty of good tent sites here! After some scouting we take a promising one and get the  tent set up. The rest of the afternoon is spent enjoying the sun and views, pumping water, etc. By this point the weather forecast has changed and there’s no more rain in the forecast. yay!

After a good dinner we walk up to the next lake and do a bit of sunset-color appreciation and tidying up before going to bed. The plan had been to leave the tent fly rolled up, but given the amount of dew that immediately starts condensing after the sun goes behind the mountains we decide against that… next time!

On Sunday we get take advantage of the early sun (planned for!) and are underway shortly before 8:30 even after a leisurely morning. We rejoin the red-white path and follow it up a bit onto the ridge and then towards the Lago Negro.  Nice trail followed by a particularly nice stretch of talus hopping (what a great surprise!) and then we are at the pass and enjoying the views down to the lake and across to the Basodino. Along and down the nice path above the lake and then a food and planning break with views.

After the break, we’ve decided for the blue-white path along and behind the Lago del Cavagnöö, onwards and upwards towards the Cap. Cristallina. When we get to the pass above the Lago Sfundau and see the hut sitting above it, we decide for a change of plans. Up, up to the hut we go, have a nice lunch at the hut, and then continue down the other side of the pass. On the other  trip to this region we went straight down to Ossasco, but this time after the walk down through the lovely valley we turn off to the right and traverse the valley side until we arrive back at the gondola station.

Gear note: this was the first trip with our new tent, a Sea to Summit Telos TR 2.

Track:

Stats:

• Day 1: 6:41, 14.1km, ~1300m up, ~600m down
• Day 2: 7:24, 21.2km, ~800m up, ~1400m down

Hiking in the Baltschiedertal

We wanted to see the sun, so we took the train down to Visp to do a hike into the Baltschiedertal.

After walking out of Visp we cross the river and then head up, up towards Ausserberg. At this point the valley is full of clouds, but we remain optimistic and carry on. There's some fun with trails not which are on the map not being particularly used/findable and a stretch through a large and very healthy patch of stinging nettle (ahh 2021... such a great year for stinging nettle!), but we continue up to the spot at p1265 where the path along the suonen and the one through the tunnel split. We opt for the suonen version. This is a nice fun trail, quite exposed at times for the bit through the rock face (which is creepy while in a cloud), but then broadening out once in the forest. Once we get to Ze Steinu things start to open up a bit and we can even occasionally see the Stockhorn at the end of the valley. We continue on a bit until we find a nice sunny spot for a food break. Nice break in the sun, beset by butterflies, and then we turn around to head back.

Just past Ze Steinu we move down to the lower path and continue along. Admire the crazy avalanche remains at the bottom of the Furggbach and then continue on to the bridge. Up a bit and then we pick up the suonen path on the other side. Here along the water, through tunnels, skipping the optional crazy exposed bit (g wasn't even willing to think about it), and along the really nice path to the end of the maintained bit. Here a food break on a bench with a nice view near the little water wheel with a hammer hitting a cowbell (old method to let the maintainer know that the water is still flowing) and then down, down down through Eggerberg and back to Visp. We have time to grab dinner and then it's onto the train and the trip back home.

Being able to get down to Visp in 2 hours is just sooooo nice. :-)

Track:

Stats: 6:20, 20.4km, ~800m up and down