Alps blog. Grigna Meridionale, Lake Como. 26/3/22

 

Participants, Sergio, me and myself, plus the entire city of Milan.

 Last Saturday I thought of joining a group of hikers who were going up a mountain to a refuge called Rosalba at an altitude of 1730 m.

When I saw the number of participants, around 40 people, I decided to go it alone and it was a good decision. Not only because of Covid but also because going up a steep and rocky mountain in such a crowded group spells danger.

The mountain in question is called the Grigna Meridionale, 2184 m high, and it’s situated just to the right, mid-way up Lake Como. (the Grigna Meridionale towering above the town of Lecco).

 

When I arrived at the starting point at Pian Resinelli, 1182 m, I had a shock. The vast car park was totally full, the nearby roads were also full of parked cars, there must have been the entire city of Milan there, hundreds of cars parked everywhere.

 

 Going up to the refuge was not fun because I had to overtake myriad of people who were just strolling upwards in a leisurely way, going nowhere fast. Typical city people.

 

Finally I arrived at the refuge Rosalba. As crowded as the center of Milan.

 

View West, Lake Como below. 

I saw a couple of people venturing upwards from the refuge, so I decided to continue towards the summit, away from the crowd. From then on, it was a totally different story.

  

Finally I could breathe again, the crowd disappeared the further up I went. Almost nobody there.

At some point it became necessary to rock climb, no other easy way up. And here began the essence of the mountain, pure rock and the hardship of rock climbing. In places there are some iron ropes but they soon became more sporadic.

    

View from the South face of the Grigna Meridionale.

    

The paths became very narrow, more rocky, covered with ice and snow as the altitude increased. The level of rock climbing was relatively easy, a similar difficulty and hardship as climbing up a ladder, the rocks offered an easy grip, both for the hands and boots, although it was imperative to avoid the many areas still covered with ice. Fortunately, my Salewa boots offered a near perfect grip. In retrospect though, I should have carried my rope and worn my helmet, something that some other climbers did.

 

Near the summit. View North-West.

 Photo taken on the summit. The nearby Grigna Settentrionale, 2410 m, pure rock. On my climbing list.

Finally, I arrived at the summit. Yep, the Apollo mission did land here before going to the Moon.

After that, it was a long, arduous and tiring way down. When I got to the car the tips of my fingers were so worn out because of the cold and rock climbing that I had difficulty unlocking my phone because it could not recognize my finger prints.

Unfortunately, as you might expect in these conditions in the Alps, there were some casualties that weekend. I learnt later that the organizer of the group I did not join fell and broke his legs and was heliported to the nearby hospital of Lecco. Plus I read on the local paper that one person died and another was seriously injured in hospital.

Because of traffic jams, it took me well over 2 hours to get home, about 60 km away. It would have been faster on a bicycle.

Total for this hike: 11 km, 1200 m climb and descent, about 300 m of which, rock climbing. Mighty hard for and old guy like me. I burned about 6,000 calories on the day and then I spent the following two days eating everything and sleeping. Marvelous.

Do I miss the Algarve? Oh yes. Above all I miss the great fun I had with the AWW. Keep it up. See you soon.