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Ken Baldry's Alpine PagesMonte Rosa Rundtour - 3 |
Stage Three - from Saas Almagell to Macugnaga (Monte Moro Pass)
The footpath to Mattmark, 2120m from Saas Almagell is not very good and muddy. The Hotel Spycher in Almagell (on this link) is nice and much cheaper than anything in Fee - note. We took the bus to Mattmark then walked over the Monte Moro Pass, 2668m to Macugnaga, 1307m in Italy. This was the first time I had visited Italy (1975)and it looked just like Switzerland! The pack horse track up to Monte Moro follows a diagonal up the side of the valley and is very well laid out, although it has deteriorated from its regular pack-horse days.
To the Monte More (left skyline) from the path |
Monte Moro Pass cable car station & café. |
At the top, we saw nothing of the famous view of Monte Rosa. To get this, one has to be up early in the morning, which means an Alpine start from Saas Almagell & walking the whole way. Because of the cloud we took the top cable car down and walked the rest. We stayed in Borca, the second village down the valley. More Italians than Swiss speak English. After I had rehearsed my 'Voremmo una letto per notte pro cena', the landlord said, 'Ah, you are English' followed by revelations as to which restaurant in London he had worked in.
Stage Four - from Macugnaga to Alagna (Colle del Turlo)
We set off up the Val Quarazza the next day. This is the longest day as there is over a vertical mile to go up and more to go down.
The lake in the Val Quarazza. Up in the hanging valley is a pleasant lake and then the path winds up through the trees to summer grazing and a surprise at 2000 metres: |
Down the Val Quarazza |
A perfectly formed pack horse track which looks straight out of the Middle Ages. This was the work of Mussolini's Alpini, built as a result of their First World War experience. This was commemorated by a plaque on the Colle del Turlo, 2738m at the top. 'Turlo' is clearly the Swiss 'Turli' and German 'Turelein'. Another plaque in the local Walser dialect is almost unreadable. Part of the entertainment of this trip was philological. Here, you get a view of Monte Rosa where the distance from summit to valley floor is greater than Everest from top to Base Camp. The path down was also made up but in a different manner as the geology had changed. It was quite a long way to Alagna, 1190m and it is not an attractive village. Its principle virtue is that it is the valley station of the so-called Monte Rosa cable car. |
We stayed at a rather full Albergo but of a reasonable standard. It was full because of the summer skiing which became evident at dinner time. There was a Mum and two daughters on the next table and they only spoke Italian, coming from Milan. When we discovered about the Summer skiing, I did my best to communicate, using bread sticks as skis.
Stage Five - from Alagna to the Gnifetti Hut
The Gnifetti Hut with Jane in the doorway. |
From Alagna, we took the string of four cable cars up to Punta Indren, 3112m. It stops a long, long way from the top of Monte Rosa, fortunately, but reaches two little glaciers with the Summer Ski School drag lifts. It was cloudy when we got there and we soon lost the skiers as we walked up to the Gnifetti Hut at 3611m. Italian huts had a deservedly bad reputation in general. The only other one we had visited had been the Theodule Hut (in 1971), who's drains are evident throughout the building. (Visiting the Theodule Hut in 2015, it has cleaned its act up completely).However, the Gnifetti Hut is something else. A modern, new hut with little dormitories for six climbers each. The kitchen was open and spotless. We had not been there long before it started snowing, so everyone got the impression that tomorrow would be Off. As there were German climbers and English-speaking Italians, we were a vital communications link and quite a party soon developed. They fly Chianti in by helicopter. One of the Italians was a famous racing cyclist but I forget his name. The Germans were much amused by my saying Frankie Schubert and the Italians sang a lovely climber's song, 'La Montanera'. We went to bed late for climbers and feeling no pain, as the Americans say. |
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URL: http://www.art-science.com/Ken/Alpine/Monte_Rosa/mr2.html Last revised 15/9/2015 © 1998-2015 Ken Baldry. All rights reserved.