Grigna Settentrionale in Winter

You start at around 800m of elevation. I arrived at the trailhead at around 6 in the morning, it was still completely dark but using my headlamp this was obviously no problem. The path from the parking is basically a road as there are some houses and farms connected to it. Because the road is very easy to follow, you cover distance and elevation quite quickly. I was greeted by 2 friendly guard dogs in the night who walked with me for a little bit before returning to the farm.

After having followed this road all the way up, you take a sharp right into the forest where you zigzag your way up the mountain, this also doesn’t present any difficulties and is a nice segment. From here you get up to the Alpe Cove, where there is a rifugio and a few buildings. There is also a small lake and next to it is a spot where you can refill your water. This is at around 1301 meters of elevation. Still in the dark I continue on, take the path which goes up, not the one to the left. You pass by a few other buildings, following the cement road up. You reach Paleral, where there is a playground.

From this point on it starts to become more like a proper hike where you leave the buildings and roads behind, and continue on the trail to the top. The trail goes through a small wooded area and after this you get to the big face of the Grigna. At around 1500meters of elevation I encountered the first snow and this was also the time when the sun was rising. Seeing as this is quite a popular trail, all I had to do was follow the footsteps from the people before me leading up to the bivacco.

The bivacco is at around 1800meters of elevation, and this is also the point where I put my crampons on and grabbed my ice axe. As the trail gets a bit steeper from here. The route is basically straight up the mountain face, a big face of about 500meters of elevation with a gradient of around 40 degrees. As it was still early and the sun hadn’t warmed up the slope yet, the snow was firm and it was easy to make my way up.

Reaching the top of the face you get beautiful views towards the other side, looking over Lago maggiore. The last part and maybe the most exciting part is where you now take a left and follow the ridge, to the summit. This ridge is equipped with ropes and easy to follow, the ridge is never really too exposed, but you don’t want to wander off the path as there are snow cornices hanging to the right.

At the summit I was rewarded with beautiful views of the surrounding area, there is a large summit cross and also a rifugio at the top, called Rifugio Brioschi.

You then take exactly the same route down, the day I went was quite a warm day, wearing a softshell in the wind on the summit, but descending lower on I just had a t-shirt and shorts on. On the way down the snow was a lot softer. There was still many people going up though, but I was happy to have done it in the firmer snow.

An excellent excursion to dip your toes into more ‘difficult’ winter routes!