The Bregaglia Valley in Southern Switzerland is a granite paradise. With a lifetime's worth of alpine rock climbing and Alpinism on its doorstep along with skiing, cycling and other mountain sports it has a lot going for it.
We had had the Piz Badile on our list for many years as our previous attempt to climb it was scuppered by the catastrophic rock fall on neighbouring Piz Cengalo in 2017 which blocked access (
here)
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| Admiring the Spazz |
Basing ourselves on the excellent Camping Morlina in Vicosoprano in the Bregaglia Valley we started the trip up at the Albigna Dam - a fantastic climbing area serviced by a teleferique and a comfortable Refugio. We took the cable car up to warm up on the superb multi-pitch crag of Spatzcaldierra on day one and finding a team already on the classic Via Felices, we opted for Via Leni (6a+, 150m). This proved a stout warmup and we felt weary after the long day travelling the day before. There was some very thin slab climbing and some hard moves in the first two pitches and our feet were killing us. We got it done though reasonably quickly.
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 | | Thin slabs |
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 | | First day fun |
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Day two saw us forking out £20 for the gondola again. This time to link the Northeast Ridge (4c, 300m) with La Fiamma - the famous blade of granite that everyone seems to climb purely for the amazing photographs. Three quarters of the way to the North Ridge it fogged over and started to rain. With no bailout options we had to press on. The wind picked up and we both started to shiver. Luckily the knife edge ridge could be avoided in the right and we could climb easy even in the wet. The rain eased on the summit (but not enough to even contemplate climbing La Fiamma) and we located the decent down the South Side after some scrambling and boulder-hopping. Back at the cable car it was sunny again. All in all a scary character-building experience for us both.
A semi rest day followed in a pleasant 7 pitch route in Ciavenna Italy Fedele (6a, 160m). At a lower altitude this was easy sport climbing with a short walk in. As the sun went in the temperature was perfect. The rock, Gneiss, was fun to climb and whilst the route was not particularly aesthetic it served it's purpose as a worthwhile morning out.
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| Fedele |
What followed was 48 hours of terrible weather. We moped around the valley for two days as heavy rain and damp dull skies shrouded the hills. Our motivation and psych for climbing was ebbing away however a window for the Badile had opened up! Saturday looked dry all-day before further storms arriving Sunday. We had no choice but to take advantage! So it was time to discuss strategy... One rope or two? Bivvy or hut? Abseil the line or descend to Italy? Public transport back or hike the Trubanesca Pass? Boots or rock shoes?
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| Badile! |
Up early on Friday to strike camp and start the walk in to the Sasc Fura. We opted to take the original path as it was under 3 hours rather than the 6 hour slog of the newly created path. The original way was destroyed by the Cengalo landslide but the way is clear now and we could cross the raging river easily thanks to a makeshift bridge. After which a hard damp slog up through the forest we arrived at the Sasc Fura.
 | | The river crossing |
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 | | Wet slog |
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 | | The Sac Fura |
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The environment was was still damp up at the refuge as the previous days rainstorm needed time to dry out. Climbers were there to either climb the famous Via Cassin or the North Ridge and being a small weather window and a weekend it was quite busy. We breakfasted at 4.00am along with the other climbers. And left by 4.30. On the walk in Pilar's headlamp completely died and we were overtaken by petty much everyone. But once at the base we roped up with a single 60m rope. Our plan was to simul-climb the route and we coiled 20 meters of rope round our bodies giving roughly 40 meters between us.
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| Its a deer! Hunting Season |
North East Ridge, Dificil (5c, 800m+)The route starts with some 50m of scrambling and climbing (with a section of 4c) to get to the ridge proper. The rock was wet but we moved well and overtook two parties who were struggling with the wet rock. On the ridge we made good progress and didn't stop to pitch until halfway up the route, passing the Risch Slab (5a) without stopping to think and eventually reaching the next obvious feature - a large overhanging block. This is passed on the right until a thin slab of 5c climbing (well bolted) leads back to the crest. We start to pitch again though as the climbing is easy it is very exposed and we are starting to feel tired. We are out in front of all teams bar an English guide and his girlfriend who made fast progress ahead of us.
In general sticking to the crest of the ridge means route finding faff is avoided and eventually a slopping ramp up rightwards indicates we are near to summit crest. As the route levelled out it started to fog over as two teams of strong fast climbers caught up with us. They were two of the Cassin route teams and had bailed on to the North Ridge due to the soaking rock on the Cassin. Close to the summit we could see two prominent peaks through the haze. It was breezy and about 1°C. Distant voices of the Cassin party to the left made me check the topo to find that at this point one must cut left off the ridge to get to the true summit.
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 | | High on the ridge |
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 | | A team from the Cassin |
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 | | Me roped up |
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We topped-out in swirling cloud at 11.50am. A great moment and we were pleased with our progress.
 | | Summit ridge |
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 | | The top! |
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The descent was straightforward down the Italian side. Many Italian teams were also making their way down after climbing the South Ridge from Italy. We followed and the descent involved lots of down scrambling and abseiling. Finding the steel cross 200m to the right of a large terrace took some patience as it's way further right than one would think. Upon reaching the cross we make two or three abseils to the scree below (probably snowy in early season). This is where we used the second rope which allowed us to skip an intermediate abseil. However we did get a rope snag annoyingly and we had to scramble and climb back up to free it. However, all in all a reasonably easy descent.
 | | Final cross |
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 | | Penultimate Abseil |
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| Final abseil |
We decide to forgo staying at the Gianetti hut and head all the way down to Val Masino. This walk we had done before 7 years prior and we knew it was a long but beautiful walk down. In the valley having missed the last bus we hitchhiked to San Martino for a B&B and pizza. The whole thing now feeling like a dream.
 | | Below the Gianetti hut |
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 | | Beautiful Val Masino |
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| Incredible scenery |
The following storm was worse than expected. 24 hours of solid rain in the valley and the Badile emerged plastered in snow when we caught a glimpse of it the day after. We chose our next objective - Cima Del Castello (PD, 3376m). This peak of 3370m is an easy Alpine route from the Albigna refuge. The gondola up to the reservoir was a familiar excursion now but this time we headed past Spatzcaldierra and on to the Albigna refuge.
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| Pilar admires Castello in the distance |
We spent a very comfortable night there before up and early out the door for what was to be a gruelling slog up to the summit. Whilst this route relatively low in objective danger and technical difficulty was, at least in the conditions we did it, a long hard battle. We made some early poor navigational errors which cost us an hour (having two separate approach notes that seemed to confuse us). By the time we got to the glacier we had already done hours of boulder-hopping and had ascended steep gravelly morrain, The glacier was stress free but we had to traverse a snowy "notch" in the summit ridge just as the clouds closed in. Things now felt more isolated as visibility closed in sporadically. The snowy summit ridge was long and tiring and in our crampons (which in hindsight we should have removed) was very slow going. Still the overall experience was worth the effort and at the very least we got to use our snow gear which we had lugged all the way to Switzerland.
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| Lake Como |
Following our tiring outing on Castello we saw the weather change for the worse. Time to abandon the Bregaglia area and head south to Lecco on the banks of lake Como. Arriving in Lecco we camped in the town by the lake in a not-so-cheap but bustling campsite (which actually turned out to be a good choice and a real contrast to the mountain campsites). We climbed for two days on Zucco de Angelone. a high quality sport climbing venue. With buttresses of perfect pockety limestone and exceptional equiping of anchors and bolts we were highly impressed. The buttresses can be enchained to give a grand day out to the summit in 12 or so pitches. The climate in September was idyllic and the views superb. These two days were nice and relaxing in comparison to the high mountains and the enchainment of
Foto di Gruppo con Signorine (6a, 90m) and
Gli Schiavi Della Pietra (5b, 110m) giving 200m of nice relaxing limestone was a trip highlight.
 | | The 3rd Spur |
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 | | Easy slabs |
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 | | More pockety climbing |
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 | | Pilar enjoying |
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| Great back drop |
Climbing in Como was a great contrasting end to a fantastic trip to one of the worlds best climbing and Alpine areas. Of course we are now filled with inspiration to come back for bigger and better objectives!
