A Hike from Cerasola (Valtorta) to Piani di Bobbio

Overview ~ Notes ~ Flora ~ Photos

  

Left: Waking east, descending from Passo del Gandazzo 1660m,
Center: View from Piani di Bobbio into Valsassina with Grigna in the background left,
Right: View from Piani di Bobbio toward Zuccone dei Campelli 2159m.

Overview

Length: 3 hours
Duration: 9.4 km
Elevation: 406 m
Location: Italy, Lombardy, Val Brembana, Valtorta

Notes

The access to Piani di Bobbio is typically from Barzio (Lecco provice) where there is a cable car. We’ve always come up the Valtorta (Bergamo province) side, where there is no cable car. At Rifugio Trifoglio in Valtorata there is a large parking lot. In the winter, there is chair lift to take you up (not a cable car) and in summer, just your legs.

We did hike from Piani di Artavaggio and Piani di Bobbio in 2023, see the post Hiking Between Piani di Artavaggio and Piani di Bobbio. But during that hike we stayed high and didn’t descend into Valtorta.

We’ve skied twice at Piani di Bobbio, so it was fun to see what ski slopes and meadows look like in the summer. Answer: full of grass and wildflowers!

We made a small loop hike today, starting and stopping in località Ceresola, steps away from the parking lot. There is a bar/restaurant there to grab something before and after the hike. In Piani di Bobbio, there are several rifugi to choose from as well.

Flora

[Asteraceae] Cirsium sp.

[Asteraceae] Jacobaea sp. - not 100% sure about this identification.


[Liliaceae] Lilium bulbiferum

[Ranunculaceae] Aquilegia atrata

Photos

  

Left: Beech forest in Valtorta.
Center: Descending on località Ceresola (Valtorta).
Right: Hike tracks.

  

Left: Passo del Cedrino in Valtorta.
Center: Piani di Bobbio and Zuccone dei Campelli 2159m.
Right: Walking on a ski slope of Piani di Bobbio above Valtorta, view east.

Valtellina Week Hike 5: Alpe Val Poschiavina

Overview ~ Notes ~ Flora ~ Photos

 

 

Top left: Terzo Laghetto di Campagneda - reflections of Mount Disgrazia, clouds and sky.

Top right: The northwest flanks of Pizzo Scalino.

Bottom left: Lakes below Passo di Campagneda.

Bottom right: Tracks for Alpe Val Poschiavina Hike. We went clockwise.

Overview

Length: 19.5 km
Duration: 6.5 hours 
Elevation: 665 m
Location: Italy, Lombardy, Valtellina

Notes

In this post, we are on hike 5 of our Valtellina hiking week. Like hike 4, we started and ended at Rifugio Zoia where we were staying for 3 nights. From the rifugio, we walked the 1.5 km to the Alpe Gera Dam, climbed up the dam and then instead of going on the west side of the basin/lake to get to Rifugio Bignami as in hike 4, we stayed on the east side of the lake to reach Val Alpe Poschiavina.

This hike brings you to the Swiss border at Pass da Cancian. We kept seeing stone markers and finally it dawned on us we were on the border between Italy and Switzerland.

At the Pass da Cancian there is a good view of the Altipiano of Fellaria to the north and a view east into the Poschiavo valley. Just a few days earlier, we were climbing up the Poschiava valley in the Bernina Express.

Continuing from Passs da Cancian to Passo di Campagneda, you arrive at the high point of the hike at 2636 m. From this point on Monte Disgrazia is always in the distance to the west.

Just below Passo di Campagneda, we met Alice. We spent the previous night together at Zoia but we did not talk to her because she arrived late and bedraggled. She started out from Rifugio Zoia in one direction and us in the other, and we met in the middle. Alice is from Switzerland (Bern canton) and was hiking from Maloja Switzerland to Poschiavo Switzerland, passing through Italy. By herself and fully equipped but minus a cell phone. What an inspiration at 80 years old!

Flora

[Asteraceae] Tussilago farfara

[Campanulaceae] Phyteuma sp.


[Caryophyllaceae] Silene acaulis


[Gentianaceae] Gentiana sp.


[Orobanchaceae] Bartsia alpina


[Primulaceae] Primula latifolia


[Primulaceae] Soldanella alpina


[Ranunculaceae] Pulsatilla sp.


[Rosaceae] Dryas octopetala


[Rosaceae] Potentilla sp.


[Thymelaceae] Daphne striata


[Violaceae] Viola biflora

Photos

   

Left: The wooden arch at Passo di Campagneda.

Center left: A marker on the Swiss Italian border near Pass da Cancian.

Center right: A piece of serpentine near Passo di Campagneda.
Right: Santuario Madonna della Pace, Prabello.

  
Left: Look at the reflections on Terzo Laghetto di Campagneda - reflections of Mount Disgrazia, clouds and sky.

Center: Looking north over Alpe Val Poschiavina.

Right: Entering into Alpe Val Poschiavina - with Alpe Gera Dam behind us.

  

Left: Heading toward the Alpe Prabello and Rifugio Cristina

Center: View from Rifugio Cristina, Alpe Prabello.

Right: Houses near Rifugio Ca Runcasch.

Valtellina Week Hike 4: Fellaria Glacier East and Rifugio Bignami

Overview ~ Notes ~ Flora ~ Photos

 

 

Top left: Fellaria East Glacier Lake showing cliff with tongue or terminus with proglacial lake.

Top right: Heading toward Rifugio Bignami with Alpe Gera lake on the right.

Bottom left: Fellaria East Glacier Lake edge.

Bottom right: [Saxifragaceae] Saxifraga byroides

Overview

Length: 19 km
Duration: 8.5 hours (including time at the glacier lake, and lunch at Rifugio Bignami)
Elevation: 684 m
Location: Italy, Lombardy, Valtellina

Notes

In this post, we are on hike 4 of our Valtellina hiking week. We started this hike from and returned to Rifugio Zoia, where we stayed for 3 nights. Great rifugio and place. (We had a private room with bathroom!) We walked from Zoia to Diga Alpe Gera (about 1.5 km), where the hike really starts. Day hikers, arrive at the dam parking lot.

Getting to Rifugio Bignami from the Alpe Gera dam is more or less the midpoint to getting to the Fellaria East glacier lake.

The Fellaria Glacier (Ghiacciaio Fellaria) is in the Alta Valmalenco, province of Sondrio (Lombardy, Italian Alps), right below the Swiss border. Its upper plateau reaches about 3 500 m a.s.l. and today its terminus sits near 2 600 m, where meltwater has pooled into a small proglacial lake. This lake is the real destination of today’s hike. And specifically, we are visiting the east tongue of the glacier. Up through the Little Ice Age (ca 1850) there were two glacier tongues (Fellaria West and East) joined into one continuous ice front, but retreat has isolated the eastern tongue and given rise to the lake between them.

We followed the Luigi Marson glaciological trail (Sentiero Glaciologico Marson) from Rifugio Bignami. Very informative signs and survey markers along the Luigi Marson glaciological trail chart a retreat of roughly 800–1 000 m (that’s eight to ten football fields) since the mid-19th-century maximum. Almost all of that loss has happened in the last few decades, and the “lake” we visit today only existed in its present form from the early 2000s onward. Argh, so disheartening to see.

Luigi Marson was an Italian glaciologist-educator: a professor at the Regio Istituto Tecnico di Sondrio and a member of the Società Geografica Italiana. He wrote the first systematic glaciological descriptions of Lombardy’s glaciers in 1899. In his honor, the Servizio Glaciologico Lombardo inaugurated the “Sentiero Glaciologico Luigi Marson” in 1996—a thematic trail (today’s hike) around the Fellaria–Palù ice masses designed to bring hikers up close to Alpine glacial environments.

During our hike today, we crossed paths with a group of retirees from Sondrio. They hike every Thursday and one of their rituals in the mountains is to sing the song Signore delle cime ("Lord of the Mountain Tops"). This popular Italian song of prayer was written by Bepi De Marzi in 1958. The group of retirees we met sing it as a tribute to friends they lost. They performed it for us while we were sitting after lunch at Rifugio Bignami. Very touching.

Flora

[Caryophyllaceae] Cerastium alpinum

[Geraniaceae] Geranium sylvaticum

[Plantaginaceae] Linaria alpina

[Ranunculaceae] Ranunculus alpestris

 

[Rosaceae] Geum reptans

  
[Saxifragaceae] Saxifraga byroides

Photos

  

Left: The proglacial lake of Fellaria East Glacier.
Center: Staring at the Fellaria East Glacier.
Right: View from glacier view point back to Alpe Gera Dam.

  

Left: Rifugio Bignami.

Center: Rifugio Bignami - tortina.
Right: Rifugio Bignami - bresaola and sciatt.

  

Left: An ibex's horns stick out behind a rock.

Center: A group of ibex at the proglacial edge.

Right: Information about who is Luigi Marson was - the glacier trail is named after him.


   

Left: Glacier Info - Schematic shows Fellaria West, East, and Sasso Rosso dividing them as well as surrounding peaks.

Center left: Glacier Info - Explanation of the parts and retreat of Fellaria West.

Center right: Glacier Info - explanation of glacial erratics and roche moutonnée rock formations caused by glacier.

Right: Tracks from Rifugio Zoia to Fellaria Glacier East.

   

Left: Glacier Info - Explanation of Fellaria East glacial lake and features - glacier reached here once in 2000.

Center left: Glacier Info - explaining the pillow formations seen in alpine meadows.

Center right: Glacier Info - a sign showing how far the glacier has retreated.

Right: Glacier Info - There paths A, B, and C to the Marson trail.

  
Left: Glacial erratic - Masso erratico example.

Center: Fellaria Est Glacial Lake - Eastern Part.

Right: Fellaria East Glacier Lake edge.


   

Left: A view across Alpe Gera lake to the start of Alpe Val Poschiavina.

Center: Diga Alpe Gera and the ramp to get up on the dam - hikers must go up the ramp.

Right: Campo Moro Lake - Rifugio Zoia to the right out of frame.