30-31 July 2005

A failed trip to Sasso Manduino




Sasso Manduino (the left peak in the picture) is a wonderful granite peak that towers the mountains above the upper end of Lake Como. Strangely enough is not a climbing mecca like many lesser mountains in the Val Masino area. That adds to its beauty. Why is that? Simple, the shortest approach involves more than 2000 meters ascent before even putting your hands on the rocks. On the other hand, climbing Sasso Manduino is a real adventure. Wild, deep valleys, a very complicated approach, changing weather.

So Stefano, Pier and I decided to face the adventure and we set off from Novate Mezzola along the Val Codera trail on a late saturday morning. We meet many boyscouts and a fair number of people following the "Sentiero Roma", one of the most beautiful multi-day hikes in the central alps. The day is sunny and torrid, with very high umidity. We reach Codera and we take a long break there, drinking liters of water and seeking shadow. A bed sign is that all the peaks are deeply embedded in fog. "It's only the heat" we tell each other...


Codera seen from above through the woods.


It's time to move and we work our ways up the very steep path that winds up the Ladrogno Valley, an extremely wild deep and rocky valley on the left side of Val Codera. Nice spots include the stone bridge pictured below, just before we start to climb and sweat, and sweat, and sweat...


Stefano and Pier on the bridge over the creek that flows down the Ladrogno Valley.


After a six hours hike we finally reach the Casorate-Sempione bivouac, a metal construction that can host up to 12 people (in emergency..., comfortably no more than 9...). You can see the building in the picture below, as long as two friends we made there (their names? Of course I forgot...)


Stefano and Pier outside the Casorate-Sempione bivouac in the upper Val Ladrogno. Two friends we met there check deers and other wild animals with their binoculars.


As you can see from the pic of the bivouac, the weather did not improve too much as the evening approached and that is no good sign, even though the weather forecasts are good for the next day. Anyway is always good to relax and have some food after such a long hike carrying full load climbing backpacks. We even have a half liter of wine!!! Some more weight in the backpack but thefinitely worth the effort!!!

After dinner Pier falls asleep in 5 seconds while Stefano and I explore the surroundings trying to understand how to reach the start of the climb. Clouds lift and we can finally see the route, a magnificent arete of some 200 meters, compact, steadily rising at a 50-60 degrees angle with some vertical steps. Looks like a smaller version of the Badilekante.


The West arete of the Manduino, aka via Schiavio, against the blue sky just before sunset. Still some puffs of fog lingers here and about...



We eventually go to sleep around 8pm (!!!) quite tired and ready to get up at 5 in the morning or thereabouts.


We actually slept a bit more and set off from the bivouac only at about 6:30 am on a seemingly bright sunday morning. The approach now becomes complicate. The only description of the route availabe on line (here) warns us of the difficulties and provides a drawing that supposedly marks clearly enough the way to go. What happens is that yuo cannot imagine how many deep gullies and double chimneys there are on a mountain and we get lost. So my advice for those who may follow the description in th elink is: don't cross the main river too early, and follow it for a long way up. So what happened is that we "luckily" het lost for about one hour. That was lucky, since once we found the right approach the weather had turned bad and it started raining. We would have been on the rocks if we did not get lost! So...only thing left is to turn on our heels and head back to the bivouac. Just a little bit of time for flower photography on the way there.


Beautiful Gentiana Rubescens (Genziana Rossa) on the approach to the route, approx 2330 meters of altitude.



Of course, as we walk downhill, the weather clears again, but never enough for us to think we should have insisted. We will try again next year. Technically, the arete is a IV+ climb, roughly a 5.5 in Yosemite scale or a S in the english scale. It's 8 pitches and the descent is by rappelling on the route.

Ciao, Davide