More poor weather in the Alps

Hi Alan
Adam Henly and I had a good week in the Bernina/ Bregaglia area despite shedloads of rain and snow. We spent two days sitting in the Sasc Fura Hut besieging Piz Badile-- waiting for the rain to stop-- and got in a couple of interesting smaller outings in the mist while we were there: a recce of the Nordkante and the Cassin Route up to about 2400m; a trip round to the Italian side to climb Pizzo Trubinasca (2928m) the easy way. Then on the third day the rain did stop, but in the sense that it turned to snow, which wasn't what we were after, so we walked out of Sasc Fura, drove over from Bondo to Pontresina, and went up to the Tschierva Hut to besiege the Biancograt instead. Again we had to wait a little-- we went up the relatively small and much easier Piz Tschierva (about 3600m) in the mist while we were waiting-- and then the next day decided to go for the Biancograt even though the clouds still hadn't lifted (and even though Adam had a text from Martin Moran, who advised against trying it until the weather lifted...).

It's a fantastic route, but very very very long, especially when you don't know the way, can't see it because of the mist, and are e.g. trying to work out whether you should be downclimbing or abseiling round the next problem that comes up.The Biancograt snow-ridge itself is a piece of cake, a simple walk-up, a bit like a bigger and more aesthetically appealing version of the ridge from the CMD arete to the summit of the Ben. It's getting on to the Biancograt from the Tschierva Hut beforehand, and off it on to Piz Bernina itself and then on down to the Marco e Rosa Hut afterwards, that is the difficult part. It's complex up and down routefinding on a very gnarly ridge, with snow and ice and a fair amount of dodgy rock, for hours and hours and hours. Perhaps it's a bit like the Skye ridge in winter, except Bernina is a whole lot more sustained and a whole lot more exposed-- and not even that much shorter. In the snowy conditions we did it in, it was definitely une grande course, and we both thought merited a D not its usual AD.

The walk-out from Marco e Rosa to the Diavolezza cablecar-- across the glacial plateau called the Bellavista Terrace, down the Fortezza Ridge (two abseils and a lot more routefinding work), then across the lower glacier and up the hillside to the cablecar hut-- takes longer than you expect too.

After that we had a rest day, lazed around, toured cute Italian-Swiss villages like Poschiavo, and ate pizza. Despite these refills I weigh a stone less than I did when I left.



Best

Tim C


Thanks Tim,

Good to hear from you and that you managed Biancograt in what sounds like poor conditions, even though the wise counsel of Martin advised against it! Take care.