Corno di Gesero

Corno di Gesero is a peak dominating the likes of Valle d’Arbedo and Val d’Albionasca, not too far from the Italian border.

The easiest way to reach it’s summit is probably via the north-west ridge. Because we wanted to see Alpe d’Albion first, our idea was to climb from the south-east flank. Things went quite differently,but let’s explain that properly. We reached Alpe d’Albion with a very scenic path departing from the parking place at the southern end of the Cadolcia gallery. It’s about an hour of a very relaxing walk contouring the Mot della Cros; a walk which, besides, will let you gain no altitude at all. Splendid views are there on Monte Cardinello and Marmontana with it’s neighbour Cima di Cugn. From Alpe d’Albion we started ascending the steep, grassy slope of Corno di Gesero’s south-east flank trusting to get to the eastern ridge. We got to a rather good path which, going west-wise, was leading us to a saddle between Corno di Gesero itself and Cima delle Cicogne (and subsequently down to Capanna Gesero). So, once we thought we were more or less under the summit vertical, we left the path and started ascending (right) along a 200m height couloir with a number of close-to-vertical passages which caused severe trouble to both myself and Toto. There was no thought of giving up and start descending, which would have been a much more dangerous option than insisting in going up.

After a lot of sweat and questions such as “I should have stayed in bed, today!” or “why the hell am I doing this?” we got out of the couloir at a handful of steps from the summit. We were pretty reliefed to be there. Haze didn’t allow us to enjoy the view we would have expected, but nevertheless we were pretty satisfied for the achievement.

We went down the way we intended to ascend i.e. the eastern ridge which requires only a little extra care in the upper rocky part.

I may consider our ascent as ‘T5’ while the eastern ridge is no more than ‘T2’. If, as a regular folk, you would go for the “integral” eastern ridge, from parking place to summit and back would take no more than three to three-and-half hours.