Strada Altissima Leventina: the story continues

This time I decided to combine the Altissima together with an old pending peak: Pécian. It is the prominent peak which can be seen from the Leventina North East between Piotta and Faido – it has a big cross on top. Whenever I went south to, or came back north from the Ticino with the train, I always thought “it sure looks like there must be an outstanding view from up there”. And indeed there is …

On January 20, 2007 I already tried to get up there once. However, I only made it up to  about 2200m, a little above Alpe di Chièra, because - silly me - I left the snowshoes at home and after walking in knee deep wet snow (sometimes up to the hips) for about an hour, I had to give up and turn around.

This time it worked out nicely. After Pécian I continued to Pécianett (following the ridge between the two peaks - it is a T4 with one patch secured with a rope). From Pécianett I followed the Strada Altissima Leventina all the way to Piora see “Einsame Touren suedlich des Gotthards”. On the map and if you actually see the route from Pécianett, this part of the Altissima looks quite difficult, but it is actually surprisingly easy. “Einsame Touren …” rates it as T5; however I would probably only give it a T5-, definitely much easier than the T5 which I gave to the Chlaebdaecher.

This part of the Altissima is very interesting and wild, an excellent alpine ridge hike with nice views into the Alps and down to the Leventina. There are clear path traces all the way from Pécianett to Passo Forca and they almost always follow more or less the ridge, sometimes you bypass difficult passages in the south flank.

Exact route: Faido – Mairengo – Osco – Piano – Sompréi – Alpe di Chièra – Pian Pécian – Pécian – Pécianett – Passo Comasnengo – Poncione Pro do Rodùc – Uomo d’Arbione – Poncione d’Arbione – Passo Forca – Pinett – Piora – Stazione di Piora – Piotta

Notice: On my old Swiss maps (late 70-ties) the peak Pécian is named Pécianett and Pécianett is listed as Pécian - they must have changed the names at some point or corrected a mistake. Here I refer to them as they appear in the most recent version of the Swiss maps.