Pizzo dei Tre Signori, 2554 m, di Laveggiolo

Pizzo dei Tre Signori is the second-highest peak of the western Alpi Orobie and features
2 special highlights:
1.) a fantastic vista
2.) a high probability for brief or longer encounters with mountain residents
     of the animalic kind ;)
- for both items - see later ...
One can reach Tre Signori from the south of Lake Como
via Val Varrone (here you need a brave heart to follow the extremely narrow streets)
or easier via Valgerola in Valtellina from the north.
While staying for a summer holiday with my wife in beautiful Cremia - San Vito close
to Gravedona, I preferred to take the way from Valgerola starting from Laveggiolo
(way from Gravedona to Laveggiolo about 1 1/4 h).
So exactly the same time, Mauro (see  http://www.hikr.org/tour/post37445.html )
made his beautiful pictures while he was climbing Pizzo Alto (3rd highest of the Western
Alpi Orobie, 15 km from Tre Signori) which I would like to go to this year,
I hiked to Tre Signori.
In short, the way from Laveggiolo to Tre Signori: beautiful, easy, but very very long :)
All in all, I walked for almost 22 km.
The first 5 km are very flat, as the marks on the way are very sparsely and the local
hiking maps are unfortunately not so good, you need to pay good attention to the path
to make it to the first cottage without losing your way ...
I used the map "Le Grigne" from GlobalMap, 1:35000, and - sorry - I cannot recommend
to use it - it is not detailed enough to give any good directives.
The week following the trip to Tre Signori, I tried to hike to Monte Rotondo using this map
and got completely lost ...
Maybe, the Compass maps are better, however I doubt it.
@all readers: are there better maps for the region available ?
For Monte Legnone and Pizzo Alto, I have used swissgeo.ch (perfect display of
ground texture) and produced puzzles ;) in 1:50000 with usable resolution,
proved valuable in my trip to Monte Legnone in 2010. For all who are interested, I can send it :)

For the ascent, I took the way from gorgeous Lago dell' Inferno and the north-east flank,
for the descent, the principal way via the north route, Cresta di Piazzocco.
The north-east path is a little more challenging, there is a short slightly exposed part shortly
south of the Lago, but there are no technical difficulties (meaning UIAA-0, maybe a short
part grade I, just before the summit), the Cresta di Piazzocco is a very beautiful and easy hike,
however there was lot of snow, see later.

I started in Laveggiolo rather late at 11:15 to reach the summit of Pizzo dei Tre Signori at 14:20.
The way back took me about 2 1/2 hours.

=> What a beautiful part of Italy, magnifico !
Enough of words, now pictures :) Many regards, Detlev di Monaco