Cima della Trosa and Madone – from Locarno to Mergoscia

I arrived at 9:19 AM in Locarno and had about 7 ½ hours until it would get dark. My plan was rather ambitious: about 2000m gain and 1500m loss in altitude and approximately 16km to walk: from Locarno to Mergoscia via Cima della Trosa and Madone. I made it without major problems; however I didn’t give myself many breaks and there was surprisingly little snow on the way which made it easier than expected.

There are many ways from Muralto to Orselina and the motto is: just take stairs going up wherever you find them – a very good warm-up! From Orselina to San Bernardo and further up to Capanna Cardada I followed the serpentines. At this time of the year the chestnut trees don’t have any leaves, so you can enjoy a nice view down to the Maggia delta, the lake and the surrounding mountains. Cardada and Cimetta are usually very crowded, but since the cable car up to Cardada doesn’t run until December 14 due to revision, I didn’t see a single soul – all the way to Mergoscia.

Even though Cimetta is kind of on the way, I decided to not visit it this time due to the limited time I had. Instead I chose the direct route to P. 1610, the lowest point between Cimetta and Cima della Trosa. There was actually quite some snow on the northern side of Cimetta and since I didn’t take my snowshoes along I was afraid that there would be too much snow further up. As soon as I saw the summit cross of Cima della Trosa I knew it wouldn’t be the case, because the south facing flank was almost snow free. Therefore, I left the path and went up to the summit cross “diretissma”.

I expected some snow on the way up to Madone but to my surprise the south flank of Madone was almost completely snow free (see here). Again instead of following the path I chose the direct way down along the ridge to the lowest point between Cima della Trosa and Madone. There was some snow there, but easy to walk on and with gaiters it was no problem. From there I followed the path to up to the highest point south of Madone and then along the ridge to the summit cross.

To my surprise the path along the east ridge to Mergoscia was marked blue/white and I was kind of afraid it would be difficult with snow or ice on the way. However, the whole path to Porchesio is not difficult at all; just a T3 and I don’t quite understand why they decided to mark it blue/white. Since most of the path is on the ridge or on the southern side of it, there was almost no snow or ice to fight with. From Porchesio on it was completely snow free.


Locarno – Orselina – San Bernardo – Cortaccio – Trigumo – Capanna Cardada – P. 1610 – Cima della Trosa – Madone – Redrise – Porchesio – Mergoscia