Cima di Medeglia and Matro - a sunny but windy snowshoe hike from Rivera to Isone

The weather forecast was bad for northern Switzerland, rather sunny for middle & southern Ticino for this day and the risk of avalanches high more or less everywhere. I decided to escape the bad weather in the north and took the train south once again. This time I decided to explore the hills east of Rivera between Val d'Isone and the Magadino plane. I was surprised how much snow there was on the hills which are only around 1200m high and how excellent the view is up there.

I started at the train station  Rivera-Bironico and walked to Bironico first. From there I followed the marked path up to Cima di Medeglia. Up to an altitude of about 800m it was snow free, and at around 1000m I had to put on my snow shoes. From the huts near Troggiano (P.1064), I took the direct way up (ca 35° for about 60m) and then straight to the summit.

On the summit of Cima di Medeglia, the wind was blowing extremely hard ("Nordföhn und stürmische Westwinde" according to the forecast) and I had to hold onto the information board in order to not be blown away! Also the snow carried by the wind gusts which blew in my face was quite uncomfortable. So after taking a few pictures, I continued my hike towards Matro. To the huts near Fontanella I always stayed more or less on the ridge or actually slightly south of it where the wind was considerably less strong.

From there I followed the path on the northern side to the big left turn right before Matro and then went up straight to the summit in the south west flank (up to 40° with some scrambling in the rocks) for about 100m. On top of Matro you have the Magadino plane at your feet and the view is actually quite breathtaking for such a low altitude mountain. There is also some sort of a historic (?) military trench there.

I actually had in mind to continue my hike to Pizzo di Corgella, but due to the very strong winds I cancelled that plan. I probably wouldn't have been able to go there anyway, since the army was shooting in that area. So instead I took an extensive break on the lee side of Matro and then walked down to Isone.

For the way there I first walked down to Cima di Fuori and from there along the street to P. 986. On my old map there is a zig zag path from this point directly down to Isone, which is missing in the newer editions of the SwissMap. I couldn't find any path or path traces (except the ones from deer), but walked down to Isone this way anyway (T3).

As for the difficulty of this hike: I rated this snow shoe hike as a WT5 because of the direct ascend from P.1043 up to Matro (up to almost 40° with some scrambling in rocks) and my direct way from P. 1064 towards the summit of Cima di Medeglia (around 35°, WT4), however if you take the official marked paths the tour could be reduced to a WT2.

 
 Rivera-Bironico - Bironico - Pianello - Roveredo - Boscero - Troggiano (P.1064) - Sopra Canaa - Cima di Medeglia - Motto della Costa - Fontanella - P. 1043 - Matro - Cima di Fuori - P. 986 -  Isone, Paese