Pilone? Yes, Pilone!

Hi! Pilone (or Cima Pian del Bozzo, a l’italienne) can be reached quite easily from Comologno or Spruga, at the very end of the somewhat hidden Valle Onsernone. Well, in winter things are a little different. Anyway, we kicked off at Spruga, the route initiates right at the car-parking area. Steep right by the start, the very first portion is arranged with well-designed steps and leads to the houses of Tabid and Pian Secco. Further on the ascent leads to Alpe Pesced, where we started getting along some snow-patches. Alpe Pesced is quite a nice place; if you wish so, you can choose to ascend to Munzelüm (no path) aiming north to elevation 1945m. Munzelüm was actually our day’s target, but things went differently. Well, from Alpe Pesced the path, now substantially flat, contours the entire western flank of Munzelüm, right up to elevation 1976m. In our case, this part of the route, being shaded, was pretty much icy, and caused some concern, here and there, nothing to be really worried about, but enough to slow you down. However, elevation 1976m, which is a splendid mini-plateau, was reached, at this point across almost immaculate snow. Ascending Munzelüm from this point was not something we were feeling to do, so we pulled on to the close Passo del Busan and traversed the south-east flank of Motto dei Ciapitt up to Bocchetta dei Ciapitt. Here we halted a short while and then decided that Pilone was probably still within range, although time was running faster than expected. So we went up the snowy southern flank, now and then plunging to the hips into snow-hidden holes, crossing some tricky rocks right beneath the summit and finally getting to the summit-cairn, at about 12:30. Wow! The view goes from Monte Rosa to Mischabel and, at the other end, to Bernina, unbelievable! Very few entries on the summit book. Only few minutes and we went back down, taking advantage of the track we had traced in the snow while ascending. We were surprised to meet and cross a couple ascending (it seemed to be quite late). Opposite, someone had peaked Munzelüm. Once at Passo del Busan we took a break for a deserved snack and then went back via Munzelüm’s western flank; by now most of the ice had melted away so it was quite easy going. The route back to Spruga is steep, but straight forward. Very nice hike. Definitely T2 in summer, but T3 on our day, exclusively for the final approach to the summit.