Pizzo Gallegione

Head out of Soglio going west on the higher road out of town, and I think there was a sign to Prasignola. There is a second, lower path out of town that also goes west, be sure to avoid that. The right road/track out of town crosses a stream right by a waterfall. After about 5 minutes walking out of town, look for a path through the trees on the right.

The path crosses roads/tracks 3 times. At the first, you go straight across and immediately see the path continue on the other side of the road. The second time you reach the road you turn left and follow the road round a tight bend before finding the path again on the other side. The third time you come on to the road, turn to the left, and find the path again on your right after following the road for a very short distance. At some point, the path splits and you take the upward fork, and I think the sign to Dair.

After an hour or so (very roughly) more through the forest you reach Alpe Dair (1610m, according to a report on hikr.org) and “Dair” is marked on the first mountain hut, there are about 10 or 20 huts/building here in total, by the far the largest of the three Alpe settlements, you also find a few cattle, a few of the huts were inhabited when I was there and I saw one man about a 100m away. Follow the path through this little settlement. I had to climb over a rope blocking the path on the way out. I assume this is just to keep cattle from straying in the wrong direction. From this settlement you can also see Vest and Leira which you are aiming for above.

The path goes back into the forest and you will have to cross a waterfall before coming to Alpe Vest (1764m, again you can see “Vest” written on the first building to confirm where you are) which is a smaller settlement of a few huts; the path goes back into the forest and on to Aple Leira (1892m) another smaller settlement. Some while after that the tree line ends and the path is less clear. I did see one path clearly marked going to the left (west) to another pass on the Italian side, Paso del Turbine which I think the map said was ~2,400m, but the more recognised route is via Prasignola (a higher pass which is steep to reach but leaves an easier summit approach) although I couldn’t find a clear path to that but I think there is one of sorts anyway I went roughly that route. So I ignored the Turbine path and went first to the right (North East) and then up to the north more directly although I still missed Prasignola I think and probably came out to a spot just near there I think more to the west where I came out on a rocky outcrop.

I could be wrong but I’m not convinced the exact route is so critical after leaving the forest. If you also face the problem of very low visibility so you lose the track as long as you keep going up and head in roughly the right direction you must eventually reach the peak (a few parts are prohibitively steep, however). However whichever way you go the descent will at some point require a lot of care and may be a little dangerous. If the steep section between the forest and Prasignola is covered in a lot snow and ice it may become effectively impossible for the average trekker or at least very challenging as underneath the snow and ice will be a lot of loose and jagged stones. Contour lines on the map show the steepness is not much difference in this section to the forest section, but without the switchbacks and good path of the forest, it actually seems a lot steeper.

The route through the forest is marked with red/white markers which are quite clear and I have seen one report which shows they continue up to the Prasignola pass, but I did not see this, as I lost this path in the clouds. After the pass I don't think there is any clear path at all. I did not see one and the visibility was better up there. When I was there the clouds were around 2000m+ on the south side of the mountain which you climb up through but broke through the clouds a while before the summit. On the other side, there were almost no clouds. There are also some cairns some of which appear to be for way finding, but they are very few and easy to miss if the visibility is low.

On the way up trees give way to bushes and then grasses and then only gravel and rocks and a lot of jumbled stones you have to walk across. A lot of the rocks are loose. Eventually the steepness will reduce as you have reached kind of an uneven ridge, ideally at Prasignola. After several false summits you can eventually see one with a manmade structure on. This is a 3 legged tripod type thing that tapers to a point and marks the summit, along with a cairn. If you find this you have reached the summit of Pizzo Gallegione/Piz Galleguin (3107m).

On the way back I did try the Paso del Turbine route instead but it is longer and seems to be more dangerous (you go across west without gaining altitude first, but leaving a very steep section for later on for push to summit). The total altitude gain is just over 2000m. Very rarely do you have to descend on the way to the summit, and never a large amount, so the actual altitude gained by the walker will be very similar to the difference in height between Soglio and the peak.

I took 7 hours from Soglio to the peak of Pizzo Gallegione / Piz Galleguin (one way) including all stops for food, drinks, sun cream, photos etc as well as probably not taking the best route after the forest. I imagine this can be done in about 4-5 hours for someone with better navigation and more experience and fitness who stops less. It will perhaps take 80-90% of the same time on the way back as the descent was so steep I was having to slide and clamber down rather than walk. However the forest section is very easy so if you’re not tired at the end you will able to descent quickly once you find the forest path again.

I saw no other person attempt the mountain that day (a week day in late September) so it is very solitary and you likely will have the peak views to yourself.