Grigna Meridionale - climbing over the clouds

Informative part

One of the most popular mountains in Lombardy, Grigna Meridionale, turns out to be rather easily accesible by public transport.

A bit demanding hike for the whole day starting from Lecco.

To get to Ballabio take a bus D35 from square in front of the train station. Then there is a nice hike (approx. 1:30) through the forest till rifugio Soldanella and rifugio Carlo Porta - follow the directions to Piani Resinelli and/or rifugio Porta. Then take the trail number 7 for the second part of the ascent which becomes steeper and goes along the ridge (cresta Cermenati). The markings are scarse but there is essentialy only one way up.

On the peak there is an alien-looking bivouac and stunning views around (weather permitting).

The way down to rifugio Carlo Porta is backtracing your steps, then continue along the road till Piani Resinelli. There it is possible to take bus number 7, but timing is crucial as it runs once a day (in winter period) at 17:10. Otherwise continue down to Laorca with a rather steep descent in the forest along the dried stream. Another possibility is to backtrace the first part of the ascent to return to Ballabio.

From Laorca (or Ballabio) take again bus number D35 to come back to Lecco.

 

Impressions part

We came on (supposedly) one of the last warm weekends in October. We got up early to catch a train from Milan at 6:19, but just missed it and settled for the next one. Arrived at Ballabio at 8:30 and started the hike.

The weather along the road didn't suggest good views, but closer to the peak we had a glimpse of a hope with a piece of blue sky opening for several minutes. And to our enjoyment arriving at the peak (around 12:40) we found ourselves above all the clouds under the shining sun.

The views were fantastic. A number of hikers were having lunch catching autumn rays of sun and alpine choughs were begging them for spare food.
On the way down we got inside the cloud again and even had hoarfrost on the hair. We reached Piani dei Resinelli at around 15:00 and decided (that was our mistake) not to wait a bus for 2 hours, but rather continue our hike to Laorca, that we thought would be easy - at last it was just about 4 km. But we didn't take into account that we needed to descent almost 700 metres and that we were already rather tired. So it turned out to be not the easiest part of the trail, but still we just managed to catch a bus at 17:50 to Lecco.
After taking train back to Milan we arrived home exhausted but full with positive emotions and memories of wonderful views from the top.

 

Max & Polina

 

GPS data:

distance 17 km

moving time 5:55

total time 9:15

 

useful website with timetables for trains and buses in Lombardy:
http://62.101.84.174/trl_index.htm