Already in January, I had planned a hike onto Monte Boglia via the southwest ridge (or "Igor's secret ridge", as the Italian Hikrs call it). My backpack was already packed, but I fell ill overnight and had to cancel the trip. One month later, there is another chance to escape the bad weather in the north and enjoy some sunshine in...

It's been a while since I've "reported" on Hikr. After some travelling in South-East Asia over the New Year, I have been enjoying the Swiss winter, including a number of ski touring trips. I'm still a beginner at ski touring, though. I'm currently just doing the easy routes that have been describedon Hikrdozens of times already. I...

"Of all the excellent viewpoints in this guidebook, the Pizzo Forno might be the number one," writes SAC Alpinwandern/Gipfelziele Gotthard. "The ascent is best left for an autumn day with clear weather." Check and check. Or so we thought, until a cloud came out of nowhere to reach the summit Pizzo Forno summit at exactly the same...

Trying to get away from the bad weather, we headed as far south as possible. The chosen goal ended up being Valsolda, just across the Swiss-Italian border from Lugano. Though not high in altitude, the landscape here is astonishingly wild. It's almost as if a piece of Thailand's tropical Khao Sok national park has been moved to the...

The Pizzo Centrale is stilla popular summit, even though resurveying stripped the summit of its 3000m status some years ago. Besides the normal route from the Lago della Sella, there are three ridges leading to the summit. All of the ridges have interesting alpine hiking routes, which have been described on Hikr many times...

Day 1 Ossasco - Capanna Cristallina T2-T3, 1200m ascent, 3h The weather forecast for this Saturday afternoon had been quite wet, but we get lucky and don't get more than a light drizzle during the three hour ascent from Ossasco to the Capanna Cristallina. The visibility is rarely more than 50m, though. The modern incarnation...

Day 1 Brione - Scimarmota - Alpe Masnee T4+,1700m ascent, 400m descent,7h30 (In summer conditions over the marked path ca. T3+,250m ascent fewer,2h faster)   SBB chaos part one. Extra trains and carriages going south for the bank holiday weekend? No sign of...

While winter has at least made a brief visit to the north of Switzerland, the south still looks like summer. It's mid December, but alpine hiking is still possible in Tessin to altitudes well above 2000m. Our goal had a slightly more modest altitude, but an all-the-more rewarding route to the top: the via della variante onto the...

Yet another weekend with great mountain conditions, this is starting to get exhausting! This time, I drove together with David to the Valle di Blenio, where we planned a weekend of mountain fun with an overnight stay in the winter quarters of the Capanna Motterascio. Day 1 Passo Muazz - Sosto - Passo Muazz 2h30, 550m ascent,...

A via ferrata day with two colleagues from work had been planned for a while. The weather made us take the train all the way to sunny Ticino, where we took in two vie ferrate in one day. ---- Via Ferrata San Salvatore (from Lugano Paradiso, including summit visit) K5, 650m ascent (130m on via ferrata), 2h45 We hike up on...