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...

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...

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...

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...

It wasn't easy to select the location of this hike. Two CouchSurfing guests of mine were coming along, so it had to be relatively easy and non-technical, with not too much snow. The weather was also an issue. With gray clouds, rain, snow and slush perpetually enveloping the entire Deutschschweiz, going south into Ticino seemed to...