Area: Valsesia, Pennine Alps, Italy
A bitterly cold morning, despite the relatively low altitude of the hut (2500m). I wanted to catch the sun rising over Monte Tagliaferro across the valley to the east, however, so put on all my layers and left the hut just after 5am. Pink and orange alpenglow lit the walls of Corno Biano behind the hut, and the sun gradually rose above the shoulder of Tagliaferro before sinking back behind the bulk of the peak. We left the hut after a brief and painfully brew-less breakfast to continue the planned traverse of the range just before 6am. The route gradually moves south through the cwm containing the massively diminished Otro glacier. Huge boulders scattered throughout the cwm made for difficult route-finding and slow progress, but reminded me strongly of the 'clapier' fields that typify my main stomping ground of the Maritime Alps. Familiar terrain indeed, but this kind of chaotic landscape is never easy to negotiate. We eventually gained the very steep scree slopes up the side wall to the Colletto di Tailly, steep enough indeed to give some scrambling as light relief from the shifting moraine debris. From the small sunlit col, a stunning view to the north over the emerald green slopes of Punta Straling opened up, with the remarkable white wall of Monte Rose rising beyond. This is certainly up there with the best views in Europe, particularly in this superbly clear early morning light. Huw was some way behind at this point, so I took the opportunity to scramble up the ridge to the highpoint of Cornello Tailly, which is essentially the top of one of the many spurs thrown down by the parent peak of Corno Biano (but which appears as an impressive spire from the Otro valley below). After descending to the col, I met Huw for a brief rest. From here, an annoying descent led to the greener cwm containing the Tailly lakes, but we fashioned an efficient contouring line to cut the corner of the cwm and find what I hoped was the onward route up Corno Biano - the day's objective and indeed the objective of this entire two-day traverse. A tiny path led up steep grass to a 60ft pitch up a slabby wall. A cable eased progress somewhat, but it felt safer to ignore it: the wall gave fine scrambling up small positive holds at around II+. Above, the route eased to eventually gain a superbly wild Alpine cwm containing the remnants of the Nevaio di Puio glacier. This is a genuinely remote spot, at least five hours walk from the nearest road. Huw had a rest - the weather remaining perfectly sunny and stable - while I picked my way through the moraines at the bottom of this glacial bowl to a series of steepish snow slopes which led to the south wall of the cwm. It all felt like a rather obscure route up the peak and I could see no evidence of tracks or previous ascents this year: surely this can't have been the first by this route this season? The wall to the south appeared almost sheer, but I initially followed route marks to a steep wall and had high hopes of finding the chains that supposedly eased progress up the crags to the breche. I was well above 3000m by now, and the summit was very close. Sadly, however, I failed to find a feasible onward route: I hadn't packed the rope and was unwilling to commit to the onward route in terrain like this, which was potentially quite serious, without being sure. This was all bitterly disappointing, and I can only conclude that the cairns and perhaps even the chains were buried under the substantial amount of late season snow that remained in the cwm. I made my way back to Huw and we descended to the sun-drenched Tailly Lakes to continue the grand traverse. The path down this side of the valley was, if anything, even more remote and obscure than the route of ascent on the north side of the Otro: it became slippery, tenuous and physically draining, although the views of Monte Rosa remained stupendous and admirably compensated. The path weaved and twisted and was hopelessly vegetated in places, seemingly devoid of any human traffic, but we finally gained the bottom of the valley and an easier onward riverside route to Alagna. This joined the ascent route just above the village, and we got to the deli a few minutes before it shut for lunch.
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