DIAVOLEZZA
The
day’s plan was to climb to the summit of Diavolezza and return to the
valley by cable car. As we saw later the Swiss do it the other way
round; walking downhill in their hundreds on this beautiful day. We took
the train up to Bernina Hospizio at 2234m and then followed the path
down to the dam at the north end of the Laggo Bianco to the small lake,
Lej Nair at 2223m.
From the path by the side of lago Bianco with Piz Cambrena in the background.
Lej Nair
Looking back to Laggo Bianca (the white lake)
Looking across the valley to Piz Lagalb
Piz d'Arlas and its glacier
The
path is less than a kilometre from the snout of the glacier which towers
above. The path then crosses boulders and zigzags up a saddle (2605m) to
meet the path from Bernina Diavolezza lower cable car station near a
lake in a corrie. Stephen spoke to some walkers about the path; they
were not encouraging saying how steep it was: too right!
The lake in corrie where the path starts to climb up to the left of picture.
Path climbing ridge to Diavolezza.
The
path them climbs quite steeply up a rocky ridge until you look down on
the lake several hundred metres below. The path then levels off before
coming to an extremely steep section up a ladder staircase and then a
very exposed section of zigzags near the edge of a scree slope that
falls down to the lake.
The path across the scree slopes
We decided we would not have liked to walk down
this section, although hundreds of people had done so that day and we
saw no corpses! After this section the path winds gently uphill towards
a small glacier just below the summit and cable car station.
The Firnfeld with the Diavolezza Cablecar station and hotel on ridge to right
A
notice here said it was unsafe to walk directly across the
“Firnfeld” – permament snowfield. The diversion was across an
appalling boulder field to higher ground where the snow could be crossed
safely. We saw some walkers ignoring the instructions including some
with children and ropes.
\ Walking across the Firnfeld
The view across Vadret Pers glacier from the summit.