Climbing the Pizzo Leone above Lake Maggiore In a recent article in the NZZ-online (August 2, 2001), Daisy Reck describes a hike
up to the Pizza Leone, above the town of Brissago on Lake Maggiore. A long-time visitor to Brissago, Reck had long hoped to
climb the 2186 meter high Monte Limidario, the highest peak in the Gridone massif...but realized that Limidario's "little
brother," the Pizzo Leone, would be a more realistic walking challenge for her. The following is a adaptation and translation
of her account.
Starting off early one morning, Reck hired a taxi to negotiate the winding road leading from the lakeside in Brissago
to the tiny mountain village of Purera, where the trail to the Pizzo Leone begins.
"I was well-prepared," writes Reck.
"The guide book, the tourist bureau, and friends had convinced me the walk might be a bit stressful, but not dangerous. Still,
it involved a climb of some 600 meters under a blazing sun. But I could take my time. I recalled why I'd come: Not only to
reconnoiter a delightful region, to enjoy a beautiful view, but above all to have that mountain, which I could no longer master,
always in view. And there it was, the Gridone, cold and bald, powerful, with a cliff wall like a face full of runes."
I
made my way on a narrow and steep path up the Pizzo Leone, past lush ferns and alpine rhododendrons, then higher up, an expanse
of heathers, and finally above the tree line. On a rise, marked by a wooden cross, I enjoyed a splendid view of Lake Maggiore.
Then
I proceeded on a path directly along the cliff, which rose with unexpected steepness, to the peak. "I was out of breath and
totally exhausted...that was my fault. I should have taken the clearly marked safe and simpler main path over the ridge. But
the view made me forget all that: Above me loomed the serrated crown of the Gridone, below me the plaything-small villages
of the Centovalli, and in the distance the blurred peaks of the Valais Alps."
My walk up to the peak took two-and-a-half
hours; after a half-hour rest at the top, I figured on two hours for the descent. I had not figured on the still, heavy air
of mid-day, the exhaustion, "the melancholy of an almost unbearable stillness."
At the end of the trail, I satisfied
my hunger with a minestrone at the Grott dal Moett, and climbed in the waiting cab for the drive back down to Brissago.
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