After Valais and Graubünden in the last two years, this year, it was Ticino’s turn for the big annual AACZ skitouring trip. Given the fact that the winter had been quite poor in terms of snow all over Switzerland except of the Southern part, we were really lucky to have chosen the Bedretto valley in late November. In total, an amazing group of 28 Huttli joined the trip and we were hosted in the ‘Ristorante All’Acqua’ by the new leaseholder from Sicily.
With strong winds on Friday and Saturday, the conditions were rather arctic and we limited ourselves to the Southern Side of the valley…..the Gotthard Massif was not even visible. Summits like the ‘Poncione Val Piana’ were among the more popular targets while some of the more motivated members made the effort to climb ‘Helgenhorn’, a long and tedious ascent of more than 10km from All’Acqua. In the evening, we enjoyed the food and the wine offered by the ‘Ristorante All’Acqua’ and payed by the club (Thank you very much Franz for organizing this and the board for approving). Meanwhile, we used the nice atmosphere of the restaurant for catch-ups of each other’s adventures, profound discussions, planning of future tours (not only the one of the next day) and ideas/thoughts on the upcoming expedition in 2021. The time seemed to fly!
Finally, on Sunday, the weather opened up entirely and the summits to the north became accessible. Half of the group climbed ‘Pizzo Rotondo’ while the others went up ‘Chüebodenhorn’…..with some few exceptions. The amazing view from these summits completely compensated for skiing down in crusty snow. Only in higher altitude, patches of powder could be found and the couloirs were in rather good condition. Some of us made use of this and skied the couloir from the summit of the ‘Chüebodenhorn’. Overall, it was a very successful weekend in the Bedretto region and we are happy to have been so lucky.
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Christoph