Bivacco Città di Gallarate

The place

Sleeping places: 9 Places on mattress: 9 Half-barrel construction, steel-lined inside, with folding bunks fitted with mattresses + blankets. No heating or lighting, a small central table and two benches. Water nearby in the form of snow or ice. Maintenance work was carried out in 2012: http://www.caigallarate.it/allegati/foto-bivacco-citta-gallarate.pdf This shelter is used mainly by mountaineers wishing either to reach the northern routes to the Punta Nordend, or to rejoin the classic route to the Punta Dufour. There are quick options via the E side (Italy) of the Jägerjoch just south of the shelter, but they require crossing steep rock, sometimes icy, with AD/D difficulty on average, besides rockfall risk. In this case one usually comes from the Belloni bivouac-refuge. Allow 5 to 6 hours without breaks. Another option is to go up the Grenzgletscher, i.e. west of the pass and in Switzerland, from the Monte Rosa Hütte: that's roughly as many hours, following the glacier's left bank, with crevasse-bridge crossings, avoiding (large) crevasses, etc. Difficulties theoretically do not exceed "PD", but still... 5 hours there too. Many parties choose to cross the border at the Neues Weisstor and cover the 7 km of glacier (up and down) along the border ridge on the right, with the (sometimes huge) crevasses of course, and although the elevation gain is more spread out, the route from the Eugenio Sella refuge will take a solid 6 hours. C.A.I Gallarate Via Olona, 37 - Gallarate (Varese) Tel: +39.0331 797564 E-mail: info@caigallarate.it