Third one in today's 4-Peak hike in Italy (Poncione di Ganna - Monte Minisfreddo - Monte San Bernardo - Monte Rho d'Arcisate).
These 4 peaks aren't listed in any guide of mine but there is 1 (and only ..) good reason we decided to do a hike around here. In fact, one of my objectives in this whole summit hunt game I started for myself, was to possibly have stood at least one time on all peaks that we can see from our apartment. 3 out of 4 peaks of today are in sight from our balcony and therefore it was only a matter of time until I had to appear up here :-)
This one is in sight when standing on our balcony, even if on Swiss Maps it's not marked as a peak at all. That's not how the Italians see it though, as they put a statue and a flag and even summit visitor's book on it (+ over 50 hiking reports on the hike website referring to it as a peak). As it's in Italy, i decided to go with the locals and celebrate it accordingly as another one in my list :-).
Having said that, when seen from below it looks more like some kind of side-peak of Monte Minisfreddo (maybe..) but I understand both sides as the view from here is one of the best ones todays hike had to offer and so why not classify it as a peak.
To get here most of the path is clear and easy, then at one point and out of nothing there is a small almost vertical climb where you have to use your hands and the exposure gets quite dangerous (pic 7). We're still talking about a really really short section but still, if you fall down there you might not be able to tell anybody about it after .. if you understand what I mean ;-)
This short section is enough to put up the difficulty level to a lower T3.
Level: T3-
With Katrin
ROUTE: