Sighignola (IT) - 1 321 meters
Nr 37
We started the ascent from San Vitale which is a church 100 meters above the village of Arogno, following path 900 explained in the official guides of the CAS (Swiss Alpine Club) at page 543 of the 5th volume (Guida alle prealpi ticinesi).
Even if the peak is geographically in Italy, most of the ascent is in Switzerland and I therefore think that this is the reason why it's listed in the swiss guides.
Although the path was marked in the guide as pretty easy, I think that december is not the best moment to do this hike (as we did). The ground was really craggy and completely covered in fallen leafs. We actually had a really hard time in finding our way up and found ourselves a few times on really exposed places because we lost the right path.
Having said that, it was really cool as we were expecting an easy sunday afternoon hike to just add another summit to the list..and what we've got was completely something else and far more exiting.
The ascent starts in Switzerland, goes through Italy, goes back to Switzerland until you arrive to the summit which is in Italy again, at least the highest place of it. There is a lower platform (10 meters below at max) which is in Switzerland.
Although the mountain is also known as "Italy's balcony", the nice view you have on top is all in Switzerland. From Italy there is a road that goes up to the top and therefore there are day-tourists everywhere (all Italians) which drove up easily from the other side.
The view is really breathtaking and maybe even better than the one you get looking down from San Giorgio.
We walked down on another path (901), explained in the official guides of the CAS (Swiss Alpine Club) at page 543 of the 5th volume (Guida alle prealpi ticinesi). This path was less steep but due to the fallen leafs similarly difficult to find sometimes. Basically we walked a nice circle today hopping back and forth over the border, finishing in Switzerland again where we parked our car.
For future hikes I would definitely recommend path 901 as long as nr. 900 is not reestablished, in this condition it's really a bit too dangerous..having said that, If you're in for an adventure...don't listen to me :-)
Level: T3 (today was even a T3+ due to the hard ascent)
With Katrin
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