From Gotthardpass via Passo di Lucendro and Ronggergrat | Mountain hiking

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Rotondohütte SAC
Mountain hiking
From Gotthardpass via Passo di Lucendro and Ronggergrat

From Gotthardpass via Passo di Lucendro and Ronggergrat Rotondohütte SAC 2570 m

Difficulty

T4
Ascent

6 h, 1050 m
Descent

570 m

An impressive trail lined with remains of World War II

The tour is like hiking through a Swiss Army open air museum. The area is full of traces of military activities: countless shell splinters litter the ground, large boards inform the hiker about shooting exercises with the corresponding interdictions and warnings. Barracks, concrete pillboxes and gun emplacements, and audaciously constructed trails remind the hiker of the time of World War II. Maybe you can feel the anxiety of the soldiers about the big attack that never came.

Pizzo Lucendro. The hike is along its foot, then following Ronggergrat (left). (07/2016) © Marco Volken

Ronggergrat with the military trail. © Marco Volken

Ronggergrat with the military trail. (07/2017) © Bruno Müller

View into the area of the Rotondo Hut, which is located on the right side of the picture. © Marco Volken

Rotondohütte SAC (left) and Pizzo Lucendro. To the far right is Ronggergrat and the new lake in the glacier forefield. © Remo Kundert

Route description

Passo del San Gottardo – Passo di Lucendro

From Ospizio del San Gottardo (2091 m) crossing the pass road hike eastward to the hilly terrain of Alpe di San Gottardo, characterised by rocky knolls polished by the glacier and wetlands. Keeping to the north of the Ri della Valletta hike pathless to the northern shore of the little lake at P. 2255. Hiking south-westward across a short, but steep step you reach the little lakes at P. 2387. Traverse past them to the left and slightly above to reach the wide depression, which runs down from Fibbia. Now at first towards Fibbia until ca. 2600 m (from here you can make a detour to the Fibbia summit), then distinctly south-westward to a saddle, ca. 150 m south of the nameless hill at P. 2758. From the saddle, on which a small statue of the Virgin Mother stands, follow a distinct path on a grassy ridge southward until the barracks at Passo di Lucendro (2532 m), keeping to the left in the upper part, rather to the right in the lower part of the ridge.

Passo di Lucendro – Passo di Cavanna

From the barracks at Passo di Lucendro go southward a few metres, then hike ca. 30 m up towards Pizzo Lucendro to traverse left to Cresta del Poncionetto at 2560 m above a rockslide. Now go across the ridge line, then on a good trail occasionally equipped with fixed ropes, descend a few serpentines on steep terrain and across a nose (2507 m) to the little lake below P. 2443. From here you can already see Passo di Cavanna, which you reach on a good, at the end fairly steep trail with a few blocks.

Passo di Cavanna – Hüenersattel

From Passo di Cavanna zigzag on the ridge past more gun emplacements to P. 2725. Now follow the wide, sometimes collapsed trail made of concrete slabs from WW II, which always runs north of Ronggergrat, until Hüenersattel (2695 m).

Variant: easier route from Hüenersattel to Rotondohütte SAC

Less adventurous, but in dense fog much safer (and almost equally long, both in terms of distance and hiking time) is the white-red-white trail that leads from Hüenersattel northward in a scree valley down until about 2380 m. From there re-ascend to the cabin.

Variante 2: Via Hüenderstock to Rotondohütte SAC

Wer im Hüendersattel noch Zeit und Kraft hat: Eine gute Stunde länger ist die neu rot-weiss markierte Route über den Hühnerstock. Sie führt entlang dem Westgrat und danach über den Nordrücken zum Sattel P. 2560 und zum Vorfeld des Witenwasserengletschers, wo sich in den letzten 20 Jahren ein stattlicher See gebildet hat. Nordseitig um den See herum und in einem weiten Bogen, ungefähr die Höhe haltend, zur Rotondohütte SAC (2570 m).

Hüenersattel – Rotondohütte SAC

From here on the white-blue-white markings towards Rotondohütte SAC do not always make sense and will not help you much in case of dense fog. Those who are experienced and have a feel for the route are advised to follow their intuition rather than try too hard to find the markings. Generally, the route is as follows: from Hüenersattel descend generally west-north-westward on blocks, across névés and a rocky ridge to the saddle at P. 2560 and the glacier forefield of Witenwasserengletscher, where these last 20 years a considerable lake has formed. Hike northward around the lake and in a wide arc, keeping the height, to Rotondohütte SAC (2570 m).

Additional information

Departure and arrival point

Gotthard Hospiz / Passhöhe (2091 m)

Bus service only in the summer half-year.

Get there Google Maps

Gotthard Passhöhe

Time: Gotthardpass – Passo di Lucendro 2 h 30 min.

Passo di Lucendro – Passo di Cavanna 1 h.

Passo di Cavanna – Rotondohütte SAC 2 h 30 min.

Difficulty / Material: In foggy weather the segments Passo del San Gottardo – Passo di Lucendro and Passo di Cavanna – Rotondohütte SAC are precarious. On Cresta del Poncionetto there are a few passages equipped with ropes; from Hüenersattel to Rotondohütte SAC the course of the trail is not very obvious and poorly marked on névés, slippery debris and a new glacier forefield, which has yet to find its stability.

Waypoints

Passo di Lucendro (2530 m)

Passage between Val Bedretto and Urseren, east of Pizzo Lucendro

Passo di Cavanna (2613 m)

Passage between Val Bedretto and Urseren, west of Pizzo Lucendro

Hüenersattel (2692 m)

Saddle in Ronggergrat, rarely used as a passage (the south side between Lago di Sabbioni and the col is feasible, but pathless and thus fairly tiresome)

Hüenerstock / Hüenderstock (2889 m)

Neighbor summit

Fibbia (2739 m)

The summit is easily accessible by branching off at ca. 2600 from the route described above and aiming directly at the summit (T3, coarse blocks and fairly tiresome).