UKC

Does anyone have any experience of this route in late May / early June? Ill be heading up via Alagna - Punta Indren and Refugio Gniffetti and plan on bivvying high up.

I have an opportunity to take some time off then and am dying to get a couple of 4000m peaks in but im worried there may still be too much snow on the route covering crevases etc. Perhaps if i used snow shoes instead??

Thanks for any advice

In reply to Stujbro:

May is prime ski-touring time from Gniffetti, and I suspect you'll still be dealing with a lot of soft snow...That said, it'll be massively tracked, so conditions will depend greatly on the weather and any fresh snow in the fortnight or so before you go..
The Balmenhorn bivvy is nice and snug (and busy?)
http://www.caivarallo.it/rifugi_cai_varallo/bivacco_giordano.php

In reply to Stujbro:
I did that route mid June, even then people were skiing it, but conditions change daily at that altitude. If I had a partner I wouldn't be overly concerned about crevasses, just the time it might take me without skis, never used snowshoes so can't help there.
Great route though, no need to carry bivi stuff if you use those huts, and the one at 4000m, can't recall the name.

I found the glacier very skiable last year in august and the southside of the Valais had massive amounts of snow this winter.
So expect a lot of snow.

In case you do it and want to celebrate your ascent, spend a night in the orestes hut near the gressoney resort.
Great place and folks.

http://www.oresteshuette.eu/

In reply to Stujbro:
We did this route in August 2013 but then the snow was well packed with good tracks. From Alagna Valsesia we took a series of cable cars up to Punta Indren at 3,200 metres. From here we climbed up to the Refugio Gniffetti sited at 3,647 metres. After a day acclimatising to the altitude by climbing Piramide Vincent, we proceeded up to Europe's highest hut, the Margherita, at the summit of Signalkuppe (4,554 m) on the border of Italy and Switzerland. The hut is open June 21st to Sept 7th 2014, but there is a winter room available as well, see http://www.rifugimonterosa.it/EN/huts/margherita-hut-monterosa-italy-refuge... We bagged a couple more peaks over 4,000m on the descent back to the cable car.

For a video of our climb see youtube.com/watch?v=AJOxfgLTnow&