UKC

Hi,

I’m hoping to climb the Piz Badile later this year. I’m looking for tips on an area & routes to warm up the week prior. Ideally this area will be granite & within 3 hrs drive of Bregaglia. The area and routes around the Piz Badile look generally a bit high & long to start the trip with.

Routes wise, anything with quick access upto E2 & 6-10 pitches. Initially looking at getting used to the rock & make sure we’re moving well together. 
 

I have been looking at Val di Mello, but the guidebook is in Italian so any route suggestions would be fantastic. Thank you. 

Hello, 

have you considered the stuff around the Albigna hut? Easy access and cool routes with a super helpful hut guardian and yummy rosti. Look at Via Meuli etc. 

I hadn’t, but will do. Thank you.

There is so much rock, it’s trying to find somewhere to start!

North ridge of badile is magnificent in its own right and well worth doing. Also has the advantage of knowing the approach and descent for cassin if that’s what you are looking at. 

Albigna area is good and routes on  the Punta  d,alibigna are possible in a day from the valley if you use the uplift from Vicosoprano. Routes worth doing are the Meuli (vs ish), Moderne Zeitung (HVS ish) and the Steiger Pillar which is a bit more serious and has much less fixed kit than the other routes mentioned and has one pitch that I remember being hard and not brilliantly protected. You can bag all of these at the shoulder or climb another couple of hundred metres to the summit. 

Other possibility is routes on the salbitschen which isn’t a million miles away. 

James

Vinci ridge on Cengalo.

Buegeleisen

Vergine-Al Gal traverse

In Mello:

Luna Nascente

Kundalini

You've lead trad e4 you will piss up the piz badile.  I managed it and ive never lead harder than hvs. Long day stamina, calmness when people clip your gear and then other people clip theres, and a head for heights, are very important also tho i found. Plus a small sack so you dont get it stuck in the crack of the crux pitch like my  significantly stronger mate who loves taking pyjamas and towels up mountains. Ed. Talking Cassin route

I've only done the north ridge but I assume you are aiming for the Cassin or another of the harder routes seeing as you mentioned E2.

We drove from UK and started off in Chamonix before heading out to the Bregaglia. There's granite routes of all grades there of course but I found Papillon Arete to be good preparation (decent length, varied climbing, lots of moving together through exposed terrain). 

There's plenty to do in the Bregaglia of course, though we found the weather there pretty temperamental. There was one climbing day in the whole week, so the Badile was swarming with climbers on that day. Despite the crowds, nobody (including us) had the imagination to try any of the routes except the Nordkant or Cassin.

We did the N Ridge this summer and our warm ups the previous week were 3 days around the Albigna Hut, loads to go at there, and much easier to access.

Since you climb rather harder than us, La Fiamma (5c) is a must (we wimped out as it's at the very top of our grade and is quite bold). 

The Fiamma is well bolted and no harder than HVS, but it is in a wild position and often has a queue of climbers below it!

As other have said, the Albina hut area of  Spazzacaldera is superb for easy access in that area. 

You can buy a PDF topo from Needle Sports online, and some routes are described in the Plaisir Sud guidebook. 

Our warm up was the walk up to the hut.  This was probably a mistake!

You may be right, we didn't do it, but two people who did both said that the crux was about 2 metres above the previous bolt.

There are also topos available at the hut, including some big new routes

You're certainly "warm" by the end of it though!

Actually we were soaked through, and not with sweat!

Due to rockfall, by the way, there are now two routes to the Sasc Furä hut (access to the Badile from the Swiss side):

- the official path, which is well signed (unless you’re me, ie an idiot) and takes about 5 hours (should have taken me 4, at the pace I set myself, but I’m an idiot)

- another way up which you’ll need to get local beta for, but which friends of mine used and only took 3 hours  

I really liked the official way up, I don't know why some say it's boring. Just as long as you don;t think you're nearly there as soon as you see the hut, then realise you have to ascend and descend a few hundred more meters to reach it!

I'm not sure that the Bügeleisen still exists after a big rockfall 2 years back. 

We did... 

Day 1 Spazzacaldeira NE-ridge + some steeper extras, night at albigna hut,

Day 2 Via Steiger on Punta Albigna which I found very resonably protected. 

Day 3-4, rest and access the hut... 

Day 5 Badile north ridge. 

Together withe walk off down to the Italian side this was a fine effort for my father, 68 then... And a thorough intro to the Bregaglia range. 

"fine effort" doesn't seem to do it justice!

( Self-promotion alert.) Go to the Albigna valley. Masses to do in the climbing range you mention. Needle Sports English language guide:  Bregaglia Climbing 2014: Albigna PDF <-- it's been updated since 2014.