We love Piota Ritom, especially the crazy step funicular ride up to reach the gorgeous lake and hiking trails. But warm fall weather can make you forget that mountains are mountains no matter what temperature it is in the valley. Spoiler alert: this story ends with cold wet feet and empty tummies.
But first, let’s see why we took our friends to this place on the very last day of the hiking season. You’d say yes if I invited you, right? Get trail details here.
In late October, it’s reasonable to expect less than favorable conditions. But we had been having unusually warm sunny weather that we got a little too comfortable. It was all blue skies and shirt sleeves when we started walking at Piota Ritom. I had checked the forecast, webcams, opening times of the funicular and mountain hut; green lights all around.
So we weren’t too worried when passing through some snowy patches in shady areas, that’s normal for fall. At least we had mittens!
Then the trail was covered with a couple big snow patches. No problem, actually kinda fun.
Plus it was so, so pretty!
Then the entire trail and all surrounding landscape was covered in snow. Now I was worried. Should we turn back? (Yes!) But we’d already come so far and the restaurant was so good and we had brought friends who were expecting a good time. I wasn’t going to turn back empty handed.
I had hiked there before and I thought we were pretty close to the restaurant (we weren’t,). So we all decided to tough it out, since we could warm up and dry out at the restaurant. We did not have proper shoes for snow hiking, especially the kids. So everyone had cold wet feet by the time we arrived at the mountain hut, which looked strangely quiet.
We quickly discovered that even though the hut was technically “open”, the restaurant was closed for the season. The hut was self service only, so hikers and climbers could stay overnight in the primitive rooms upstairs and use the kitchen. But that didn’t do us much good since we didn’t bring any food. We were planning to chow down on hearty Ticino stew and cheesy polenta and slurp down hot chocolate. Sigh.
The photos stop here because a) my camera battery gave out and b) my phone died too and c) we were too busy shivering to be bothered with documenting it.
We were a sorry wet crew. There was no place to make a fire and no wood. We hung out wet socks and clothes outside in the sun to hopefully dry. Then we all emptied our pockets and packs of whatever snacks we had and gathered them in the center of the table: an apple, some candy, a pack of crackers, a granola bar, a couple cookies. Not the feast I had promised. Sigh.
But kudos to my family and friends who put on brave faces, found a deck of cards and rallied the troops with a few games. We nibbled our rations slowly, not looking forward to the walk back.
Eventually we had to pull back on our cold wet things and head back before the sun set. The kids were crying, rightly so with their frozen feet. I felt like crying myself. We carried the kids on our backs in shifts for 1.5km until the snow ended. My dear friend insisted on carrying my 7 year old piggy back most of the way. He was so heavy, I don’t know how she did it.
We finally made it off the snow and happily, it was all smiles again. The boys did boy stuff like find sticks and made weapons out of them. We finished the day with lots of memories and some lessons learned. All’s well that ends well.
Moral of the story: in autumn, always wear waterproof hiking shoes and bring more food just in case!
Now forget all that and make plans to visit Piota Ritom in summer, when the hills are green and trail is surrounded by wildflowers. Get all the details here…
