The Monte Muggio loop

It is a loop with modest climbing and views over the Lario and the peaks around it: the Legnone, the Legnoncino, the Pizzo dei Tre Signori, the Grigna, as far as the Swiss Alps and Monte Rosa.

You start at Giumello, at 1530 metres, in the Valsassina, and follow the road towards the Capanna Vittoria hut through the huts in the pastures on the Muggio's slopes. Past a little church and the paragliding launch you reach Alpe Chiaro, where cows graze in summer. A path climbs gently through the pastures, and from the Prà Bolscino ridge the view opens over the upper lake and the Val Varrone below the Legnoncino and the Legnone. Through conifer woods you reach the pastures of Alpe Dolca, then through beeches a junction leading to the church of Sant'Ulderico, at 1394 metres, an eleventh-century chapel tied to the cult of the hermit saints of the Lario, on a grassy shelf facing the Legnone. You climb back through the beeches past a spring to the eastern pastures of Alpe Giumello and along the mountain's flank reach the top of the Muggio, at 1799 metres, with a view over the Orobie Prealps from the Grigna to the Pizzo dei Tre Signori and the Legnone. You come down through the pastures to Giumello.

1. 01A seven-kilometre loop with 260 metres of climb from Alpe Giumello, in the comune of Casargo, up to 1799 metres, three to four hours: an easy route, recommended from April to November depending on ground and snow conditions.
2. 02You drive up from Bellano on provincial road 67 towards Taceno and Casargo, then from Margno towards Narro and Alpe Giumello; the road is paved but narrow in places, with many bends.
3. 03There is nowhere to eat and no hut along the way: food and beds are at Alpe Giumello, at the start.

WhereBellano · Dervio