Monte Robon from Sella Nevea (E route)

Overview

Beautiful hike up on a panoramic mountain, excelling with a wonderful karst landscape. This is the shorter of the two normal routes, nicely combined with the W route.

General Information

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Difficulty (grading is on the Swiss Hiking Scale): T4. Medium difficult is only the summit ascent Till the Sella Robon the tour is very easy (T2) - a good, marked trail, only on some places crossing steep forest slopes.

Orientation: Easy, the route is well marked (No. 637). The summit ascent is formally not marked, but there are many ciarns, so in normal visibility passages can be easily found.

Altitude to overcome: From 1195 m to 1981 m, so some good 800 m of altitude gain overall (a few slight descents on the crossings).

Time for the ascent only: 2 h 45 min.

Best season: Summer and autumn months, normally from June till October (or first snow). The most beautiful months are end of June (spring on Kanin) and October.

Best hour: Start early to do the ascent before the sun comes over the ridges.

Slopes orientation: At first north and west, then south.

Gear: Hiking only - good shoes and poles.

Maps: Online maps (like OpenTopo map or OpenStreet map) are sufficient.

Huts: Rif. Celsio Gilberti, 1850 m, reachable by cable car (in winter and in summer, but check on the web how they operate). Bivouac Modonutti-Savoia, 1908 m, just below the summit.

Getting There: The starting point is on the Sella Nevea road pass, actually on the big parking lot on the eastern side of the saddle.

Route Description

The parking place is on the macadam side road, just east of the road pass. So, we start walking by the forest road towards the east. After some 300 m be careful to deter right on the trail No. 637 (plates).

A narrow, but well beaten trail ascends quite steeply towards the SE. After gaining good 100 m of altitude the ascent gets less steep and the trail starts turning more towards the east. It crosses the steep, forested slopes, going more steeply up only where the terrain allows a safe passage. On some places the trail is narrow, but nowhere so exposed that protection devices would be needed. In normal (dry) conditions usual careful walking will bring us without problems around the northern ridge of Col Lopic. On the other side a broad valley opens.

The trail now goes steadilly up again towards the SE. When we reach high enough, on the right appears the mirror-polished NE wall of Col Lopic. Even higher there is a broad, open space and there we can even in summer find water which for some short time does not go underground. The place is called Pian delle Lope.

From the water sources the trail crosses the slopes again towards the E. We are more and more approaching the mirror-polished W wall of Monte Robon. That one is really impressive, be careful not to break your neck, looking up. The trail approaches just the base of the wall, there it winds up and finally it turns right, away from the wall. The next short ascent is along the usually dry creek bed - the upper bed of Rio Robon. Now we are entering the picturesque karst world of Kanin. Like through beautiful door we enter a flat basin just south of Monte Robon. The trail crosses it towards the SE and there joins the W approach trail. In good 10 minutes we then ascend from the basin towards the east, on Sella Robon (saddle), 1865 m. Nice bench there.

On the saddle we turn left, towards our mountain. A narrow, even a bit exposed military path crosses the slope, passes several buildings and caverns and then ascends on a more flat part on the ridge. There, on 1908 m the red bivouac of speleologists stands. From the bivouac we continue left, again a bit exposed (T3) and then right up through a steep, rocky channel. Above the channel we find ourselves in a chaos of rocks, sinkholes and caves. Several ciarns are showing the best passages, scrambling is just easy, but be careful not to twist ankle on a rugged terrain. Above the chaos a huge sinkhole is preventing us to continue comfortably. The wooden bridge over its right edge is very decayed, so we best climb above it by easy rocks. Climbing is just easy (T4, perhaps UIAA I), then we keep left down again to hit the trail. In a few minutes the ciarns bring you on the eastern summit.

Descent

You can descend by the same route or you can cross the high Kanin plateau by the W route to the point 1866 m. From there, you can either continue the hike down on Sella Nevea by the trail No. 636, or you can continue to the upper station of the cable car. The trail No. 636 is more than 20 minutes longer than the trail No. 637. But the round tour is far the best choice to do.