Monte Prosa and Pizzo Fortünéi

With the Gotthard being the nearest location to Zürich where sunshine could be expected, it was a good opportunity to try out one of the routes in the recently published SAC guidebook "Alpinwandern/Gipfelziele Gotthard": Monte Prosa (along its south ridge) and Pizzo Fortünei.

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It's a scary sight travelling through the Zentralschweiz: plenty of snow on the Fronalpstock and the likes, until well below 2000 metres, and that in August. Luckily the Gotthard region did not have so much precipitation. On shadowy spots above 2650m, we will find maybe 1cm of leftover fresh snow, but nothing that affects our hike. The Gotthardpass is very chilly when we set off, but the sun is shining and as soon as we start climbing, the wind eases and it feels a lot warmer.

After less than 10 minutes on a wide track, we turn left towards the Monte Prosa south ridge. This is a steep, pathless ascent, mostly over grass with an increasing number of rocks until P. 2589. Here, the grass comes to an end, and the ridge to the west summit of Monte Prosa offers plenty of excellent rock. By choosing the route carefully here, you can pretty much make it as difficult as you want. Our line involves mostly UIAA grade I scrambling, with a few spots of grade II. The scrambling to the main summit (with a wooden cross that's rather in disrepair) is equally good, though choice of route is a little more delicate here, as a few rock towers can only be easily passed by going around on one side or the other.

The descent to the Bassa della Prosa is much easier, with nice views down to the Lago della Sella. The subsequent ascent to the Pizzo Fortünéi (on the map only marked as P. 2811) is also just easy hiking, and hence even slightly tiresome. The next section across the Schwarzlochhorn is more interesting again. The rock is more brittle here than on Monte Prosa, but the scrambling is easy enough. We then turn left at the Sunnig Lücke and descend across grassy slopes until we reach the farm track at Barch. You could also descend before the Schwarzlochhorn through the Val di Tusei, but the Scharzlochhorn is a nice section of ridge that hardly requires any extra effort. Rather remarkably, it's still very much colder and windier on the Gotthard Pass, compared to higher up on the ridge.

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All in all this Monte Prosa - Pizzo Fortünéi - Schwarzlochhorn traverse is a very nice alpine route. You're in the immediate vicinity of the busy Gotthardpass with its many tourists. Indeed from the Monte Prosa south ridge you have quite spectacular views down to the pass with the Hospiz and the many tarns. But the route itself, by contrast, is unmarked and extremely quiet - we didn't meet any other hikers all day.