How to get there:
The trailhead has good parking.
The location is N46.23289, E012.01295, elevation very close
to 1000 meter.
Note that a possible route is the narrow, but very scenic road
along Lago del Mis. This may not be the fastest route, but nice
if you can afford a possible delay. See my report under comments below.
Route:
The trail starts directly uphill from the left side of the building (when looking
uphill). It seems like the terrain above
would be too steep for a trail, but
the trail climbs this first slope without much of an issue. Near the top of
this first section you pass a couple of small caves.
Next, you enter a more level section with big trees. There is a trail fork just as
the terrain becomes more gentle. Your trail should continue uphill, the other (wrong)
trail forks right.
This somewhat flat section is short, the trail
will soon climb uphill again, this
time in dwarf pine forest. Higher up, you enter an impressive basin with very
steep rock walls,
the summit is actually pretty much straight ahead.
The route crosses left and climbs near the upper side of a scree slope until reaching
a nice, local saddle. Next, a
gentle (small) descending traverse will get you
to the lower end of a gully. This gully will provide access to a final ridge that extends
uphill to the final summit ridge.
The lower part of this gully has a short (YDS) class
3 section, this is the only class 3 on the route from the trailhead
to the north (lower) summit of Mezzodi.
When you reach the main ridge connecting the north summit with the highest summit, turn right
and pick your way along the ridge. A pretty good route has some small cairns confirming that
you are on a correct way. My return track (posted on Peakbagger), is pretty good. Looking at the
track one will observe that I fairly early went a bit down and left, this is incorrect. One should
stay high here. Later, I stayed high and that was also incorrect. There is a distinct corner there
(facing left when ascending), descend (left) from this point, then climb back up to the col ahead.
From this col, climb the final part by some easy ledges (zig-zags).
Comments:
Google took me on the narrow road next to Lago del Mis, here I ran into a huge
herd of sheep
that were directed by dogs and farmers. No way to pass, a delay of
almost one hour.
After this non-trival drive from our hotel, I started this climb around 1030. The trail was easy
to follow and there were really no issues until I came to the first (YDS) class 3 point at the
lower end of the gully mentioned above. I ended up climbing a parallel gully on the left side, then
traversing back to the route. However, on descent I stayed on route all the way.
The more challenging part of this climb started when I turned right on the main ridge, while the
summit (north) with a cross was located a short distance left. The terrain and route from here to
the summit was not at all obvious. I made 2 mistakes where I had to backtrack and try a new plan.
This is fairly easy to see on my posted track (on peakbagger.com) Care is needed almost the entire
way. I was quite happy when finally standing on the summit.
The ascent had taken 3:50.
Looking back towards
the cross on the north summit, I did
appreciate the effort of getting here.
I started my return scramble after about
10 minutes. Much easier now when I knew the route.
I continued to the cross on the
north summit. This traverse took about 35 minutes. A brief visit there, then descent.
The final descent took 2:10. A quite long, but very interesting climb.
