Walserweg Gottardo

The summer settlement of Salecchio Superiore is located on a superb sunny terrace high above Valle Antigorio, which extends south to Domodossola. If you wish, you can visit a mill, the bakery, a sawmill or the beautiful wooden sculptures in the San Giuseppe chapel in the village. Then the hike begins: a well-maintained slab path soon takes you to the Casa Francoli district, another traditional Walser settlement with a church and the remains of an old lime kiln. A small road connects it to the bridge below the hamlet of San Antonio.

An impressive rocky backdrop closes off the valley basin. You now have a climb ahead of you: the steep and demanding path in the mountain forest is tough. Only at around 1800 metres do the firs slowly give way to the larches. You have to cross steep torrents and you reach Alpe Giove via rocky ledges. It extends below the last steep rock face where the Bivacco Busin is located. Only now do you get an idea of how to climb this wall: on the far left, through a steep gully, you zigzag up to the Busin dam, from which the water is fed into Lake Vannino to generate electricity. The flood warning signs now also make sense: the path runs exactly below the lake overflow, which is dammed by the gravity dam built in 1923.

A wide path runs north over Lake Busin Inferiore. On the way to the pass of the same name, you cross a moorland with ponds. They are overgrown with cotton grass and populated by a wide variety of amphibians. The trail leads in a leisurely way from Passo Busin down through alpine pastures to Alpe Cortenova on the south bank of Lake Vannino. A new backdrop surrounds you here, and the mighty Ofenhorn can be seen in the west. The tour ends comfortably along the shore of the lake and via the dam wall at Rifugio Margaroli. The hut is located on a small hill above Alpe Vannino and the lake.