Italian Alps
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But at length when the crowd has departed let the painter in late September or October pass back to the Swiss Alps. However much he may dislike positive colours, he will find subjects to his taste, harmonies in blue and grey, or studies in grey alone, when the thin autumn vapours swim up the valley and entangle themselves amongst the pine-tops, or when the whole heaven is veiled, and
White against the cold white skyShine out the crowning snows.Or, if he delights in the subtle play and contrast of colour, he may study the lights and shadows and reflections of the lakes, as the wind and clouds sweep over them, the hue of the hillsides when the purple darkness of the pines becomes a grateful contrast to the rich warm tints of the lower woods, and the rhododendron leaves on the high alps flush with a red brighter than their May blossoms. From some lonely height he may watch the shiftings and gatherings of the mist as it spreads in a 'fleecelike floor' beneath his feet, or the storm-wreaths as they surge in tall columns to the heaven, and break open to reveal a mountain shrine glowing in the rich lights of evening or the pale splendour of a summer moon. He must be a dull man if he does not acknowledge that the mountains have a language worth interpreting, and that to those who can listen, they speak, as Lord Lytton tells us in his pretty fable,
– With signs all day.Down drawing o'er their shoulders fair,This way and that soft veils of air,And colours never twice the sameWoven of wind, and dew, and flame.We do not ask or expect many artists to devote themselves to the new country which has been discovered by the Alpine Club above the belt of black and white barrenness which was once thought the typical scenery of the Upper Alps. That there is much that is beautiful, however, in this Wonderland will be readily admitted even by those who doubt whether its beauties are reproducible by art.
The painter who ventures into the snow-world will find, I think, that the subjects it offers divide themselves roughly into three classes: portraits of high peaks; studies of mountain views, that is, of earth and sky-colours blended in the vast distances visible from a lofty stand-point; and studies of snow and ice – of the forms and colours of the snow-field and the glacier. In the first two no conspicuous success has yet been obtained. The great mountains still await their 'vates sacer.'74 It is in the last-mentioned, at first sight the least inviting and most perplexing of the branches of Alpine art, that the greatest efforts have been made and with the most result. Until M. Loppé painted, it was only the mountaineer who knew the beauty of the glacier. Its broken cataracts and wave-filled seas were to the stranger formless, colourless masses. The Genevese painter, by dint of patient study and laborious, if pleasurable, exertion, has revealed its secrets to the world, and more than justified the enthusiasm of the Alpine Club.
M. Loppé's pictures might easily be arranged so as to form a kind of 'glacier's progress.' We first find the snows reposing tranquilly in their high rock-cradle and reflecting on their pure surface the tones of the sky from which they have fallen. Then we have the struggle and confusion which attend the encounter of the young glacier with the first obstacles. An irresistible impulse urges the still half-formed ice over the edge, and it is transformed in a moment into a maze of towers and blue abysses, of walls of marble-like snow seamed with the soft veins which mark each year's fall, of crystal-roofed and fretted vaults hung with pendant icicles. M. Loppé paints with wonderful skill not only the forms of the 'séracs,' but the shades and hues given by the imprisoned light and reflections to the frozen mass, combining the whole into a harmony of soft pale colour.
Again we meet the glacier, as it is best known to the world, settled down into middle life, but still seamed by the scars of a stormy youth, earthier, more stained and travel-worn than in its first combat. Here the mottled crust, the green light of the smaller crevices, and the wavelike undulations of the surface are represented with admirable fidelity; but we feel the air is less poetic, and a stray tourist does not offend us as out of place. And now we are present at the last struggle where, under a pall of cloud through which the parent peaks shine down a far-off farewell, the glacier makes its fatal plunge into the valley, for it a valley of death, and we see its end amid the earth and rock-heaps of the terminal moraine. But from under the muddy ruin springs out of a 'dusky door' a new and fuller life, and the mountain stream dashes off on its happy course through the new world of the fields and orchards.
So faithful are these pictures that Professor Tyndall would find in them fit illustrations for a popular discourse. So perfect is sometimes the illusion that we should almost fear a modern version of Zeuxis and the birds, and expect to hear the lecturer calling on his assistant to drive stakes into the canvas.
When M. Loppé turns to summit views we feel that his success is less complete. He has led the way to the and has dared to be the first to depict the mysterious light of the far-off sunrise playing on the highest snows of Mont Blanc, the snowy cantonments of the Alps separated by grey cloud-streams, the gradations from the purple of the zenith to the crocus of the horizon in the vault of heaven seen from 15,000 feet above the sea-level; or the red glow of sunset, when the lowlands are already dark in shadow, and the upper world has a moment of hot splendour before it, too, is overwhelmed by the night.
High mountain platformsWhere morn first appears;Where the white mists for everAre spread and upfurl'd,The deep hues of the upper air, the torn edges of the clouds as they are caught by the morning breeze, bear witness to study on the spot. But we demand more delicacy of aerial effect, greater depth of distance, more precision in the handling of the nearer rock-peaks. The painter clearly spends all his love on snow, and does not care so much for the forms of crags. We miss, too, that combined breadth and subtlety of interpretation which belong only to the very highest genius and which no study or perseverance can impart.
But fault-finding is ungrateful where so much has been dared and accomplished. M. Loppé's pictures are doubtless open to criticism in many respects, and they could hardly be otherwise. But the amount of success he has achieved in a region where no one else had ever dared to venture is surely sufficient to make his example worth more than many precepts. At any rate the moment at which a painter has shown London for the first time the capabilities for artistic treatment of the most unpromising of mountain-subjects seems a fitting one for urging the general claims of the Alps.
Let it not be said that Englishmen are dead to the finer influences of the eternal hills to which they so much resort. Let our painters avoid hasty conclusions founded on imperfect knowledge, and attempt the mountains with the same energy and perseverance which have made them subject to our athletic youth. Let them be ready to climb enough to understand the scale and nature of the objects they have to paint, and content, like young mountaineers, to spend season after season in slow training and only partial success. Thus, and thus only, can they hope to conquer the beauties of the mountain-world. But the conquest will repay its cost. The existence of a school of intelligent Alpine landscape-painters would contribute in no small degree to the maintenance of Art in her true position, not as 'the empty singer of a bygone day,' but the visible sign and interpreter of the feeling for beauty of the world of our own days. It also could not fail to result in the increased and more intelligent appreciation of some of the highest forms of scenery, and the consequent repression of the tendency to which wastes so many of the hours when our souls should be most receptive.
Glance and nod and bustle by,
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A.
NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS
The following notes have been framed for use with the 'Alpine Guide,' and make no pretence to be complete in themselves. Besides the necessary references to Mr. Ball's book, they consist of such corrections and additions as I should have supplied had a new edition been in immediate prospect. The edition referred to is that in 10 small sections (2s. 6d. each), Longmans & Co., 1873. The sections which include the country here dealt with are three – 'The St. Gothard and Italian Lakes,' 'East Switzerland,' and 'South Tyrol and the Venetian Alps.'
The best maps for use in the country here described are, for ordinary travellers, Mayr's 'Karte der Alpen' (Ostalpen, Sheets 1 and 3) corrected by Berghaus (Perthes. Gotha. 1871), and the Alpine Club Map of the Central Alps, Sheet IV.
Mountaineers will also require the Swiss (Sheet XX.) and Lombardo-Venetian (Sheets B. 3, 4; C. 3, 4; D. 3, 4) Government Maps. The new survey of Tyrol by the Austrian engineers has been completed, and its result will shortly be given to the public. The existing maps of S. Tyrol and the Trentino are most inaccurate.
CHAPTERS I., II.
VAL MAGGIA – VAL VERZASCA – VAL CANOBBINA
Approaches and Carriage-roadsFrom central Switzerland by the St. Gothard road or Gries (mule-pass); from the west by the Simplon road and Val Formazza; from the south by Lago Maggiore.
There is an omnibus twice daily up Val Maggia between Locarno and Bignasco, and once daily between Bignasco and Fusio, to which the carriage-road now extends. The carriage-road in Val Verzasca extends to Sonogno, but there is no public conveyance beyond Lavertezzo.
The carriage-road up Val Onsernone is open as far as Comologno.
The road from Locarno to Domo d'Ossola is not, as stated in the 'Alpine Guide,' practicable throughout for cars. There is a break of some length near the frontier.
The road from Canobbio through Val Canobbina to Val Vigezzo was still incomplete in 1874.
InnsVal Maggia.
• Cevio. An Inn well spoken of by German travellers.
• Bignasco. The house kept by Da Ponte, mentioned in the 'Alpine Guide' still 'very fair' (1874). The 'Posta' supplies clean beds and good country cooking, and is in a charming situation (1874).
• Fusio. Inn and pension frequented by Italians, and said by F. Devouassoud to promise well externally (1874).
Val Verzasca.
• Lavertezzo. A poor-looking Inn. There is a roadside tavern, where bread and wine may be obtained, below the bridge over the stream of Val d'Osola. At Sonogno there is no inn (1874).
Val Vigezzo.
• Santa Maria Maggiore. A fair country Inn (1874).
Peaks and PassesThe ascent of the lesser peaks of the Ticinese valleys scarcely repays the labour. The Basodine and Piz Campo Tencca are mentioned among the passes. No riding animals are to be found in Val Maggia: they must be brought from Faido or Premia. The master of the Tosa Falls inn is a good guide to the Basodine, and peasants are doubtless to be found in Val Bavona who would undertake to lead a traveller to the top.
Val Formazza to Val Maggia.
• Premia or Andermatten to Cevio by Val Rovana, horsepath. See 'Alpine Guide,' vol. ii. p. 311.75
• Andermatten to Bignasco by the Forcolaccia and Val Bavona, 6½ hrs.; foot.
• Andermatten to San Carlo in Val Bavona by Passo d'Antabbia; foot; probably fine.
• Tosa Falls to San Carlo and Bignasco; by Passo del Basodine; foot; rope necessary. See p. 15-16:
• or Bocchetta di Val Maggia; foot; either pass about 10 hrs.
• The Basodine, 10,748 feet, can be climbed in ½ hr. from the former pass. See p. 15.
For the passes from Val Bavona to Airolo, and to Val Peccia. See 'Alpine Guide,' pp. 311, 313.
Val Maggia to Val Leventina.
• Airolo to Fusio by Val Lavizzara, see 'Alpine Guide,' p. 311. There is a more direct foot-pass between the two there mentioned, the descent from which on the E. side is by a goat-track down a steep face of rocks.
• Faido to Fusio. See 'Alpine Guide,' p. 311.
• Faido to Broglio and Bignasco by Passo di Campo Tencca. Through the gap between the N. (highest 10,099 ft.) and central peak of Piz C. Tencca; see p. 20-25; foot, 10 hrs. It is not necessary to go round by Prato to enter Val Lavizzara, but the short cut to Broglio is rather difficult to hit off in descending. See p. 20.
Val Maggia to Val Verzasca.
• Broglio to Sonogno; Passo di Redorta, through Val di Prato and Val Partusio, foot, 6 hours. See p. 29.
• Bignasco to Brione; Passo d'Osola,76 through Val Coccho (foot), probably the most interesting path between the two valleys.
I can add no information to that contained in the 'Alpine Guide' as to the other passes from Val Maggia to Val Verzasca, or as to the passes from Val Verzasca to Val Leventina.
RoutesCarriage travellers can only drive from Domo d'Ossola to Canobbio (with the break mentioned above), and up and down Val Maggia, Val Verzasca, and Val Onsernone.
For riders and moderate walkers perhaps the best route is
• From Faido to Fusio by Campolungo Pass, thence to Bignasco; spend a day in Val Bavona, and cross by Val Rovana to Val Formazza or Val Onsernone.
For mountaineers —
• Ascend the Basodine from the Tosa Falls, descending through Val Bavona to Bignasco; thence cross Piz Campo Tencca to Faido; drive down to Locarno and up Val Maggia (or by Val Onsernone and Val Rovana) to Bignasco; cross the Passo d'Osola, returning to Locarno by Val Verzasca.
There are many ways through the hills between Locarno and Domo d'Ossola, but none probably to be preferred to the route through Val Canobbina.
CHAPTERS III., IV.
THE PEAKS AND PASSES OF VAL MASINO
Approaches and Carriage-roadsThe villages of Val Bregaglia are half-a-day's drive from Pontresina or St. Moritz, or, coming the opposite way, two or three hours from Chiavenna. The baths of Masino are a short day's drive from Colico, or about five hours from Sondrio. The road to the Baths is the only one inside the district practicable for carriages.
InnsBregaglia. See 'Alpine Guide,' p. 386.
• Maloya. Much improved; good accommodation, but a bear for a landlord (1873).
Val Masino.
• I Bagni. Clean beds, untidy rooms, excellent food, and much civility, with rather high prices to passing travellers (1873).
Val Malenco.
• Chiesa. Two fair country Inns, improving (1873).
• Chiareggio. Very rough quarters, and little food to be depended on (1873).
Val Codera.
• Codera. Two very primitive Inns kept by tidy and civil people (Tschudi's 'Schweizerführer').
Passes of Val MasinoNo good glacier guides are to be found in Val Masino or Val Bregaglia. At Chiesa in Val Malenco there are several men who have made glacier excursions, and two or three (Flematti of Spriana, Joli of Torre) who have recently been up the Disgrazia.
I Bagni to Val Codera.
• There are three passes, all only practicable on foot: I. Over Alp Ligoncio to a pass at the foot of Monte Lis d'Arnasca and through Val del Pussato – the easiest. II. Through Val Porcellizza to Alp d'Averta. III. A rough way, wrongly marked on maps, between the two last. All lead through gaps in an almost perpendicular granite wall. The scenery of the upper portion of Val Codera is wildly beautiful (Tschudi's 'Schweizerführer').
Fuorcla di Rocchette.
• I Bagni to Castasegna. Two steep and rough foot-passes; crossing between them one of the heads of Val Codera.
Passo di Bondo.
• I Bagni to Promontogno. A difficult glacier pass, involving the descent of an ice-wall, only to be attempted by practised climbers. The pass we crossed lies at the head of the most easterly of the glaciers seen from Alp Mazza in Porcellizza. In descending the Bondasca glacier it is generally best to keep to the right. The spot at which to leave the ice for the pasturages is easily recognised. See p. 73.
Passo di Ferro.
• Val di Mello to Promontogno. A fine glacier pass, difficulty varying according to the state of the crevasses. In ascending from Val di Mello keep the E. side of the Ferro Glacier. See p. 49.
Passo di Zocca. (Forcella di S. Martino of Swiss map.)
• Val di Mello to Vico Soprano, a glacier pass well known to people of the country. No difficulty with a rope. 'Alpine Guide,' p. 407.
Passo di Monte Sissone.
• Val di Mello to Maloya. See p. 61. A fine and long, but not at all difficult, glacier pass. Monte Sissone is easily recognisable on the S. side. In descending to the Forno Glacier bear along the N.E. ridge until it seems easy to get down. The right-hand side of the glacier is the best.
• There are two passes known to the shepherds, connecting respectively the lower portion of the Forno Glacier with the châlets at the foot of the Albigna Glacier, and these with the highest pasturage in Val Bondasca. An active walker starting from the Maloya Inn would have little difficulty in crossing both in the same day. Owing to the much lower level of the starting-point, the excursion, taken the other way, would be too fatiguing to be recommended.
Passo di Mello.
• Val di Mello to Chiareggio. Glacier pass, liable to be difficult on the E. side if the rocks are icy or the glacier much crevassed. The gap is that nearest the Pico della Speranza. See p. 68.
Passo della Speranza and Passo della Preda Rossa.
• Val di Mello to Sasso Bisolo Glacier;
• Sasso Bisolo Glacier to Val di Torre;
• Form together a high-level route from the Baths to Sondrio, passing under the Disgrazia.
From Val di Mello make for the pass at the W. foot of the Pico della Speranza; the 2nd pass is conspicuous to anyone on the Sasso Bisolo Glacier. See p. 87.
These are not the passes alluded to by Mr. Ball ('Alpine Guide,' p. 408). There is a lower pass from Val Torreggio to the Sasso Bisolo châlets. The range S.W. of the Disgrazia is very badly laid down in all maps except the A. C. map of Switzerland.
PeaksMonte della Disgrazia, 12,057 ft. See p. 84, and 'Alpine Guide,' p. 408.
• In ordinary circumstances, about 5 hrs. from the highest Sasso Bisolo châlets, or 9 hrs. from the Baths. Has also been ascended by Italians by the Passo della Preda Rossa starting from the Alpe Rali on the Val Malenco side.
Monte Sissone, 10,800 ft. (?) See Sissone Pass.
Cima di Rosso, 11,024 ft.
• From the Maloya, an easy snow-peak, ascent 5 hrs., descent 2¼ hrs.
Cima del Largo, 11,162 ft.
• From the Maloya; a steep ice-wall near the top. Requires a good guide. Ascent 6 hrs.; descent 4½ hrs. This peak can undoubtedly be reached from the head of the Albigna Glacier. See p. 77.
Punta Trubinesca, 11,106 ft.
• From I Bagni; easy for good walkers. Rope and ice-axe necessary. Ascend glacier W. of the peak and gully at its head to the gap between the P. T. and the Cima di Tschingel. Thence by the ridge. See p. 81.
Cima di Tschingel, 10,853 ft.
• From I Bagni, lower and more difficult than the last. Ascent 6 hrs.; descent 4 hrs.
Monte Lis d'Arnasca, 10,500 ft. }
Monte Spluga, 9,933 ft. }
• (?) No information; quite unknown to English mountaineers.
RoutesCarriages can only go to the Baths and back. Riders may visit Val Bondasca from Promontogno, the Albigna Glacier from Vico Soprano, the foot of the Forno Glacier from the Maloya Inn, and Alp Mazza in Porcellizza from the Baths. For climbers, the following route embraces the most inviting peaks: – Ascend Cima del Largo from Maloya Inn; descend on to Zocca Pass (new, but perfectly practicable); sleep at La Rasica. Ascend Disgrazia, return by Val Sasso Bisolo. Order a car from Baths to meet you at Cattaeggio. Ascend Punta Trubinesca. Cross by Val Codera to Splügen road. The two last may, no doubt, be combined in the same day.
CHAPTER V.
TARASP AND THE LIVIGNO DISTRICT
Approaches and Carriage roadsFrom the Rheinthal by the Prätigau and Fluela roads. From the Tyrolese Innthal by the new road from the Finstermünz through the Lower Engadine. From the Etschthal (Vintschgau), by the Münsterthal and Ofen road (now practicable for carriages, and crossed by a diligence), or by the Stelvio road to the Baths of Bormio. The high-roads of the Val Tellina and Bernina Pass skirt the district on the S. and W.
InnsKlosters.
• Hotel and Pension Silvretta – frequented by Swiss – good (1866).
Lower Engadine.
• Lavin, two new good Inns, Piz Linard, or Post, and Steinbock (1871).
• Zernetz. Bär, best (1871).
• Livigno. A very rude country Inn (1866).
• Val Viola. No inns between La Rosa and Bormio (1873).
Passes from the Southern Rhine Valley into the Lower EngadineFluela Pass, carriage-road. Vereina Pass, Klosters – Süs; rough walk. Verstankla Thor, Klosters – Lavin Glacier Pass, see p. 98. Silvretta Pass, Klosters – Guarda Glacier Pass, see 'Alpine Guide,' p. 358. Grialetsch Pass, Davos – Süs, taking on the way Piz Vadret, a difficult rock-climb.
For the passes from the Tyrolese valleys of Montafon and Paznaun see Tschudi's 'Ostschweiz,' Herr Weilenmann's 'Aus der Firnenwelt,' vol. ii., and Weltenberger's 'Rhätikon-Kette, Lechthaler, und Vorarlberger Alpen,' Perthes, 1875 (valuable map), and 'Alpine Guide,' p. 362.
Excursions from TaraspSee Tschudi's 'Schweizerführer: Ostschweiz.' Recommended for climbers, Piz Linard, 11,207 ft. Piz Pisoc, 10,427 ft., or Piz Lischanna, 10,181 ft., returning by the Scarlthal.
Livigno District. – PassesGuides competent for any mountaineering in this district can be found at Zernetz, and probably also at the Baths of Bormio.
From the Engadine to Val Livigno.
• From the Ofenhaus by path through the gorge of the Spöl. See 'Alpine Guide,' p. 418.
• Through Val Cluoza and Val del Diavel, and over Passo del Diavel, 7½ hrs. See pp. 112-14.
• From Scanfs; Casana Pass, horse-road. 'Alpine Guide,' p. 418.
• From Ponte; Lavirum Pass. 'Alpine Guide,' p. 418.
• Bernina Häuser by Val del Fain and the Passo della Stretta. 'Alpine Guide,' p. 406.
Passes from Val Livigno to Val Viola.
• To Semogo and Bormio by the Passo di Foscagno. 'Alpine Guide,' p. 417. Horse-road.
• To Dosdè Alp by Zembrasca Pass, foot, 5½ hrs. easy, and does not lie over ice as marked on most maps.
• To Val Viola Poschiavina, by Passo di Mera (P. di Campo of A. C. map), foot. 'Alpine Guide,' p. 415.
• To La Rosa by the Forcola and Val Agone, horse-road. 'Alpine Guide,' p. 417.
• For the Passo di Val Viola see 'Alpine Guide,' p. 415. Most walkers will require an hour more than the time allowed by Mr. Ball.
Passes between Val Viola and the Val Tellina.
• From Campo to Val Grosina; Passo di Verva, mule-road (?) 'Alpine Guide,' p. 404.
• From Dosdè Alp to Val Grosina; Passo di Dosdè, Glacier Pass, 6 hrs. to Grosio. See pp. 119-20.
• Between this and the next there is another glacier pass to be discovered.
• From Val Viola Poschiavina, to Val Grosina; Passo di Sacco, 'Alpine Guide,' p. 404.
Livigno District. – PeaksBetween Engadine and Val Livigno.
• Piz Quatervals, 10,358 ft., the highest in this range, easiest from Val Cluoza, but can be reached from any side.
• Piz d'Esen, 10,269 ft. from Scanfs.
Between Val Livigno and Val Viola.
• Monte Foscagno, 10,130 ft.}
• Monte delle Mine, 10,800 ft.}
• (?) No information.
• Monte Zembrasca, 10,700 ft. (?), 10,827 Studer.
The ground at the head of Val Tressenda is very inaccurately laid down on all maps. I assume the snow-peak conspicuous at the head of Val Tressenda to be Monte Zembrasca, and the slightly higher rock summit lying further E. to be the Monte delle Mine.
• Punta del Campo, 10,843 ft. (Monte Vazzugna of A. C. map) ascended in 1866.