Muanda

Introduction

This route is a classic for the Biellese, very popular on all sides, always accessible especially on this side and keeping to the ridge, practicable even with metres of snow as this year. On Sundays here, among snowshoers, simple walkers and ski-mountaineers, it feels like being in Via Italia in Biella for the 'tub'...

Description

Leaving the car behind, climb up along the well-snow-covered road and after about fifty metres, at the first bend to the right, leave it to head up the meadowy slopes, continuing to climb gently, keeping to the hump. We reach the memorial stone dedicated to a Biellese mountaineer who died in the mountains in Nepal, with the prayer flags in the wind. We continue, alternating between false-floors and climbs, leaving Alpetto to the left and reaching Alpone, a renovated hut recognisable by its solar panels. Along the way a curious encounter: a car abandoned in the snow waiting for the thaw. Alpone is the last hut we encounter. Beyond it the terrain is a little steeper, and we continue up the ridge, reaching the various viewpoints marked by cairns, until we reach the summit, where on a large stone there is a plaque dedicated to Piergiorgio Frassati; a little further on there is another memorial stone with a cross, called cippo Frassati. The panorama from here is enthralling: from the right, looking over the plain, the Monviso rises far above the long, snow-covered chain, and then close by are the alpine ski slopes of the area: Bric Paglie, Mombarone and Tre Vescovi, and behind the Torretta, then the Colle della Lace, the Bechit, behind us the Mucrone and its cross, then the Camino, the Tovo pyramid, Cimone, Becco, Cucco, and further away the mountains of the upper Vallecervo, the Monticchio, the Asnass, as far as the Lombardy Pre-Alps. Below us, the Sanctuary of Oropa and the whole of the Biellese are at our feet. The ridge can also be followed beyond the Frassati cippo, to the little rocks where the Limbo ferrata begins, which in summer leads to the summit of Mucrone. The cippo is at 1950 metres, beyond that it is close to 2000. Descent by the same route as the ascent, looking for the best snow to the east or west; be careful in case of fog, there are few reference points, even us locals happened to 'land' a few hundred metres beyond the car park... Not too bad, because in any case, all around Muanda runs the tracciolino, the road that connects the Sanctuary of Oropa to that of Graglia: at most you can walk a few hundred metres... Anyway, it is always traced, starting from the first snowfall.