#4: [15-Jun-18]

#3: [05-Nov-15]

#1: [02-Dec-01]

28-Aug-2010 -- For quite some time I had kept an eye on this confluence point. It is located 190 km as the crows fly from our home in Zurich, but there is no direct access to it coming from the north side of the Alpine Mountains. Finally this weekend Switzerland’s weather was forecast as cold and rain, while the weather map was showing sun in Northern Italy. So we started on that Saturday morning at 4:15 a.m. in Zurich, crossed the main Alpine ridge over the St. Gotthard pass, bypassed Milano and Bergamo and finally reached at 9:00 a.m. the village Gandellino in the Seriana Valley (Valle Seriana). Gandellino is 4.3 km beeline distance from the confluence point, but the height difference is 1100 m between both locations, with Gandellino being 680 m above sea level. An approach from Tezzi (1000 m msl), Nona (1300 m msl) or Lizzola (1300 msl) would probably less exhausting, but we were actually looking forward to having some exercise.

At 9:30 a.m. we started the hike. First we walked to the village of Tezzi and continued in a beautiful forested valley upwards. At a distance of 1 km we left the signposted mountain trails and started a cross country hike. The confluence is just at the treeline, so the terrain is mostly covered with meadows and little trees.

The particularity of the confluence is its location in a steep canyon. There is a stream in the valley bottom, but since it hadn’t rained for a while, it was no problem to follow the canyon upwards. At one point in the valley, we measured a distance of 10 m to the confluence. But this was not sufficiently close enough for me, so I started to climb the steep valley side. This required using both hands – therefore I put my GPS receiver and my camera in my pockets of my pants. It took quite a while until I had reached the spot and had a sufficiently high number of zeros lined up in the GPS display. But when I wanted to take the pictures, there wasn’t any camera in my pockets anymore...

The search began. I started searching for the camera from the top, and Elionora from the bottom. Actually, the search was almost hopeless, considering the high grass and difficult-to-access valley flank. However, to our relief, Elionora found the lost camera deep in the grass 10 minutes later. Now I was able to document the confluence point. The cardinal direction pictures are taken 7 m from the closest location in order to get meaningful views (and not just underbrush).

We continued our hike upwards, crossed a mountain pass, descended to Lizzola and walked back in the Seriana Valley to Gandellino. This was a long day indeed. We stayed the night in the next town Ardesio, where we enjoyed great Italian food.

CP Visit Details:

• Distance to an asphalt road: 2.7 km
• Distance to a footpath: ca. 500 m
• Distance of parking the car: 4.3 km
• Distance to houses: 2.7 km
• Time starting the hike: 9:30 a.m.
• Time at the CP: 2:44 p.m.
• Hiking time from Gandellino: 5 hours
• Measured height: 1747 m
• Minimal distance according to GPS: 3 m
• Position accuracy at the CP: 6 m
• Topography: Close to the bottom of a steep canyon.
• Vegetation: Fraxinus trees, bushes, high grass, flowers, ferns.
• Weather: fine, 20° C (felt temperature)
• Description of the CP: In Italy’s region Lombardy, in the province Bergamo. Two thirds up the mountain (between the valley at 600 m msl and the mountains peaks at 2300 m msl)
• Given Name: The Lost Camera Confluence

In the Parco delle Orobie Bergamasche.