Hike to Capanna Albagno on Monte Carasso

Monday June 1, 2026 -- After a long heat wave, the weather in the North has become rainy and cold again, and on this Wednesday, as is often the case, the weather was nice in the Ticino. BUT the temperatures were around 30-32 degrees, much too hot for a standard trip to the region!

So what we did was go up high! In the Ticino there is not a lot of cable-car access to the higher altitudes, and also not a lot of buses, so if you want to go high, you have to hike quite a bit, also too hot to do this right now.

But near Bellinzona on a mountain called Monte Carasso is a cable-car which accesses a couple of very lovely mountain villages, and from the summit station at Mornera, you can then hike up to a mountain hostel called Capanna Albagno, a hike we have long wanted to do. And as the cable car is closed on Wednesday mornings from 8-10 a.m. for revision, this Monday was a good time to do this. 

To get to the hostel, we had to hike over 500 meters uphill, which went quite well and the air temperature was perfect for this. There were great views into the Bellinzona and Magadino regions as well as the Mesocco Valley, and we also enjoyed the first alpine roses. But returning to the cable-car station (the second of three on this hillside) we walked over two hours strictly through the forest, which in the Ticino can be strenuous due to rocky paths and lots of downhill. Even though this ended up making our hike well over four hours, we didn't want to return the same way we came. 

It was only a two-hour trip by train and bus, plus a bit of walking to get to the base station of the Monte Carasso-Mornera cable-way. Having left home at just after 7 a.m., we got here at 9:10. You have to buy your ticket (including scheduling your return) at a machine here, and it took us a while to figure it out, so we skipped the 9:15 run. 

At 9:30, our little cabin is approaching for the approx. 12-minute ride up to Mornera. 

View over the Riviera region and Magadino Plain as the cable-car starts on its way up the mountain. 

We get a good view of the Tibetan suspension bridge (Carasc) across the Sementina Valley, which we crossed in March 2016. 

Between the base station and Mornera are two more stops, where you have to climb a ramp and board the cable-car. We have just passed the Pientina stop, one below the end, where we are going to board the cable-car at the end of our hike. 

Another view of the Magadino Plain before we reach the top. 

Passing the first houses in Mornera. The summit station is quite a bit higher up (in the red circle), where there is also a restaurant and a small chapel. 

From the top station of the Mornera cable-way, it takes an hour and 40 minutes to hike up to the Albagno Hostel. 

A short distance above the restaurant / upper cable-car is this outdoor chapel. 

Before heading out on our hike, we watched the next cable-car arrive at 9:55. 

We started at about 10 a.m. from Mornera, and reached the Hostel at just after noon. The return trail in the Valle di Gorduno and back to Pientina took us over three hours. 

Shortly after the start of the hike, we reached a little lake and open plateau with benches, picnic tables, and always welcome: A water fountain. 

The little lake just above Mornera. 

Much of our ascent was along a trail such as this one, in the shade of the forest, so a very comfortable walk. We avoided the heat of the valley this way. 

Up ahead on the jagged peak is a Via Ferrata trail  ("dei tre signori" = "of the three men"). There were no other people here this day besides us. 

A close-up look at the peaks of the "Tre Signori", with part of the Via Ferrata structure. This is for very adventurous hikers! (The regular hiking trail passes by here with three different accesses). 

View down to the Magadino Plain, to near where the Ticino River enters Lago Maggiore. In the far back, you can just make out Lake Lugano. 

View down the Sementina Valley. 

Rounding a corner now, we look down into the Valle di Gorduno, where we will be descending later, but not on the side we can see from here, but rather directly below us. 

We were surprised to see the first alpine roses! 

A look at the "Tre Signori" peaks from above. You can just make out a rope bridge between the peaks. 

Close-up view of the rope bridge in the Via Ferrata 

View down into the Mesocco Valley. The whole hillside is full of alpine rose bushes. Can you imagine how pretty it will look when they are all flowering?

A short break before reaching the alpine hostel. 

View to the south

Another view down the Valle di Gorduno into the Mesocco Valley. Later we are going to walk through the forested section on the right, i.e. the south side of this valley. 

Heading into the back of the valley. 

At noon we reached the Albagno Hostel. At this point the only other person we met this day came jogging up the trail and took a break here as well!

There were several picnic tables here, so we ate our sandwiches here before having a look into the hostel. For Urs, it was too hot in the sunshine! At the back is a peak with a cross on it, called Gaggio, and you can actually hike up there. 

We observed this very cool bird, called a "Ring Ouzel" (Ringdrossel in German), a high-altitude species of thrush which breeds in open mountain areas. 

After a 40-minute break, we checked out the interior of the hostel before continuing on our hike. The hostel is open but not manned during the week, but you can overnight here and get food and drinks, and pay on the honesty principle. 

Details of the Albagno hostel. You can stay here even if there are no hosts, and cook your own food. There were surprisingly many sleeping areas, about 30 "beds", although quite close to each other. 

Before heading back down, we continued a bit further along the mountain trail to see how the hostel is perched on the side of this cliff with an almost vertical drop into the Sementina Valley. 

Heading back toward the main trail for the return hike to the cable-car. 

Heading back to the hostel to start on our hike down the hill and back out of the valley. 

Close-up view to the south, we can see Lake Lugano from here.

This trail marker is pointing in the wrong direction! It should be pointing to the left, down the hill. Nevertheless, it is about 2½ hours to return to Mornera this way (about the same amount of time to the lower cable-car tower where we are headed). It took us three hours. 

Heading down the Gorduno Valley now, where we will be walking for about two hours through the forest on the right, till we are above Bellinzona. 

More flowering alpine roses as we head down the valley. 

Also some butterflies... 

Some typical stone houses for this region. This is called Alpe Cassengo. 

A final look above us before we head into the forest. It took us about 30 minutes to get down to here, and then about another 90 minutes through the forest. 

For about 90 minutes we walked along forest trails like this before finally reaching a clearing at Monda above Bellinzona. It was pleasant walking here in the shade with sunshine through the trees, but a little strenuous with no views and quite a bit of downhill sections. 

We finally reached the first clearing at 15:20, after over 90 minutes on the forest trail! (Side note: When we purchased our cable-car tickets at the base station, we had to schedule our return trip at that time. 3 p.m. and 3:15 p.m. were not available, so we just blindly picked 3:30 p.m., without considering how long it would take us. As we now still had at least 45 minutes more to go, we called the cable-car operator to try to reserve 4:15 p.m., or even 4:30, and he said, "No Problem, no problem, whenever you get here is OK".... well that turned out differently than expected....)

Some great views down to the city of Bellinzona and Arbedo, plus the entrance to the Mesocco Valley. 

Zig-zag down the mountain here, on an easier trail. We had been on this section once before in March 2019 when we hiked down from the Mornera Cable-Car station. 

We were rushing to make the 16:15 cable-car, so didn't stop here at this lovely bench with a fantastic view.... unfortunately, as we discovered later. 

Down below, a close-up view of two of Bellinzona's castles: "Castel Grande" in the center of town, and "Castello di Montebello" slightly higher up on the hill. 

And a view further to the south, toward the Magadino Plain. The green stripe in the center is the Ticino River, heading toward Lago Maggiore. 

Lovely panorama view from the bench on the hill. 

VIDEO:

Panorama View over Mesocco Valley and Bellinzona

After another longer section through the forest, we reach the final community before the cable-car station. It's called Pientina. This is a look behind us where we left the forest trail. 

What a lovely place here on this hillside, so easily accessible with the cable-way!

... so the rest of the story of the cable-car. We got here before 4:15 p.m., as we had rushed to get here, then Urs phoned the operator to let him know that we were here and would like to be picked up by the cable car. You know what he said? "Sorry, can't stop for this run, and probably also not the 4:30, but "most likely" for sure 4:45!!!!" After telling us to just call whenever we got there, instead of telling us that those two times were not available. We would have spent more time on the view bench. Had to wait 30 minutes here instead.)

Watching the 16:15 run pass us at full speed without stopping, but also with no one inside! Turns out that lower down, at the next stop, there were people working in the mountain village and it was end of business day for them, and they were loading their equipment to go down and head home, and there would not have been room for their stuff had we also been in the cable-car. 

At least we had some sunshine here, and also enough shady spots to wait, next to the ramp.

At 16:31 the next cable-car approaches from Mornera, and we are waiting in the hopes that it would stop, but it also did not. 

Finally at 16:47, after waiting here for 35 minutes, we were able to board here on the tower. (Side note: as a result, we no longer had good bus and train connections, so it took us much longer to get home than we had planned on). 

Down below is the little village of Curzútt where there was work going on, and the reason we couldn't board earlier higher up. We have explored this lovely village on two other occasions when we were up here, once when we crossed the suspension bridge over the Sementina Valley in March 2016, and another time when we walked up to here from the valley bottom in December 2020. 

Two other passengers got onto the cable-car at the Curzútt tower.  

Arriving back at the base station in Sementina at just before 5 p.m. Due to the long delay we had at the top, we no longer had good bus and train connections, and had to wait another 30 minutes in Bellinzona. (And additional to that, our train ran late and I missed my connection in Arth-Goldau, and had to wait another 30 minutes there as well. Not a great day for connections!)

Starting in Mornera, we hiked up to Capanna Albagno, and then back via Valle di Gorduno to one of the middle cable-car stations (Pientina). Back in March of 2019 we also started in Mornera and ended at the Pientina tower, but hiking further down (purple trail). 

Location of Monte Carasso within Switzerland.