Almost all Swiss huts offer the option of spending the night in a heated room outside of maintenance times - a perfect base camp with a high soul factor. The food you've hauled up yourself tastes excellent, the effect of beer and wine on a body exhausted from the ascent and, last but not least, the crackling of the fire in the stove make for wellness time on the mountain. But winter rooms are not a matter of course, so leave everything as you found it so that the next group doesn't have to scrape pasta leftovers out of the pan.
The next day, we set off at the crack of dawn over wide, steep slopes and a technical couloir that wasn't exactly easy up to the summit of Campo Tencia. As soon as we reached the top, the light unfortunately became flat and diffuse - the front from the west had caught up with us. No matter, the untracked powder in the huge north flank made us cheer!
Route to Campo Tencia: Ascent via route K1, descent directly from the east summit via the north-east flank to route K2 (not marked on the map.....there is still sooooo much to discover!)
More info: Ski&Snowboard Touring Atlas Switzerland, Area 26 Alta Leventina, www.helveticbackcountry.ch
