Lago d'Efra

In Val Verzasca, we spent two nights at the end of the road in Sonogno, a small but relatively swanky village, as manifested by its adequate street lighting, tidily cobblestoned roads, and open-air ice hockey rink. On Friday, we parked the car one village to the south, in Frasco, and hiked from the church up to Lago d'Efra on Alpe dell'Efra. Even frozen, the tarn was a radiant glacial blue.

We started our trek mid-morning and were in the shadow of the mountain until the early afternoon. We hit shade again as we approached the final ridge before the lake. At lower elevations, the shade just meant a little less light; at the higher elevation, it meant the trail was slick with ice and ice-glazed snow. Elias, who is part mountain goat, remained upright and on two feet on the icy part of the steep descent, as did Stefan; I, on the other hand, chose a proactive approach and cleverly cheated gravity by lowering my center of mass from the get-go.

Elias is developing a good eye and steady hand for photos; the shot of the twisted trees is his.