Lago delle Locce

At 2,380 metres, on a terrace beneath the east face of Monte Rosa, Lago delle Locce lies near the Ghiacciaio delle Locce and the Belvedere glacier.

Why it matters

The lake occupies a depression in the Belvedere glacier's moraine and is partly bordered by ice. Lower down, Lago Effimero was first reported in June 2002 and later expanded before shrinking. The official account attributes changes in these basins to movement and surges of the Belvedere glacier. The east wall of Monte Rosa rises above the terrace; the Dufourspitze reaches 4,634 metres, and glacial sediment and light affect the lake's colour.

What to notice

The water's colour can range from green to pale blue or milky, depending on light and glacial sediment. Parts of the shoreline meet ice and moraine; the official page notes that small icebergs may drift across the lake. The east wall of Monte Rosa rises above the basin, and Lago Effimero below has changed in size since its 2002 peak. A Civil Protection pipeline was built to regulate its level.

Context and history

Macugnaga developed at the base of the east wall of Monte Rosa, and its high country was first crossed by shepherds, hunters, miners and then by the pioneers of alpinism who came to study and climb the massif in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries — the same era in which Horace-Bénédict de Saussure visited the valley. The Locce basin itself is a child of the Little Ice Age moraines; the wider glacial system became famous after 2002, when the sudden Lago Effimero prompted interventions by the Italian Department of Civil Protection, which installed a pipeline to lower water levels slowly. The lake was never fully drained, and its size continues to change with the glacier. The nearby Zamboni-Zappa refuge is part of the historical and mountaineering landscape of Valle Pedriola.