Passo Gardena - Gran Cir / Große Cirspitze

Access to starting point:
A) From Kranjska Gora over Korensko sedlo to Austria, where at the first larger crossroad, we continue left towards Podklošter / Arnoldstein and Trbiž / Tarvisio. By the end of the settlement Podklošter signs for Šmohor / Hermagor point us to the right on a regional road, on which past the mentioned settlement we drive to the end of the valley Gailtal, or more precisely to the settlement Kötschach-Mauthen, where we turn right towards the settlement Oberdrauburg. The path ahead leads us over an Alpine mountain pass Gailbergsattel (982 meters), after which we descend into the mentioned settlement. After we cross the bridge through river Drau, we continue left towards the settlement Lienz. In the main roundabout in Lienz we continue "left" in the direction of the settlement Sillian and Italy. Further, we cross the border between Austria and Italy, and we follow the main road past settlements Dobbiaco / Toblach, Villabassa / Niederdorf, Monguelfo - Tesido / Welsberg - Taisten, Brunico / Brunec. Only a little after the last-mentioned settlement, past which leads a bypass road, we turn left into a valley Val Badia. Further, we drive through the mentioned valley and in the settlement La Villa we turn right towards the mountain pass Passo Gardena. Further, we follow an ascending road all the way to mountain pass Passo Gardena where we park on a payable parking lot (4€ – June 2012).
B) From Nova Gorica, we drive to Italy and drive forward on the highway to the settlement Portogruaro, where at the highway junction we turn in the direction of the settlement Belluno. We follow the highway to its end (we don't turn in the direction towards Belluno), and then we continue driving towards Cortina d'Ampezzo. When we get into Cortina d'Ampezzo, we follow the signs for Alpine mountain pass Passo Falzarego. On the mountain pass Passo Falzarego (2105 meters) we turn right in the direction of Val Badia and at first ascend on the neighbouring mountain pass Passo Valparola (2192 meters), from there we descend into the mentioned valley. In the settlement La Villa we turn left towards the mountain pass Passo Gardena. Further, we follow an ascending road all the way to mountain pass Passo Gardena where we park on a payable parking lot (4€ – June 2012).

Path description:
From the mountain pass Passo Gardena we go towards the north on a footpath following the signs »Vie Ferrate Grande e Piccola Cir«. The path leads us on grassy slopes from which is a breathtaking view on a mountain group Sella on the south and towards Sassolungo on the west. The path on grassy slopes then soon brings us on the road. Right on the road leads the path towards the mountain hut Jimmy Hütte, and we continue slightly left and we again go on a footpath following the signs »Cir«. The path is then still ascending on grassy slopes towards the walls of the peak Gran Cir. Higher, the path brings us to a crossing where we enter the nature park Puez Odle. Here from the right joins also the path past the mountain hut Jimmy Hütte.
We continue slightly left and we start ascending towards wide gully on the west side of the mountain Gran Cir. Grassy slopes are replaced by scree on which we ascend to the beginning of gully.
In front of the entry into a gully, we equip ourselves with a helmet and then follows an ascent through the gully. For some time we are still ascending through the gully, and then we will on the right side notice the beginning of the secured path. Considerably short and not too demanding secured path brings us on the southern slopes of the mountain.
Further, we are ascending on mostly quite steep slope, which mostly isn't secured and that is why some caution is needed. Later follows a shorter secured ascent by the steel cable, after that on unsecured slope we soon reach the peak.