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Monte Baldo

bagi7. 11. 2017 11:42:18

The Monte Baldo range is a long ridge that almost entirely bounds one side of Lake Garda. Interestingly, there's no peak with that name in the ridge at all, similar to our Begunjščica and many other places. The range consists of several more or less pronounced peaks, most of which reach over 2000 m, and towards the south their height gradually drops. Almost the entire range is linked by the high alpine path *Alta via del Monte Baldo* marked 651.

We chose the gondola in Malcesine as our starting point, which pulled us up to the ridge in the morning.

Link … http://funiviedelbaldo.it/it/funivia/

For info … the one-way ticket price is 30% cheaper until 9 a.m. due to lazy Italians, full-day parking in the underground garage or immediate surroundings is 10 €. For the return we used the bus line connecting all major towns along the coast.

Link … http://www.visitgarda.com/upload/files/ATV184(1).pdf

Signs for continuing the path are right at the top gondola station. You need to stick to the 651 markers, which reliably guide you along the path. Ridge walking goes a bit up, a bit down, and around. Views are wonderful all the time and hours pass incredibly quickly. The path is mostly an old mule track and leads over several peaks, without issues you can add some extra ones nasmeh

.

There are three huts on the path. The Gaetano Barana and Fiori del Baldo huts are pleasant and tidy, the Chierego hut is best avoided due to neglect. Officially it's closed, but in reality it's open. When we passed by it we immediately remembered our Corsican adventures on the GR20 path.

Descent is possible at several locations, but we decided to traverse some more interesting but unmarked hillocks and knobs continuing from the Fiori del Baldo hut. We were fast and the day was nice. We said why not, but that would soon backfire on descent velik nasmeh

.

When we'd traversed all we thought, we started descending on path 64. But we had to descend far, far and overcome huge elevation difference to the lake. The problem was also the poorly marked and moreover unkempt path we aimed for. Obviously only a few people descend here all year and we were two Slovenes among them zavijanje z očmi

.

Due to the short day we had to hurry and luckily finished just as dusk fell. As a reward we caught the last bus in our direction nasmeh

.

Some useful data:

Start: Malcesine …. 45°45'60.0"N / 10°48'46.6"E (Google Maps_Android)
Length: 34 km / ascent on path: 1400 m / descent on path: 2900 m
Duration: 11 hours

Monte Baldo Upper station. Gondola takes you from Malcesin to the ridge from 8 o'clock onwards

Monte Baldo Here it is usually full of tourists, but not before 9 o'clock :)

Monte Baldo Despite its exceptional location this tourist facility has seen better days

Monte Baldo Sheep at the morning assembly

Monte Baldo Initial markings. Our path went in direction 651 - Rif. Telegrafo

Monte Baldo The weather was wonderful, the views matching, the enthusiasm too

Monte Baldo Ridgeside peak soon after the start. Tourists reach this far, but not much longer

Monte Baldo Lake Garda in the direction towards Riva del Garda (Dolomites in the background).

Monte Baldo Lake Garda also in the opposite direction towards Garda.

Monte Baldo Cima del Dritta, one of the nicer peaks. A nice mule track leads to it.

Monte Baldo Ridge. The path mostly runs a little below it.

Monte Baldo Another of the peaks on our route. The day was unusually warm after the morning frost.

Monte Baldo The ridge had been sprinkled with snow a few days earlier, but there were no problems because of it.

Monte Baldo Old military mule track that runs along most of the ridge.

Monte Baldo That's the direction we're going. There in the snowy rocks runs the well-known ferrata Taccol.

Monte Baldo On Monte Telegrafo. There are quite a few telegraphs in the Garda area.

Monte Baldo Right below Monte Telegrafo is the first hut on the path - Rifugio Gaetano Barana.

Monte Baldo The hut is at an excellent vantage point, high above Lake Garda.

Monte Baldo There were quite a few visitors. Most of us were sipping mulled wine.

Monte Baldo New peak, already interesting views.

Monte Baldo Here the ridge reaches 2000 m for the last time.

Monte Baldo Each tile has inscribed the peak that can be seen in its direction.

Monte Baldo ... and we continue along the ridge.

Monte Baldo These inviting hillocks in the distance are not marked, but a nice path still leads over them.

Monte Baldo Rifugio Chierego, officially closed, unofficially open. Neglected, similar to most Corsican ones.

Monte Baldo Our continuation of the ridge outside marked paths. Because of it we were in time pressure in the evening.

Monte Baldo The entire ridge has kilometers of stone walls, probably because of livestock.

Monte Baldo We walk mostly along the fence.

Monte Baldo One of the unmarked summits.

Monte Baldo Just before the end of the ridge traverse. Under this little church the path turns right onto the marked variant.

Monte Baldo Here we start descending on path 64 towards the Zacchi pasture. The markers are extremely rare and faded further on.

Monte Baldo San Eustachio, a reference point from the map. So at least we knew we were going in the right direction.

Monte Baldo One of the rare signposts on the descent.

Monte Baldo The descent dragged on much longer than expected, darkness was already catching up with us.

Monte Baldo Lucky :) The last bus that day in our direction towards the morning starting point.

Monte Baldo Google's view of our traverse of the Monte Baldo ridge.

(+8)

Trobec8. 05. 2025 10:55:26

Second part of the May 1st vacation, after moving from Torbole to Malcesine nasmeh

The initial plan was roughly as described above by Emil. But there's still quite some snow on the ridge and winter gear would probably be necessary in a couple spots... which we didn't have, since we went "to the sea" zadrega

After some pondering I come up with a circular variant: by car to pasture Torvaj, on path 654 to Telegrafo, descent to start of path 55, crossing along it to pasture Valvaccara, descent on 56 and back to car.

https://trobec.blogspot.com/2025/05/prvomajsko-gardsko-jezero-2025-baldo.html