Passo Gardena - Col de Puez / Puezkofel

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. At the end of the settlement Podklošter signs for Šmohor / Hermagor point us right onto a regional road, on which past the mentioned settlement we drive to the end of the Gailtal valley, or more precisely to the settlement Kötschach-Mauthen, where we turn right towards the settlement Oberdrauburg. The route ahead leads us over the Alpine pass Gailbergsattel (982 m), after which we descend into the mentioned settlement. After we cross the bridge over the 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 / Bruneck. Only a little after the last-mentioned settlement, past which a bypass road leads, we turn left into the Alta Badia valley. Further, we drive through the mentioned valley and in the settlement La Villa we turn right towards the pass Passo Gardena. Further, we follow the ascending road all the way to the pass Passo Gardena where we park on a paid parking lot (4€ – June 2012).
B) From Nova Gorica we drive to Italy and further 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 arrive in Cortina d'Ampezzo, we follow the signs for the Alpine pass Passo Falzarego. At the pass Passo Falzarego (2105 m) we turn right in the direction of Alta Badia and first ascend to the neighbouring pass Passo Valparola (2192 m), from there we descend into the mentioned valley. In the settlement La Villa we turn left towards the pass Passo Gardena. Further, we follow the ascending road all the way to the pass Passo Gardena where we park on a paid parking lot (4€ – June 2012).

Path description:
From the pass Passo Gardena we head north on the footpath following the signs »Baita Jimmy Hütte«. The path leads us along grassy slopes from which there is a wonderful view of the mountain group Sella to the south and towards Sassolungo to the west. The path along the grassy slopes soon brings us to a road. We continue right on the gravel road, which we follow all the way to the hut Jimmy Hütte.
From the hut we continue on the footpath towards the northeast and begin to ascend through the dwarf pines. The path soon brings us out of the dwarf pines and continues relatively steeply ascending. Higher up the path turns left and follows the ascent to the notch Forcella Cier where a view opens to the north.
On the saddle we cross the fence, then in a gentle descent we cross the scree. Such a path then brings us to a marked junction where the path from the valley Val de Chedul joins from the left.
From the junction the path begins to ascend gently again and continues crossing the slopes towards the northeast. Later the path turns slightly left and follows a somewhat steeper ascent to the notch Forcella de Crespeina.
On the notch where a view opens on a larger part of the mountain group Puez we continue straight ahead, to the right the path leads over the summit Sas Ciampac. The path then begins to descend and brings us to somewhat flatter grassy terrain. From the path we have a nice view of the lake Lech de Crespeina and on Sas Ciampac. Our path then for a short time ascends somewhat more steeply again, then a relatively flat path brings us to a junction, where the path over the summit Sas Ciampac joins from the right.
The path continues to descend slightly and brings us to yet another junction. To the right downward leads the path towards the settlement Calfosch, to the left leads the path into the valley Langental, we continue straight following the signs »Puezhütte«.
The path shortly after the junction turns left and begins to ascend gently towards the north. The relatively flat path later brings us to another junction, where the path to Sassongher branches off to the right.
Here the path turns somewhat to the left again and ahead of us we can already see the flag located near the hut. The panoramic path remains flat and soon brings us to the hut, which is located on grassy slopes below the summit Puezkofel.
At the hut we continue west following the signs »Pizes de Puez, Puezspitz«. After a few tens of meters we reach another junction where path number 2 branches off to the left towards the valley Langental. We continue slightly right and begin to ascend more steeply. The path brings us to a short ridge which takes us below the southern slopes of the summit Col de Puez. Here the path turns left and then crosses steep slopes towards the northwest for a while. The slopes are quite steep in places, and there is some gravel on the path, so caution is needed on this section. Such a path then brings us to the west side of the summit Col de Puez where there is also a somewhat poorly visible junction.
To the left a marked path leads towards the summit Piz de Puez, we head right onto the unmarked path towards the summit Col de Puez. Here the path runs along the western slope of the mountain, which is not overly steep. The path is not particularly well-trodden but we can follow it without difficulty all the way to the summit.

On the way: Jimmy Hütte (2222m), Forcella Cier (2469m), Forcella de Crespeina (2528m), Forcella de Ciampei (2366m), Rifugio Puez (2475m)