Passo Gardena - Gran Cir / Große Cirspitze

Access to starting point:
A) From Kranjska Gora over Korensko sedlo into Austria, where at the first larger intersection we continue left towards Podklošter / Arnoldstein and Trbiž / Tarvisio. At the end of the settlement Podklošter signs for Šmohor / Hermagor direct us right onto a regional road, along 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 crossing 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 the 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 into Italy and further on the highway to the settlement Portogruaro, where at the highway fork we turn in the direction of the settlement Belluno. We follow the highway to its end (we do not turn in the direction towards the settlement Belluno), then we continue the drive 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 adjacent 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 Passo Gardena pass we head north on the footpath following the signs »Vie Ferrate Grande e Piccola Cir«. The path leads us across grassy slopes from which there is a wonderful view of the Sella mountain group to the south and towards Sassolungo to the west. The path across grassy slopes then soon brings us to the road. To the right along the road the path leads towards the Jimmy Hütte hut, we however continue slightly left and again head onto the footpath following the signs »Cir«. The path then continues ascending across grassy slopes towards the walls of the Gran Cir peak. Higher the path brings us to a junction where we enter the Puez-Odle nature park. Here from the right also joins the path past the Jimmy Hütte hut.
We continue slightly left and begin ascending towards the wide gully on the west side of the Gran Cir mountain. Grassy slopes are replaced by scree across which we ascend to the beginning of the gully.
Before entering the gully we equip ourselves with a helmet and the ascent up the gully follows. For some time we still ascend up the gully, then on the right side we will notice the beginning of the protected path. A quite short and not overly demanding protected path brings us to the southern slopes of the mountain.
Further we then ascend mostly quite a steep slope, which mostly is not protected and therefore some caution is needed. Later follows a shorter protected ascent along the steel cable, then across the unprotected slope we soon reach the summit.