Rifugio Gardeccia - Catinaccio d'Antermoia / Kesselkogel (via Passo di Antermoia)

Access to starting point:
Access from Gorenjska: Through the Karawanks Tunnel, we drive to Austria, and then we continue driving towards Spittal and further towards Lienz (just after Spittal the highway ends). Further, we drive on a relatively nice and wide road through the Drau valley, which brings us to Italy. The road further leads past Dobbiaco / Toblach and Brunico / Bruneck. Just a little after the last-mentioned town, past which a bypass leads, we turn left into the Val Badia valley. Further, we drive through the mentioned valley past the places La Vila and Corvara. Next follows an ascent over the passes Passo Campolongo and Passo Pordoi. From the pass Passo Pordoi, we then descend on the west side into the Val di Fassa valley. We continue to the place Pera di Fassa where we park on a large parking lot at the bottom station of the chairlift »Pera Vajolet 1«.
From here there is organized transport by minibus to the hut Rifugio Gardeccia. The price of the return ticket is 10€ (July 2015). The minibus starts at 7:00, the last drive from the hut Gardeccia is at 19:00. The road to the hut is otherwise closed to public traffic.
From the Primorska side: From Nova Gorica, we drive to Italy and continue on the highway towards Venice / Venezia. Near Portogruaro we leave the highway towards Venice and continue right on the highway towards Pordenone. At the next highway junction near Conegliano, we continue right towards Belluno. We follow the highway to the exit for Belluno. When we leave the highway we come to a larger roundabout, which we leave at the exit for Belluno and the place Feltre. In a smaller roundabout in Belluno we then continue right towards Agordo. We follow this road all the way to Moena in the Val di Fassa valley. In Moena we then continue right towards Canazei, but only to Pera di Fassa where we park on a large parking lot at the bottom station of the chairlift »Pera Vajolet 1«.
From here there is organized transport by minibus to the hut Rifugio Gardeccia. The price of the return ticket is 10€ (July 2015). The minibus starts at 7:00, the last drive from the hut Gardeccia is at 19:00. The road to the hut is otherwise closed to public traffic.

Route description:
From the hut Rifugio Gardeccia we head on a macadam road towards the hut Vajolet. The road first leads past the hut Rifugio Stella Alpina and brings us into a thin forest. Here the road ascends slightly, the thin forest quickly ends and a view opens towards the hut Rifugio Preuss, which is clearly visible on top of the cliff. Next to the mentioned hut there is also the hut Rifugio Vajolet. The panoramic road then becomes gentler for a while, then turns left below the slopes of the peak Cima Catinaccio and starts to ascend somewhat more steeply. The road then ascends all the way to the hut Rifugio Vajolet from where there is a very nice view towards the towers Torri del Vajolet.
A little after the hut, the path Sentiero Don Guido branches off to the right towards the peak Cima Scalieret, we continue on a relatively wide path towards the hut Rifugio Passo Principe. The path soon brings us to another marked junction. This time the path branches off to the left upwards towards the huts Rifugio Re Alberto and Rifugio Passo Santner. We continue on the fairly gentle path 584 towards the hut Rifugio Passo Principe. Here the path constantly runs north through the Val di Vajolet valley and an increasingly beautiful view towards the highest peak in the mountain group Catinaccio d'Antermoia (Kesselkogel) begins to open up. At the end of the valley the slope becomes slightly steeper, but the ascent is not difficult. Along the wide path we soon reach the Passo Principe hut, located on the eponymous saddle on the western side of the peak Catinaccio d'Antermoia.
From the hut we continue on path 584 towards the Passo di Antermoia saddle. The path from the hut first crosses scree slopes below the walls of the peak Catinaccio d'Antermoia then starts to ascend quite steeply. Here on the path there is quite a lot of scree and otherwise this section of the path is in somewhat poorer condition. When we reach an indistinct saddle on the south side of the peak the steepness eases slightly and then we cross the slopes in a gentle ascent towards the Passo di Antermoia saddle. A little before the saddle an unmarked path branches off to the right towards the peak Cima Scalieret.
From the Passo di Antermoia saddle we descend to the north side and soon we will reach a somewhat poorly marked junction. Here we head slightly left onto the less trodden path that crosses scree, slightly right downwards the path leads towards the hut Rifugio Antermoia.
After crossing the scree the path becomes somewhat more demanding and further we ascend quite steeply a few times with the aid of steel cables. The path then turns slightly left and becomes less demanding. Follows an ascent towards the northeastern slopes of the mountain where we re-enter the secured section of the path.
The path mostly ascends moderately along the steel cable, in between there are two short steep ascents where a ladder assists us. The path then turns slightly left and ascends transversely for a while. Later the path starts to ascend even more steeply, throughout aided by steel cables. Such a path then continues all the way to the ridge from where the view towards the summit opens. On the ridge we continue right and soon reach the panoramic summit.
We descend via the ascent path or continue on the marked path that runs along the western side of the mountain directly towards the Passo Principe hut.

Along the route: Rifugio Stella Alpina (1960m), Rifugio Preuss (2243m), Rifugio Vajolet (2243m), Rifugio Passo Principe / Grasleitenpasshütte (2601m), Passo di Antermoia (2770m)

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