Rifugio Gardeccia - Rifugio Passo Principe / Grasleitenpasshütte

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 (a little after Spittal the highway ends). Further, we drive on a relatively nice and wide road through the Drava Valley, which brings us into Italy. The road further leads past Dobbiaco / Toblach and Brunico / Bruneck. Only a little after the last-mentioned town, past which a bypass road leads, we turn left into the Val Badia valley. Further, we drive through the mentioned valley past the places La Villa 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 with a minibus to the mountain hut Rifugio Gardeccia. The price of the return ticket is 10€ (July 2015). The minibus starts driving at 7:00, the last drive from the mountain hut Gardeccia is at 19:00. The road to the hut is otherwise closed for public traffic.
From the Primorska side: From Nova Gorica, we drive to Italy and continue on the highway towards Venice / Venezia. At the place 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 the smaller roundabout in the place Belluno we then continue right towards the place Agordo. We follow this road all the way to the place Moena in the Val di Fassa valley. In the place Moena we then continue right towards the place Canazei, but only 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 with a minibus to the mountain hut Rifugio Gardeccia. The price of the return ticket is 10€ (July 2015). The minibus starts driving at 7:00, the last drive from the mountain hut Gardeccia is at 19:00. The road to the hut is otherwise closed for public traffic.

Path description:
From the mountain hut Rifugio Gardeccia we head on a macadam road towards the mountain hut Vajolet. The road first leads us past the mountain hut Rifugio Stella Alpina and brings us into a thin forest. Here the road ascends a little, and the thin forest quickly ends and a view opens up towards the mountain hut Rifugio Preuss, which is clearly visible on the top of the cliff. Near the mentioned mountain hut is also situated the mountain hut Rifugio Vajolet. The panoramic road then for some time becomes flatter, then turns left below the slopes of the peak Cima Catinaccio and starts to ascend a little steeper. The road then ascends all the way to the mountain hut Rifugio Vajolet from where there is a very nice view towards the towers Torri del Vajolet.
A little after the mountain hut the path Sentiero Don Guido branches off to the right towards the summit Cima Scalieret, and we continue on a relatively wide path towards the mountain hut Rifugio Passo Principe. The path then soon brings us to another marked junction. This time a path branches off to the left upwards towards the huts Rifugio Re Alberto and Rifugio Passo Santner. We continue on the quite gentle path 584 towards the mountain hut Rifugio Passo Principe. The path here all the time runs towards the north through the valley Val di Vajolet and an increasingly beautiful view towards the highest summit in the mountain group Catinaccio d'Antermoia (Kesselkogel) starts to open up. At the end of the valley the slope becomes slightly steeper, but the ascent is not difficult. On the wide path we then soon reach the mountain hut Passo Principe, which is situated on the eponymous saddle on the western side of the peak Catinaccio d'Antermoia.

On the way: Rifugio Stella Alpina (1960m), Rifugio Preuss (2243m), Rifugio Vajolet (2243m)

Trip can be extended to: Cima Scalieret (1 h) , Catinaccio d'Antermoia / Kesselkogel