Ristorante Pietofana - Bivacco Baracca degli Alpini

Access to starting point:
Access from Gorenjska: Through the border crossings Rateče or Predel to Trbiž / Tarvisio and then on the highway in the direction of Vidma / Udine to the Tolmezzo exit. From Tolmezzo we follow the road in the direction of the village Ampezzo and the mountain pass Passo della Mauria. The road then descends and brings us to a crossroad, where we continue left (also right possible) in the direction of Cortina d'Ampezzo. At all following crossroads, we follow the signs for Cortina d'Ampezzo.
In Cortina d'Ampezzo we then follow the signs for the alpine pass Passo di Falzarego. We follow this ascending road to the crossroad where to the right branches off a narrower road towards the restaurant Pie Tofana and the hut Col Druscie. The crossroad is located in the lower part of the road towards the pass Passo Falzarego. At the mentioned crossroad we continue right and follow the asphalt road all the way to the larger parking lot at the restaurant Pietofana.
From the Primorska side: We drive on the highway towards Venice / Venezia. At 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. Near Belluno the highway ends, and we continue in the following junctions in the direction of Cortina d'Ampezzo. Further we follow the above description.

Path description:
From the parking lot we continue on the asphalt road and then turn left onto the macadam road following the signs «Rifugio Pomedes, Forcella Ra Valles». The macadam road, closed to traffic, starts to ascend and quickly brings us to a marked junction.
At the junction we leave the road and turn right onto the footpath following the signs «Forcella Ra Valles». The path then ascends through the forest for quite some time, so the view is quite limited. Later the path crosses a ski slope and starts to ascend through dwarf pines. Here increasingly beautiful views of the surrounding peaks begin to open up and the path soon brings us from the dwarf pines onto the scree. The path then turns slightly right and crosses the scree in ascent. This path brings us to a ski slope which we then ascend. The ski slope then becomes quite steep and due to the gravel on the path some caution is needed. Higher the ski slope turns left, then the footpath briefly moves away from the ski slope to the left side. When we rejoin the ski slope, only a short ascent remains to the notch Forcella Ra Valles from which a view opens towards Tofana di Mezzo and Tofana di Dentro.
From the notch where there is a marked junction we continue left on path 407. After a short ascent we reach a somewhat less visible junction where to the left the path along the ski slope towards the hut Ra Valles branches off.
We continue slightly right and cross the slope towards the walls of peaks Tofana di Mezzo and Tofana di Dentro. The path then ascends diagonally for some time and soon we enter the natural park Parco Naturale delle Dolomiti d'Ampezzo. The path then continues towards the north for some time and brings us to a marked junction.
To the right the path leads down the valley Canalon de Ra Ola, while we continue slightly left and ascend the scree below the walls of the peak Tofana di Dentro. The path across the scree brings us to military ruins from the First World War. Here we continue slightly right and the path through a window brings us to steeper slopes. The path then turns slightly left and mostly ascends in steep zigzags up the steep slope. The slope is quite steep here and occasionally a steel cable assists us. The path then turns right and a slightly exposed traverse follows, which brings us to the saddle on the south side of the peak Cima Formenton.
On the saddle where a view opens towards the west we continue left and then ascend the slope along the ridge. At some points a steel cable assists us, then the path turns slightly left and after the traverse brings us to the bivouac Baracca degli Alpini.

On the way: Forcella Ra Valles (2300m)

Trip can be extended to: Tofana di Dentro ( 50 min) , Tofana di Mezzo