Ristorante Pietofana - Cima Formenton

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 Videm / Udine to the Tolmezzo exit. From Tolmezzo we follow the road in the direction of the village Ampezzo and mountain pass Passo della Mauria. The road then descends and brings us to an intersection, where we continue left (also right possible) in the direction of Cortina d'Ampezzo. At all following intersections, 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 an intersection where a narrower road branches off to the right towards the restaurant Pie Tofana and mountain hut Col Druscie. The intersection is located in the lower part of the road towards the pass Passo Falzarego. At the mentioned intersection, we continue right and follow the asphalt road all the way to the larger parking lot at the restaurant Pietofana.
From Primorska: 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 at the next intersections we continue 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, which is 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 ascends through the forest for quite some time, so the view is quite limited. Later, the path crosses a ski slope and starts ascending through the dwarf pines. Here, increasingly beautiful views of the surrounding peaks begin to open up and the path soon brings us from the dwarf pines to the scree. The path then turns slightly right and crosses the scree in ascent. Such a path brings us to a ski slope which we then ascend. The ski slope further becomes quite steep and due to the scree on the path some caution is required. Higher up, the ski slope turns left, then the footpath briefly leaves 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 left branches off the path along the ski slope towards the hut Ra Valles.
We continue slightly right and cross the slope towards the walls of the peaks Tofana di Mezzo and Tofana di Dentro. The path then ascends diagonally for some time and soon we enter the nature park Parco Naturale delle Dolomiti d'Ampezzo. The path then continues 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 slopes below the walls of the peak Tofana di Dentro. The path through 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 the steep slope upwards in steep zigzags. The slope here is quite steep and occasionally a steel cable assists us. The path then turns right and follows a slightly exposed traverse 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 leave the marked path towards Tofana di Dentro and turn right towards the summit Cima Formenton. The path from the saddle is not marked but is relatively easy. All the time we walk along the ridge past numerous military ruins from the time of the First World War. Along such a path we soon reach the panoramic summit.

On the way: Forcella Ra Valles (2300m)