Ristorante Pietofana - Rifugio Duca d'Aosta

Access to starting point:
Access from Gorenjska: Via the border crossing at 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 a narrower road branches off to the right 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 the town 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 at the next crossroads in the direction of Cortina d'Ampezzo. Further, 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, where the path towards the notch Forcella Ra Valles branches off to the right.
At the junction we continue straight on the road, which brings us out of the forest to the ski slope. Here we ascend for some time beside the cableway, then the road turns left across the ski slope. When the road crosses the ski slope, pay attention as our path branches off to the right onto the ski slope here. The trail on the ski slope is initially quite poorly visible and brings us back to the right side of the cableway. Further on, the path continues to ascend relatively steeply on the ski slope, the whole time running slightly to the right of the cableway. The fairly steep ski slope gradually turns to the left; later, when we approach the hut Rifugio Duca d'Aosta, it becomes gentler.
Here from the ski slope we turn left and only some easy walking remains to the hut, from which there is a nice view of the mountains above Cortina d'Ampezzo.
We can also reach the hut by chairlift.

Trip can be extended to: Rifugio Pomedes ( 35 min) , Ra Bujela , Rifugio Ra Valles (2 h 20 min) , Cima Formenton (3 h 55 min) , Bivacco Baracca degli Alpini (4 h 5 min) , Tofana di Mezzo (6 h 25 min)