Ristorante Pietofana - Rifugio Duca d'Aosta

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

Path description:
From the parking lot, we continue on the asphalt road and then we go left on a macadam road following the signs »Rifugio Pomedes, Forcella Ra Valles«. Macadam road which is closed for traffic starts ascending and it quickly brings us to a marked crossing, where the path towards the notch Forcella Ra Valles branches off to the right.
At the crossing, we continue straight on the road which out of the forest brings us by the ski slope. Here we are for some time ascending by the cableway, and then the road turns left over ski slope. When the road crosses a ski slope we need to pay attention because here our path branches off right on a ski slope. The footpath on a ski slope is at first quite poorly visible and brings us again on the right side of the cableway. Further, the path is still relatively steeply ascending on a ski slope, and it all the time runs a little right from cableway. Quite steep ski slope slowly turns to the left, later when we come near the mountain hut Rifugio Duca d'Aosta it becomes less steep.
Here from a ski slope we go left and follows only some easy walking to the hut from which there is a nice view towards the mountains above Cortina d'Ampezzo.
To the hut, we can come also with a 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)