Ristorante Pietofana - Rifugio Ra Valles

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, we follow the description above.

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.
At the crossing, we leave the road and go right on a footpath following the signs »Forcella Ra Valles«. The path is further for quite some time ascending through the forest, therefore a view is quite limited. Later, the path crosses a ski slope and starts ascending through dwarf pines. Here increasingly beautiful views starting to open up on surrounding peaks and the path soon out of the dwarf pines brings us on the scree. After that, the path turns slightly to the right and in ascent crosses scree. Such a path brings us on a ski slope on which we are then ascending. Ski slope further becomes quite steep and because of the gravel on the path also some caution is needed. Higher, the ski slope turns to the left and then the footpath for a short time avoids the ski slope on the left side. When we again join the ski slope only a short ascent follows to the notch Forcella Ra Valles from which a view opens up towards Tofana di Mezzo and Tofana di Dentro.
From the notch where there is a marked crossing we continue left on the path 407. After a short ascent, we come to a little poorly visible crossing, right leads the path towards Tofana di Dentro and Cima Formenton, and we continue left upwards on a ski slope. From the crossing follows only few minutes of ascent to the mountain hut Ra Valles.

On the way: Forcella Ra Valles (2300m)

Trip can be extended to: Cima Formenton (2 h 55 min) , Bivacco Baracca degli Alpini (3 h 5 min) , Tofana di Dentro , Tofana di Mezzo