Ristorante Pietofana - Rifugio Ra Valles

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 possible right) 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 towards the restaurant Pietofana and the hut Col Drusciè branches off to the right. 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 crossroads in the direction of Cortina d'Ampezzo. Further we follow the above description.

Route 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 ascending 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 scree slopes. The path then turns slightly right and crosses the scree slopes 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 up the ski slope turns left, then the footpath briefly leaves the ski slope on 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 poorly visible junction; right leads the path towards Tofana di Dentro and Cima Formenton, while we continue left upwards on the ski slope. From the junction only a few minutes of ascent remain to the hut Ra Valles.

Along the route: Forcella Ra Valles (2300m)

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

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