Thursday, September 02, 2021

Cadini Massif 1: Sentiero Bonacossa

The forecast was, again, really good, so we set out for a longer day.

After driving to Lago di Misurina we take the char lift up from the end of the lake (plenty of people taking the early lift up) and then set off along the marked path towards the Forcella Misurina. This is traversing and climbing in the shadow of the Cadini massif, and it's almost cold, but we're moving at a decent speed (there are a couple of other groups behind us and we don't want to end up in crowds on the more technical sections which come later), so we stay nice and warm. The last bit to the pass is steep but easy. It's steeply down from here, so we put on the klettersteig gear before starting the descent. This is easy, cable and gear not necessary (though the helmet certainly belongs on). Down and around the corner we go, emerging into the lovely and impressive valley/cirque (?) Ciadin de la Neve. Across the scree and up, up the other side, including a few ladders and some more steep, to get to the Forcella del Diavolo. We find a patch of sun here and have a food break to enjoy the views and let the group of three coming behind us go by (they provide a great illustration of why wearing a helmet is a good idea: kicking a number of rocks loose on their way up). After the break it's down the other side, through the narrow valley, past a *bunch* of climbers on a tower, and then up, up the other side to the very nice situated Rif. Fonda Savio. Here it's madness!

We now need to head down a steep bit and a couple ladders to continue. We end up waiting a bit for people slowly coming up (yes, it's madness), but then move quickly through that section and start heading down the significantly broader Ciadin de Toce. We take another food break here on a big rock in the sun and enjoy the views. Theoretically we have a great view of the Drei Zinnen here, but they are making their own clouds and are rarely visible. After the break we continue along down the valley, across the Forcella de Rinbianco (madness here!) and then along the Sentiero Bonacossa towards the Rif. Auronzo. This is another nice exposed path with some cables and good views and one bit of somewhat unpleasant ascent up a wet slab (yay for the cable here!). It looks like this might have used a different ascent earlier but that was maybe taken out by rock slide. At the end of that we come out on top of the ridge and can truly appreciate how crazy busy it is around the Rif. Auronzo. We pack away the klettersteig stuff and then continue on our way.

The original plan is to just grab a bus at the rifugio and take that back to the car, but after looking more at the map we realize that there's a trail that looks nice, so we take that instead. This takes us down, down, at first nice trail through the woods until we get to the first lake, then immediately next to the road for most of the short stretch to the Lago di Misurina. We stop at a restaurant at the top of the lake to enjoy cool beverages and the view across the very kitschy lake before finishing the hike by walking along the lake and back to the car.

Another really, really good day of hiking. Much of it interesting hiking. The Cadini massif is really impressive and we should definitely head back. 

Stats: 6:40, 16.2 km, ~1000m up,  ~1350m down

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