This mountain played an important role in the First World War. The Italian built
a new acceess route on the steep side of the mountain, including 52 tunnels.
This route provided access to the summit area
using the mountain ridge for protection
against Austrian artillery.
There are several routes to this peak,
but it is "A MUST" to visit the tunnel route.
See this link for more historical info. How to get there:
The trailhead is located at N45.70603, E11.11933, elevation about 1220 meter.
There is parking here, you buy a ticket for Euro 6, valid for 24 hours.
The access road is the typical, paved, but narrow, single lane. I drove from
Rovereto, south on SP-46, forking left to reach Passo Xomo. From here, a short drive
to the trailhead parking.
Route:
The route starts next to a building, and the first few tunnels
appear pretty soon.
An early tunnel has several branches, a sign pointing left "strada galleria", shows
the way. You do need a headlamp in order to move efficiently, the ground is often
uneven. The trail is generally
very wide and nice, like a well maintained path in a
park. Serious exposure and dramatic landscape.
This is a well known and pretty famous route
so expect to see other people. At the very end, the trail descends in a curved
tunnel and essentially ends at the rifugio Achille Papa. This location is also served
by a restricted road (locked gate) ascending on the north side of the ridge.
From the rifugio, follow the obvious trail
to the highest summit, called
Cima Palon.
One may just walk back down to the trailhead along the road. There is a maintained
trail that makes numerous short-cuts whenever the road makes rather long switch-back
curves.
Comments:
This is a "must do" trail to a nice Ribu summit in the Dolomites.
I left our hotel by lake Garda after breakfast and started my walk
at 1030. A very nice and interesting route,
exceptional with all its
tunnels. A few tunnels
gain elevation by doing a corkskrew spiral.
There are also many posted information signs along the way.
After completing the tunnel part of the route, I continued uphill
to the highest summit
called Cima Palon, arriving there at 1310.
It was time for a good rest and look around. The view-circle identified
many peaks, Carega directly across being one of the closest. I left
at 1325 and went back down to the rifugio. Another 10 minute rest on the
terrasse with a cold radler. What remained was a quick hike back down the
road. This road is also quite spectacular in a few places. The signed
short-cuts were all nice and I was back by my car
already at 1455.
