Malga Crocifisso - Col de Valvacin

Access to starting point:
Access from Gorenjska: Through the Karawanks Tunnel, we drive to Austria, and then we continue driving towards Spittal and forward towards Lienz (a little after Spittal highway ends). Further, we drive on a relatively nice and wide road through Drau valley, which brings us in Italy. The road further leads past Dobbiaco / Toblach and Brunico / Bruneck. Only a little after the last-mentioned town, past which leads a bypass road, we turn left into a valley Val Badia. Further, we drive through the mentioned valley past settlements La Vila and Corvara. Next follows an ascent over the mountain pass Passo Campolongo and Passo Pordoi. From the mountain pass Passo Pordoi we then descend on the west side into a valley Val di Fassa. In the settlement Pozza di Fassa then at the roundabout, we continue left in the direction of Val San Nicolo. We follow this road to the mountain pasture Malga Crocifisso. From the mountain pasture, we can continue a little less than a kilometer on the road and then we turn left (marked with the caption Ferrata) over a small bridge where we park.
From Primorska side: From Nova Gorica, we drive to Italy and drive forward on the highway towards Venice / 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. We follow the highway to exit for Belluno. When we leave the highway we come to bigger roundabout, which we leave at exit for Belluno and settlement Feltre. In smaller roundabout in the settlement Belluno we then continue right towards the settlement Agordo. This road we then follow all the way to the settlement Pozza di Fassa into a valley Val di Fassa. In the settlement Pozza di Fassa then at the roundabout, we continue right in the direction of Val San Nicolo. We follow this road to the mountain pasture Malga Crocifisso. From the mountain pasture, we can continue a little less than a kilometer on the road and then we turn left (marked with the caption Ferrata) over a small bridge where we park.

Path description:
From the starting point, we continue left on the road which ascends through a lane of a forest and soon brings us to a ski slope. We continue on the mentioned road which further runs on a ski slope from which beautiful views start to open up on peaks above the valley Val di San Nicolo.
When ski slope turns to the left, we leave the road which runs on a ski slope and go slightly right on a cart track which leads in the forest. In case if we miss a crossing we can also still continue on a ski slope, which also leads towards the mountain hut Rifugio Buffaure. From the crossing, we continue on a cart track which starts ascending through the forest and we will soon on the right side notice feed site for wild animals. We still continue straight and the cart track passes into a footpath. The path then turns to the right and is then mostly in zig-zags ascending through the forest. The path is otherwise marked with red-white blazes, which are relatively rare. At the ascent path occasionally brings us on shorter clearings from which also a nice view opens up on surrounding peaks. Such a path then runs all the way until we come out of the forest on grassy slopes from which a view opens up towards the mountain hut Rifugio Buffaure. The path then turns to the left and follows the last ascent to the mountain hut.
From the mountain hut, we continue right on gentle wide path from which a beautiful view opens up towards the mountain group Catinaccio (Rosengarten). The path quickly brings us to a crossroad where we continue right on the path 613 following the signs »Col de Valvacin, Sas d'Adam«, and straight leads the path towards the upper station of the cable car.
From the crossing, we walk on a gentle road, that runs on a ski slope. Later road turns a little to the right and starts ascending a little steeper. Such a path then soon brings us to the mountain hut Rifugio Baita Cuz.
From the mountain hut, we continue on the road which turns slightly to the left and starts ascending steeply on a ski slope. We still continue on a steep road all the way to the ridge where there is the upper station of the cableway Pala del Geiger. Here for a short time, a view opens up also on the northern side towards the mountain groups Sassolungo and Sella. We continue right on the road which further becomes less steep and avoids the ridge on the right side. On this road we then soon reach the mountain hut Rifugio el Zedron, which is situated by the summit Col de Valvacin. We reach the peak by bypassing the mountain hut on the right side, after that on a ridge where there is a crossing, we continue left and in few steps we reach the panoramic peak.

On the way: Rifugio Alpino Buffaure (2044m), Rifugio Baita Cuz (2213m)

Trip can be extended to: Sas de Adam ( 20 min)