Passo di Costalunga / Karerpass - Cima Latemar / Latemarspitze

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. A little after the settlement Pozza di Fassa we turn right towards the mountain pass Passo di Costalunga / Karerpass. We park on a parking lot on the mentioned mountain pass. The parking lot is located on the left side of the road.
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. We follow this road all the way to the settlement Moena into a valley Val di Fassa. In the settlement Moena we then continue right towards the settlement Canazei, but only to the settlement Vigo di Fassa where we go left towards the mountain pass Passo di Costalunga / Karerpass. We park on a parking lot on the mentioned mountain pass. The parking lot is located on the left side of the road.

Path description:
From the parking lot on the mountain pass, we go on a macadam road following the signs »Cima Latemar, Latemarspitz«. The path at first leads past the bottom cableway station and it brings us to a ski slope where we soon come to a marked crossing.
Left leads the path towards the mountain pasture Malga Secine and southeastern path towards the notch Forcella Latemar Piccola. At the crossing, we continue right on a macadam road (path number 17) following the signs »Cima Latemar, Latemarspitz«. From the crossing, the road starts slightly ascending and still runs on a ski slope. The road then for some time leads by the forest and then at the left turn, when we cross the fence brings us to a crossing.
At the crossing, we leave the road and go right on a footpath which runs through meadows. On grassy terrain the footpath is a little poorly visible, but orientation isn't too demanding. Over pastures path brings us to benches and a cross by which there is also marked crossing.
Right downwards path towards the mountain hut Karer See branches off, and we continue slightly left on the path 18A. From the crossing, the path at first slightly descends, and then crosses a slope towards the west. Here the path runs through larch forest and soon brings us to another crossing where from the right joins another path from the mountain hut Karer See and the path named Labirinto.
At the crossing, we continue left towards the notch Forcella Latemar. At the crossing is also a warning, that the mentioned path is demanding. From the crossing, the path short time still crosses a slope towards the west, and then turns to the left and starts ascending a little steeper by deep gully. Trees and bushes becoming rarer and increasingly beautiful views start to open up mainly towards the north and towards the mountain group Catinaccio. The path further mostly ascending in zig-zags on a quite steep slope. Because path isn't secured and also isn't best beaten, so on some spots a little more caution is needed. Higher when deep gully by which we are ascending for most of the time ends, the path turns to the right and brings us on a little less steep slopes. Further are grassy slopes soon replaced by scree and then follows an ascent towards the gully, which leads towards the notch Forcella Latemar Piccola. The path in the lower part avods the gully left on an indistinct ridge by which we are for some time ascending. Higher, the path brings us into a gully through which we are then ascending all the way to the notch Forcella Latemar Piccola. The path runs on the right side of the gully and on some spots, it is pretty steep, so also some caution is needed.
On the notch where there is a marked crossing we continue right, and from the left joins the easier path which runs below southeastern slopes of the peak Cima Pope.
From the crossing, we are for some time quite steeply ascending towards the slopes of the peak Col Cornon. After that, the path becomes less steep and crosses slopes on the left side of the mentioned of the mountain. When we come on the south side of the peak Col Cornon, the path turns a little to the right and crosses pretty steep slopes towards the west. Further, the path becomes demanding and crosses few shorter gullies through which quite some caution is needed because the path isn't secured. Next follows few shorter steep ascents and crossings, and then the path brings us on the west side of the peak Col Cornon where the path becomes easier and the slope less steep. Next follows an ascent to the secondary peak where there is also a crossing.
Left leads the path towards the bivouac Rigatti and notch Forcella Grande (Große Latemarscharte), and we continue right and on a panoramic ridge we soon reach the peak, which we already see in front of us.
To notch Forcella Latemar Piccola we descend on the ascent route. From there we can return to the starting point on an easier path (path 517), that runs below southeastern slopes of the peak Cima Pope.
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On the way: Forcella Latemar Piccola (2526m)