Pecol - Jôf di Montasio/Montaž (over Pipan's ladder)

Access to starting point:
A) From Kranjska Gora over the border crossing Rateče we drive to Trbiž / Tarvisio. In Trbiž we continue left in the direction of Bovec and we follow the road to the crossroad near the lake Rabeljsko jezero. Here we continue right in the direction of Nevejski preval (Na Žlebeh) / Sella Nevea. When the road already starts descending towards the valley Reklanska dolina, in sharp the left turn, a narrow and steep road towards Montaževa visoka planota / Altopiano del Montasio branches off to the right (by the crossroad there are signs in Italian language). We follow this road to a large marked parking lot, which is situated few 100 meters before the cheese cottage Pecol (further driving is forbidden).
B) From Bovec, we drive to the border crossing Predel, from which we descend on the Italian side. Only a little after the lake Rabeljsko jezero we come to a crossroad, where we continue left in the direction of Nevejski preval (Na Žlebeh) / Sella Nevea. When the road already starts descending towards the valley Reklanska dolina, in sharp the left turn, a narrow and steep road towards Montaževa visoka planota / Altopiano del Montasio branches off to the right (by the crossroad there are signs in Italian language). We follow this road to a large marked parking lot, which is situated few 100 meters before the cheese cottage Pecol (further driving is forbidden).

Path description:
From the parking lot on the mountain pasture Pecol we go on a narrow road which runs right towards the mountain hut Rifugio di Brazza. Soon signs point us to the left on a footpath, on which through meadows in good 15 minutes we reach the mountain hut. At the crossroad, which is only few ten meters above the mountain hut we go on the left path, which runs towards the saddle Forca dei Disteis (2201m), and the right path runs on Špik Hude police (2420m). From the crossroad at first we descend few meters and then in a gentle ascent, we cross meadows below the mountain walls of Montaž and if we are lucky we can also notice Alpine marmots, and there's quite a lot of them around here. Soon from our left side joins the direct path from the mountain pasture Pecol, which is few minutes shorter than this past the mountain hut. Here the path already ascends a little steeper and soon brings us on an already mentioned saddle where there is usually a lot of ibexes. To the saddle, we need from the starting point a little less than two hours. At the saddle, the path turns to the right over the scree and we soon come again to a crossroad. Left less visited and a little more demanding path runs towards the bivouac Suringar (2430m). We go on the right path which still crosses scree and it brings us to the memorial plaques, where we enter into the rocky part of the path. Here the path becomes demanding, some easy climbing is needed, we also get help from some steel cables, but less than we are maybe used in Slovenian mountains. After that, the path turns a little to the left, where we cross smaller scree and we are soon in front of the most difficult, but also the most secured part of the path. First approximately 10 meters with the help of stemples and steel cables, we ascend almost vertically, after that follows 60m high Pipan's ladder, which is a little raised from ground and also almost vertical. When we climb the ladder we only have few meters to the ridge on which we go to the left. The path on the ridge is no longer so demanding and in 20 minutes brings us to the summit. However, on the path on the ridge caution is still needed, because the ridge is quite exposed, we also have to be careful, not to trigger stones, and there is quite a lot of it. The peak is very panoramic and has enough space. On the summit stands also a cross and bell on which mountaineers ring for luck.

On the way: Rifugio di Brazza mountain hut (1660m), Forca dei Disteis (2201m)