When the thermometer soars in the city, just go up. Just over two hours from Milan, you are greeted by an oasis of freshness and a reserve of beauty that allows you to approach the high mountains first, even to those who do not completely master their language. Santa Caterina Valfurvaat 1,738 meters, is the right base camp: walks for everyone in the presence of a crown of mountains – Thirteen summits – that play between snow, ice and the fateful altitude of 4,000 meters. Go slowly, healthily and far? Here you can choose the simplest trails and shelters, even independently.
ALSO DISCOVER: Valtellina: trekking, castles, pizzoccheri. And a new green spirit
Santa Caterina Valfurva what to do on a weekend
We are in the Stelvio National Park and to move on to the “university” of high altitude – perhaps for a baptism of progression on glaciers or on more daring ridges – one can rely on alpine guides.
With one certainty: a Valfurva everything is close and on a human scale, but it is also grandiose and immense. This is why the view, both for those who walk quickly to the summits and for those who choose a more contemplative world tour between refuges and refuges, is what mountain lovers define as an “environmental experience”.
In other words: the trails are for everyone, but they are framed by a scenario that has nothing to envy to what experienced climbers admire.
READ ALSO: Santa Caterina Valfurva: downhill skiing, cross-country skiing and excursions. What to do at 3000 meters
Trekking on the trails around the Forni Glacier
Just think about the Ovens: it is around this white giant, which with the Adamello constitutes one of the largest glacial basins in the country, that some of the most beautiful hikes take place.
The Forni Valley is still a “Himalayan” vestige of Lombardy. You can stop at the beginning or end of the visit Forni Shelteraccessible by shuttle from the town car park. It was once covered by the moraines of the glacier.
Today it looks like a small castle, with its battlements that recall that it was a holiday resort already in the 19th century: “Complete with a bowling green and a solarium”, recall the managers Grazia Colturi and Narciso Salvadori who today, in keeping with the trend of modernity, they have created a wooden sauna on the large terrace.
A Copernican revolution if we consider that during the Great War Forni had become a refuge for the Alpine troops. Here, in fact, passed the first Italian defensive line that stretched between Stelvio And Gavia. In its rooms there are period engravings and looking out of the windows suspended above the mountains, one almost has the impression of hearing the sounds of that time.
READ ALSO: Alta Valtellina by electric bike: between spas, pizzoccheri and dream views
On foot to Gran Zebrù
From this refuge full of history and epic, we begin the ascent, just as the Alpine troops did in the last century. But for today's walkers, the destinations are the sun and the delicacies that welcome, after less than two hours of walking (566 meters of altitude difference), the Pizzinis Refugeshare 2,707.
Immersed in a plain where the meadows give way to the last shoots of the snowfields, it is the classic refuge par excellence: robust courtesy, wooden dormitories, typical cuisine and two speeds. In fact, there are those who wake up before dawn to attack peaks like the majestic Gran Zebru which, not far from the summit cross, at almost 4,000 meters above sea level, has revealed, over the last decades of climate change, a small wooden “storehouse” from the war.
And then there are those who, on the contrary, point their mobile phones at this pyramid of rock and ice for the last selfie, lounging in a polenta and a sauna which, in the basement of the refuge, enriches the alpine hours with comfort.
READ ALSO: Via dei Terrazzamenti: a stroll through the vineyards and villages of Valtellina
Between Ortles and Mount Cevedale
At this point a choice is made. With more strength in your legs and the help of a guide you can decide to literally make a jump – 600 meters of pure verticality – towards the 3,269 meters from the pass where once the old woman's bulk Casati Guasti Barracks stood out to dominate the ice of the Ortles Group and of Mount Cevedalealways a baptism for beginners with crampons and ice axes.
The refuge is closed, awaiting consolidation after permafrost, now crumbling due to climate change, weakened its foundations. But you can also choose to simply reach the 3 cannons of the Alpine regiment recently restored, which are located half an hour from the refuge, avoiding the ropes and the glacier.
Visit to the border
Alternatively, staying at the Pizzini refuge and wishing to avoid the snow, you can dedicate two additional days to Trekking Confinalewhich crosses the Zebrù valley and leads to the yellow roof of the Quinto Alpini Shelter. From there you then return to Valfurva via the old military road.
The new via ferrata Jacopo Compagnoni
The tour, which however also offers an exciting “underground” experience, that is, inside the cave under the ice when it forms, descends in two hours from Pizzini to the Rifugio Branca (altitude 2,493), literally overlooking the glacial peak of Forni. Here you can spend the night, climb the nearby rock and soon even climb the new one. via ferrata dedicated to Jacopo Compagnoniyoung guide and brother of the champion Déborah.
The glaciological trail
Then take the glaciological path which, with a circular route of two hours, takes you back to the Forni refuge, passing through the habitat of the eternal snows and offering the possibility of admiring an ice cave that opens at the crossroads of the two tongues of snow. The rhododendrons dotted with stones inhabited by yellow lichens and the gushing of the watercourses bring you back to the valley.
Hike to the refuge glamour from the Alps
For the last day of the tour, we change area, to complete the set of wonders of Valfurva: the destination is one of the most glamour of the Alps, the Sunny Valley Kelo Resort, a cornerstone of chic hospitality at altitude.
If in winter you get there by cable car or on skis, in summer you can also go up on foot, leaving the car at the Alpe bridge, at the first bends of the Gavia pass and crossing, in an hour and a half I walk, a valley where the multicoloured wild flowers still hide the signs of the trenches.
Want to stay up to date on the world of travel?
The refuge seems to come out of the large seaside resorts immersed in the Scandinavian tundra, but the welcome is entirely made in Italy. A beautiful end, for the mind and the palate, after four days of walking and emotions.
