Friday 1st September: Weather: 9°C to 18°C: Perfect beautiful sunny day in the mountains
Passo Valles to Castrozza: 16.7k walk: 7hr: 8.30am to 3.30pm: Stops:1x40min,1x20min: Asc: 533m Des 1,082m
Accommodation: Sport Club Residence San Martino di Castrozza
Breakfast buffet Rifugio Passo Valles
Highlight today was hiking 16k on a beautiful cool crisp sunny day with blue skies all round on firstly an easy track through the forrest to Baita Segantini, then a long down hill on a bike track to Passe Rolle and on to San Martino di Castrozza with stunning scenery the whole way for the whole day.
We recovered from last nights full meal and had a good nights sleep with the windows open. We’ve found that sleeping under a doona in a warm room is too hot. The Rifugios over the past few days mostly provide one blanket which is more than adequate even if the outside temperature is freezing. After a jetboiled cup of tea, we pack and go down to breakfast at 7.30am to find a magnificent buffet of meusli, fruits, yoghurt, 3 types of cakes, really fresh bread and an assortment of jams. There was even a menu for eggs cooked in 10 different ways!! We’re still full from the night before, so no eggs, but manage to squeeze in some yoghurt, fruit and fresh bread and jam.
We leave on a cool morning at 8.30am and immediately climb the 200 metre to Forcella Venegia at 2217 metres. There’s a sign at the top indicating Rifugio Mulaz to the left and Passe Rolle down hill. We’d already planned to go via Passe Rolle as I’d had trouble booking Rifgugio Pradidali on the next section of the AV2 via Mulaz. So we needed to detour which worked out better as we had a wonderful day down to San Martino di Castrazzo.
Rifugio Passo Valles
Beautiful sunny day view all round
More views Forcella Venegia 2217m
Forrest track to Baita Segentini
Coffee in Val Venegia
View to Forcella Venegia 2217m
Baita Segantini 2,170 metres
Cimon della Pala from bike track
Bike track to S. Martino di Castrozza
Lunch on bike track to di Castrozza
The track from Forcella Venegia is down through the pine trees to Val Venegia. It’s an easy descent to the valley floor, and our path joins a wide track up to Baita Segantini where we find many day hikers trekking up for their lunchtime retreat. We’ve been walking two hours and at 10.30am we find a nice grassy sunny spot beneath the Pale di San Martino group of dolomites, looking up to where Rifugio Mulaz is hidden behind a huge shelf. There’s several signs up to it and all of them look tricky to say the least.
After a relaxing 40 minute break, we follow the line of people up a wide jeep track for 2.5k to Baita Segantini, where there’s a few hundred people lolling about. This place can be easily reached from the Passo Valles side as well as the Passo Rolle side, and is a real draw card for day hikers, and with good reason, there’s magnificent views across to Cima della Pala and the Travignola hanging glacier, and a great place for lunch. We had plans to either take a bus from Passe Rolle or walk the Sentiero dei Finanzieri (the route of the customs officers from a century ago) to Col Verde, but we see a new sign showing a 10k route via a cycle way/footpath all the way to San Martino di Castrozza - which we take.
The route goes down hill to Passe Rolle (1980m), with it’s dozens of ski hotels, and we pass many day hikers on the way up. At Passe Rolle, the path becomes the main road, which we follow for a few k to the dairy farm at Malga Fossa, dodging cars and hoping to either catch a bus from there or find the path we think we’ve missed. Ian sees a map which defines the cycle route and shows it really was on he main road for the first section to Malga Fossa, but then veered off parallel to the main road all the way to San Martino di Castrozza.
The cycle track is really well maintained and an easy grade with mini bob cats still working on it to level out the crushed stones. Half way down, after 3 hours from Baita Segantini, we find a sunny spot for lunch - well a snack - spicy fruit rolls with a cup of tea. The cycle signs note it’s now only 4k into San Martino di Castrozza and after a short 20 minute lunch break, we’re on our way down hill again. At 3.30pm, we roll into the prettiest ski village of San Martino di Castroza which is bustling with mostly older day hikers who can take advantage of the various ski lifts from the village. We use google maps on our phones to find our way to the Sports club residence and fimd it’s very close to the centre of town.
We’re in room 120 on the first floor, and it is an absolute bargain for AUD$450 for 3 nights. The apartment is designed for 4 winter skiers and has a mini (very mini) kitchenette, a table and bench seats, with a double bed and another sofa bed folded upright in a closet. It suits us perfectly. We dump our gear and head off down town to firstly the tourist office where the young girl is extremely helpful and gives us a map of all the walks in the area, explaining which ones to avoid with the more difficult via ferrata. She also gives us a bus/train time table for our exit on Monday morning back to Bolzano - 3 buses and 1 train taking 4 hours.
On to the supermarkets, the first is Conads with which we are familiar and we stock up on salads, ham, beer wines, cheeses, ham, bread and yoghurt for the three days. The honey is rediculously expensive at 11 euro for 400 grams (AUD$16 per bottle) so after buying what we needed from Conad’s we moved on to the Coop, and found the honey there less than half the price at 4 euro for 400 grams.
It’s now a chilly 16°C outside as we walk back to our cozy room at 5pm to enjoy dinner, - but not too much of anything. We don’t want to overload like the last few nights with half board. The problem is that when dinner is late at 7 or 7.30pm, we’re starving so when the entre comes, and it’s usually just a filler of pasta, we eat too much. Then when the main course come which is much more interesting, like pork and spinach, we eat it because it’s so nice. And of course we can’t resist the panna cotta for dessert. All too much dinner.
But tonight, we keep it simple - a salad with ham, cheese and bread. A nice hot shower and at 9pm we’re ready for bed.
Apartment San Martino di Castrozza