Monte Pizzocco from Lago del Mis via Val Falcina

At the beginning, you take the beautiful Sentiero Natura Val Falcina which you then have to leave at about 560 meters elevation (in a section where it soon starts to descend slightly) for a track on the left with the first meters quite grassy (at least in July).

This secondary path then remains always quite visible and leads with gentle ascents up to the ruins of an old stone shelter.

A short and gentle ascent again, flat section, bypassing a shoulder from where you can glimpse the bottom of Val Falcina: here the path descends slightly (you might not even notice) and the first key section begins.

The track becomes narrow and exposed, somewhat twisted in some points, various steps where you need to think for a moment where to place your foot and how to keep balance with the rest of your body.

This “little viaz” ends at two large beeches from which you descend a few meters to the bottom of Val Falcina.

Initially there are a couple of cairns and a couple of red marks, but it is all quite easy and intuitive for a good stretch: certainly very solitary!

You pass on the right-hand side in the walking direction a small waterfall with a cairn, and then climb back up on the left side in the walking direction along a track on the valley flank, continuing a few meters away from the true bed of the Falcina stream.

Return to the streambed and continue until the start of the long and most difficult segment of the entire ascent.

On a really flat stretch, and a few dozen meters before the valley becomes impassable, you notice on the left in walking direction a very narrow, vertical, and dark-colored gully: you must climb the steep slope facing you.

To understand well the general direction from this point, the photos published in the guide “Agneléze Erèra Pizzòcco Monti della Destra Mis” are very useful: even if you do not immediately find the best line, having VISUALLY IN MIND where to aim to get out of it, you should still be able to orient yourself to overcome this section.

Going very slowly (and ... with some back and forth) I found cairns, red marks, and a construction tape along this entire ascent part: I definitely did not see all possible signs, but at least you can say a “coherent” line can be found.

From the flat valley bottom, you climb a short notch in the rock and then bend in a diagonal to the left with various exposed and even very exposed steps.

Then begins a series of short gullies (which might better be defined as rock notches) with varied bottoms: small rocks “dirty with gravel” (not always stable), hard mixed earth, hard with dwarf pines/shrubs, etc.: a complete sample.

These notches continue in succession and there are almost always one or two next to the good one; finishing one, with a slight angle change, another begins.

You emerge on a grassy ridge that borders a narrow valley very much covered with grass where I found a classic construction tape with red and white transversal stripes.

A little above the tape, you traverse left on grass/earth with sparse dwarf pines/shrubs until you reach a wide (about 20 meters?) valley looking like a stony scree (it is clear that the tape is a “weak reference” that does not last long, but it is quite intuitive where to start crossing to reach the stony valley).

Here, if I understood the already mentioned guide well, there should be two possible routes diverging: I tried to follow Paolo Bonetti’s that is lower.

Key point: at the edge where the valley ends there is a clear cairn, but there are many weeds around, and if you arrive just 4 or 5 meters higher (it is difficult lower) it will not be easy to see it; I saw it from above by chance.

The important thing is to cross the valley and absolutely identify a large red mark on the other side very visible (it can also be seen from the cairn), with a red arrow behind that is visible only up close.

Next to it, there is a faint but noticeable track: following it, it disappears and reappears through a series of notches similar to the previously described ones.

This series is more vertical, always very varied, more often grassy: be careful trusting dwarf pines and other shrubs for holds.

In some points, looking back… there is quite a drop!

Here too, little by little, you encounter some marks and cairns.

The trend is always diagonally left with quite a steep angle.

When the slope becomes gentler, you arrive well in view of a dark rock band with an inclined slab at the base cleft by many moist patches (well described in the guide): you already see the final descent point into the bottom of Val Falcina, but it still takes time to reach it.

Here you can choose: go immediately under the rock band to cross the slab in its entirety or stay lower and avoid the first section.

I stayed low and after re-entering the slab, I started it on a fairly comfortable section.

Then however, there are various places requiring attention, and despite the great heat there was no reassuring feeling of grip walking on it.

The moisture/wet streaks are very slippery: in autumn with possible ice it would be a bet… a losing one.

Finally, you return to the bottom of Val Falcina where, compared to what you just passed, you can safely say the difficulties have ended.

Now ascend staying on the bottom until the valley is separated by a central ridge with a hard base (some superficial gravel) partially grassy and higher up with not very dense dwarf pines.

Shortly before, there is the last useful point of the entire excursion to replenish water: it is advisable to fill water bottles because it is still a long way.

You reach the bottom where the CAI 851 trail joins exactly where, to the right, the equipped section well known to those who do the Pizzocco circuit begins with a ladder.

Since the Pizzocco circuit after Val Falcina is reserved for Martians, it is better to turn left towards Forcella Intrigos.

Now finally you can proceed with regular walking on an increasingly better surface up to the pass; a few short pull-offs interspersed with sections of “muscle relaxation”: it will probably always seem quite long after the previous efforts.

At Forcella Intrigos, you decide whether to descend immediately or ascend to the summit of Monte Pizzocco.

For Pizzocco, you briefly traverse flattening out on a grassy crest and climb a nice rocky diagonal up to Pian dei Lach where you meet the normal route climbing from the south.

Still upward on a grassy slope with a good track carved into the ground and bypassing the Pizochet with a short exposed section of a kind of ledge.

Now the finale where more attention is needed to stay on the correct traces of the path: slope always moderate, a rocky jump, and some slippery spots.

You cannot say – on the general hiking difficulty scale – that it is a difficult or dangerous stretch, but for example it is a section where you will not always be able to chat pleasantly with your hiking companions.

You reach a Cross at the beginning of the characteristic half-circle summit of Monte Pizzocco, then to reach the boundary stone and the cairn of the other two summit points you must overcome two notches – the second generally a bit more difficult, but it remains easy for hikers who completed the Val Falcina ascent.

For the descent to Roncoi di Fuori you can choose between the CAI variants via Rifugio Casera Ere or via Bivacco Palia.

I chose the one to Bivacco Palia with a short detour to Monte Piz reached by an almost flat deviation.