From Stua to Forcella Franche via Cima Bassa, Col Bel, and Piz de la Lasta

Premise

This route was traveled on September 29, 2024, and all observations and considerations that follow may only fully apply to that day.

In the following report, the term "guide" refers to "Monti del Sole e Piz de Mezodì" – anthology curated by Pietro Sommavilla and Luca Celi.

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From the parking lot near the ruins of the old "Osteria alla Stua" to Cima Bassa

From the parking lot, you enter through the ruins and, without reaching the end of the flat trail, take a small path that climbs on the left.

On a clear path, you arrive beneath the large ruin of Stua Alta in a stretch where the trail is less distinct: you must not continue flat but rise a few meters to pass to the left of the ruin, after which the path becomes clear again (there is also a red mark at the corner upon reaching the ruin).

With a diagonal you reach the channel of Val Bussolói and leave aside the trail that crosses it, continuing on the right side going uphill or the left hydrological side.

You continue with various turns without problems until you arrive beneath a spectacularly tall rock band, with stone walls delimiting protrusions (under one of these is the Cógol de Stèfen).

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Here both of my GPS units malfunctioned and reset themselves, becoming reliable again after about 20 minutes of walking: thus, for the next stretch, I manually corrected the recorded lines which cannot be very reliable.

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From the arrival point, follow the rock band on the left for a few meters, then traverse the flat channel still to the left, and continue a little through the underbrush on almost absent traces to find the good path again.

Before heading toward the continuation path, I continued for a few dozen meters inside the valley channel's basin (which is still the Val Bussolói mentioned above), to arrive beneath the spectacular cliffs that close it: this is not visible on the GPS recording, but it is worth spending 5 minutes there.

The path continues easily until a ledge that rounds a corner, after which I found some isolated fallen trees that were not difficult to bypass but—ending outside the main trail—required attention to spot cut branches and subsequent cairns.

Now you climb to a low rock band and traverse to a more open wooded area today with regrown grass that made it somewhat difficult to identify the correct path.

In any case, the tendency is a continuous diagonal ascent and you reach the junction of two wider paths: the first always comes from the Valle del Mis about 1.5 km above today's start, while the other is one of the variants from the locality of Bitti.

You continue to ascend on a beautiful path the wide wooded bench in the area of Bósch de le Scàndole which emerges from the south side of the west ridge of Piz de Mezodì, and you reach the edge of the Colentáss ridge with a very large hairpin turn to the right.

Here you join another very clear path… with some fallen trees reducing its visibility, you cross a beech grove and arrive beneath a slope of not very dense dwarf pines that must be climbed.

It is a short climb where traces are found among corridors in the dwarf pines, some narrow corridors but passages exist: I only had to kneel a couple of times to pass under some large dwarf pines.

Ascending roughly vertically, you find a new clear path that shortly leads to the junction with the normal path from Forcella Franche to Col Bel: explanatory arrows at the junction.

Now you pass four hairpin turns and begin the long final diagonal to Col Bel, soon finding the arrow indicating the best point to begin the ascent to Cima Bassa.

There is no continuous path or trail for Cima Bassa, but the ascent is intuitive on the not difficult slope.

Climbing diagonally you must come back a little in direction to reach the ridge crest promontory that is considered the summit point.

The summit point is very panoramic even if it is the lowest of the summit points of the day, and it offers the best view of the Valle del Mis.

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From Cima Bassa to Col Bel

In my opinion, it is best to simply return to the arrow at the exit of the normal Col Bel path and continue from there.

I tried to cut across the slope off-trail to minimize elevation loss, but it wastes more time and in any case the final stretch of path to Col Bel is easy and a few extra meters of elevation loss doesn't matter.

Before arriving at the summit cross of Col Bel, you pass beneath a (too) conspicuous repeater panel.

Great panorama also from this summit with a "privileged view" toward Piz de Mezodì.

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From Col Bel to Piz de la Lasta

The path connecting Col Bel to Piz de la Lasta is certainly the result of enormous work.

The descent to the saddle dividing the two summits is in a sea of dense dwarf pines, and part of the subsequent ascent is on similar terrain.

Here there are not simply cut branches for marking, but a continuous structured clearing that creates a comfortable path sometimes very wide, also indicated with many red markers.

Just be careful not to trip over stumps of dwarf pine on the ground.

Then the dwarf pines thin out and you simply follow the red markings.

After a stretch of final ascent, the markings descend a few meters to the right-south to enter a stretch of 5-6 very exposed steps along the edge of the cliff: the foot placements can be considered more than sufficient, almost comfortable, but a "mental reset" is needed because so far everything was really easy.

You continue still quite close to the edge but on a path with good margin, and then go to the left side of the ridge heading uphill to reach the junction with the descent path: the junction is marked with red paint on a rock on the ground (but the trail is also visible).

After the junction, there is a not difficult rocky step where you use your hands without reaching grade I climbing, and then easily to the summit cairn of Piz de la Lasta: last great panorama with a close view of Piz de Mezodì West.

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Descent from Piz de la Lasta to Forcella Franche

Back at the final junction, turn right and immediately arrive at the head—beside a low cave—of the very wide valley or inclined plain of descent called La Mónt.

Already from above you notice the descent track in the distance on the scree down to the right, but first you must stay towards the left.

Thus, keep left on scree for a few dozen meters to go around the base of the rocks on that side, and find a small cairn at the start of a diagonal path.

The diagonal path to the left ends at a cairn among medium-sized stones and you head toward another cairn on the right, then descend a not difficult passage through scree between two rock bands.

Now you go right to intercept the visible trail already seen from above, and here I did not immediately see cairns or cut branches among sparse dwarf pine shrubs.

Maybe they are there, but given the easy slope of this stretch, without losing time I cut a bit by eye and rejoined the consolidated trail descending the subsequent long scree section.

Without difficulty you finish the scree part and, guided by cut branches, enter a conifer forest.

In this first forest section, the path, although with some twists, is well visible and marked by cut branches.

Then the conifer forest becomes mixed, with not too dense sections on wide and undulating slopes where no compulsory passages are formed.

Therefore, the path that follows is very discontinuous and at times grassy, with brushwood and small regrown shrubs on the descent line.

The good news is that the slope is never very steep, and you can proceed calmly without danger of falling into any precipices.

In this part, I saw in total one red marking and 3 or 4 cut twigs (the guide states that the red marks in this stretch are of forestry and not hiking significance).

In my opinion, it is definitely easier to follow this part uphill for orientation.

Anyway, you proceed gradually and intercept the usual normal ascent path from Forcella Franche to Col Bel.

Observing the maps, you must be careful to reach the junction near a circa 1420 altitude turn at the peak of a direct uphill-downhill stretch.

If you miss this junction, you will still intercept the normal path lower down, but it becomes more complicated.

However, the path is mapped with good precision on OpenStreetMap and with a bit of attention you can find your way.

Once on the normal Col Bel path, everything is easy until the junction with CAI 875.

The final stretch to Forcella Franche on CAI 875 is clearly visible but often "held back" due to the type of ground, slope changes, and sharp turns.