Carpen–Malga dei Roi–Monte Tomatico–Val del Sabbione–Carpen

Start from the Carpen bus stop and a few minutes on an asphalt road towards Pra Fontana.

You leave towards a short mule track that ends where a path sharply rises to the right through the woods leading to Malga dei Roi.

Here, attention is needed at a couple of crossroads with "paths of equal importance": if you make a mistake, there are no dangers, but you have to turn back, wasting energy that may be useful later.

These are points where having a pre-recorded GPS track can be useful: even if "the fork is narrow" and satellite reception combined with the device's internal compass is not good for immediately understanding where to go, it is enough to walk about twenty meters in one direction to immediately see if you are diverging or retracing the recorded track.

At Malga dei Roi, there is a small path continuing behind, but it has collapsed in the first part and is clearly obstructed by brambles and various branches.

It is better, as indicated by the GPS, to follow the service dirt road of the malga for a few dozen meters, which, passing a viewpoint over the Piave Valley, with a large right hairpin bend leads to the continuation of the trail on good solid ground and initially quite steep.

To resume the trail, on the day of my passage, I had to climb over a large pile of wood deposited by people working in the area: this may not always be the case, but it can happen.

At a certain point, you pass the ruins of Old Malga Roi where, surprisingly, there is an old and large CAI trail marker numbered 850.

The CAI 850 is now located elsewhere, and for that area, I did not find any dashed lines on any of the old maps I possess.

Finally, you exit the woods, intuitively cross a grassy area to reach and cross the CAI 844 path that ascends from Cilladon and reach the Paoda stables or Malga Paoda.

From Malga Paoda, ignoring the "always tempting direction" to the Prada ledge, follow the usual direct ascent (some steep sections) on grassy slopes (passing near the summit of Monte Paoda) to join the higher variation of the Alta Via degli Eroi and then comfortably finish at the summit of Monte Tomatico.

Here you can choose the aforementioned "light version" towards Casera Lusena, or take the beautiful northwest ridge and descend about 500 meters of altitude: it is a bit steeper than the northeast but never problematic.

I have already described these two ridges in more detail within two routes: Monte Tomatico: ascent via Northeast Ridge and Monte Tomatico via CAI 841 trail and Northwest Ridge.

The exit point from the northwest ridge is not very clear, there is no obvious trace on the ground and reference can be made to a large red mark on a tree.

It may also happen that this red mark on the tree is hard to find, and other traces are not easy to see either, and the slope is quite steep.

I found a few very faded white-red construction tapes and some orange marks, and you have to go a bit up and down (or down and up depending on preference) to avoid some rocky ribs and more or less maintain the altitude: it will be a slow and quite tiring progression.

A couple of short but quite “dug” gullies to cross.

Surprisingly, a couple of stretches of mule track with a retaining wall that disappear into nothingness – but really and SUDDENLY into nothingness – shortly after.

I believe that on each passage, references will or will not be observed differently.

At about halfway through the northern traverse, you reach the remains of Casera Pian Alt (and who worked here?), after which the track remains constant and finally allows walking with the whole foot supported (not just the edge, tip, or heel).

At the end, you join a dirt road (with some cemented sections) that leads to the reunion with the northeast ridge from where you would start the light version of the route: shortly after you reach Casera Lusena to enter Val del Sabbione.

Val del Sabbione is – except for the entrance – well marked with ENEL-type red marks.

In fact, the upper entrance is not at all intuitive and the GPS can help with a couple of forks (watch for the first one almost immediately) along the descent.

Besides the entrance, the red marks are many and confirm that you are on the right track, and there are no sections without ground traces.

To conclude, you reach the end of Val del Sabbione at Croci locality, from where you head towards the CAI 850 trail to return to Carpen and the starting parking lot.