Forzèla de la Val de la Lum and Zéngia della Rotonda from Festín in Val Bòna

Premise

This route was traveled on July 8, 2022, and all subsequent observations and considerations can fully apply only to that day.

The reference guide in the field – with photocopies in the pocket – is «Monti di Longarone» by Pietro Sommavilla, Giuseppe Nart, and Luca Celi.

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Ascent to the Forzèla de la Val de la Lum from the parking lot to the no-entry sign at località Festín

From the parking lot to the no-entry sign at località Festín, follow the small road (dirt-asphalt-concrete) up to Casera Val Bona.

The path that leads into the Val dell’Albero begins about one hundred meters from the casera at the southwest corner of the "quadrilateral" of small roads that surround it.

Today, from the corner where the path starts, a small capped stump with a kind of plastic funnel was visible (a little inside).

After the first slightly grassy meters (but with a couple of cut branches marking it), one enters a more defined track that crosses two wide surface channels before starting to ascend with greater slope.

Following cut branches and cairns, you then pass a beech grove where the trail's imprint on the ground is less pronounced, and with some turns you reach the edge of the right hydrological “bank” of the impluvium of the Val dell’Albero.

A little above 1,400 meters elevation, there is a track that leaves the main path and, using a hollow, descends into the impluvium with a view above toward the Cadìn de la Val de l’Albero and the rock face to climb to reach the Forzèla de la Val de la Lum (the main path continues to the Forzèla de la Val de l'Albero).

Now you ascend through the easy and enjoyable impluvium with water flow until just before some small vertical waterfalls and (at about 1550 meters according to the guide and my altimeter too) you climb a cone of hard gravel with dwarf pines at the top.

Avoiding the dwarf pines by staying to the right in the ascent direction, you reach some small isolated larches: really small, max one meter tall.

The guide notes that before reaching the bottom drops of the gully descending from the Forzèla de la Val de la Lum, turn right and then climb a short chimney with a wedged rock.

The face is wide and varied, and here I stopped for a few minutes to locate this small chimney and have a precise reference on where to aim with the long ascending traverse: there are no visible tracks or signs in this section.

Having spotted the chimney (really small from a distance compared to the face), I reached under the rock band that precedes it: from below the rock band the chimney is not visible, and on arrival you need to look within a few meters for a couple of small dwarf pines above the band.

Below one of these small dwarf pines there is an easy split-ramp (3 or 4 meters, no more) to climb, then you proceed a few meters almost flat toward the inside of the face and reach the small chimney with the wedged rock.

(At the base of the split I saw the remains of a cairn, the first of the series: I fixed it a bit when I descended.)

The chimney can be climbed either on the right before the wedged boulder or immediately after the wedged boulder at the center: grade II on solid holds in both cases in my opinion.

Then you continue up finding another cairn (very useful as a reference on descent) just before a "dark concavity" of the rock band.

Go for a few dozen meters left on a wide ledge until you turn beyond a not very pronounced angle of the rock band behind which there is immediately a split to climb to the upper ledge level.

This split is narrower and more vertical than the previous one accessing the chimney with wedged rock but offers good holds visible well even descending (maybe grade I+ in my opinion).

On exit here too I found a very useful cairn for descent reference.

Now go farther left on a true narrower ledge until the bottom of the gully descending from the Forzèla de la Val de la Lum: entrance into the bottom requires careful attention, the most difficult passage so far.

Before starting the exposed passage, there is a big cairn, and before continuing it is advisable to turn around and memorize it anew for descent.

Entering the gully, climb a bit on not difficult jumps until they become difficult and on the right is a regular and decently featured slide that leads above a grassy ridge with dwarf pines.

Climb the ridge and here I found a couple of cut twigs at the beginning and a larger one near the exit: look carefully at this last cut dwarf pine twig from above to memorize the descent reference.

From under the face at the end of the grass-dwarf pine ridge, turn left for a few meters to a cairn at the entrance of the varied final basin for the Forzèla de la Val de la Lum, with a clear view of the Cima de la Val dell’Albero and also the first part of the Zéngia della Rotonda.

Here you bypass the basin intuitively ascending jumps (one with various movements more or less grade I), reaching the saddle with its characteristic "leaning boulder" that forms a small inclined bridge (a person can lie on their back on it for those who… want to sunbathe 🌞).

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Clockwise traverse of the Zéngia della Rotonda

The ledge starts (northwest side) just below the saddle, and the first meters are on a narrow cornice with a regular base.

You immediately arrive at the first "mandatory cat step": along the entire ledge, many other mandatory or optional cat steps follow depending on whether you choose to walk on the outside in full exposure.

After the first cat step, there is a boulder leaning outward on the cornice that creates a very narrow but internal passage, therefore not problematic.

Then again various narrow sections until the north side of the loop which is a track on gravel running on inclined slopes-ledgelets: choose lines carefully to avoid slippery steps as much as possible.

You reach the doubling of a ridge with some dwarf pines to enter the northeast side, and after a "slightly slippery" passage under overhanging rocks, you double a real promontory with dense dwarf pines.

Now you pass more or less on the east side following an arc section with – at the deepest point – a "narrow and strange" loose passage where you have to "weigh" your steps (or crawl).

Exiting the basin-arc, you go to turn onto the south side where there are two close passages which, in my opinion, are the most difficult of the Zéngia della Rotonda.

The first is exiting a narrow elbow of a small gully where the overhanging rocks are too low to simply pass beneath.

There are holds in super-exposure just below the cornice line (the one that cannot be done due to low rocks).

After some thought, I took off my backpack to use these holds because the backpack can touch somewhere especially when exiting the passage and can create serious problems.

So I hooked it to a sling before starting (wedging it under the overhanging rocks), then pulled it toward me and finally pushed it forward.

Immediately after is an edge continuing with a "photo-worthy" hump "jutting over the void".

There are (small) holds and "… they are better if you don't look outside".

Here too would be better without a backpack in my opinion, but there is no way to safely pull it forward.

Anyway, since I hadn’t put the backpack back on after the previous passage, I moved forward a bit without it to understand well; then I went back to get it and definitely made the passage.

After this, you are to the southwest and everything is fairly easy (for the average of the Zéngia della Rotonda) on ledges until returning to the Forzèla de la Val de la Lum.

There would be many other peculiarities to write about this ledge, but it is enough to keep in mind what is written in the guide and cited at the beginning.

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Final considerations

REPEAT: memorize WELL all the ascent passages to the Forzèla de la Val de la Lum because the descent can become VERY complicated if you make mistakes.

The ascent track recorded by GPS is not at all helpful for descent: forget the GPS from the arrival at the Cadìn de la Val de l’Albero onward.

My two GPS devices produced “fantasy recordings” in all tight key turn passages.

On the ascent try to identify the short gully with wedged rock before arriving under the rock band: it is the key to access everything else.

Alone it is very very difficult to secure yourself, and even in a group it is not a quick setup.

On descent (for the whole section with jumps) the rope stayed around my neck and I always downclimbed: it is not easy to find natural anchors.

Small grass crampons are not needed: the short steep grassy sections are not so steep to require them.

For those who use trekking poles, it is advisable to leave them at the base of the short gully with wedged rock passage.

On descent after the short gully with wedged rock – at the end of the real jumps – I avoided the hard, steep and slippery gravels of the optimal ascent line by making a longer arc to the left looking for a line of grass and dwarf pines.

On descent in the final forest after the exit from the Val dell’Albero impluvium, I did the opposite: given the easy slope, I cut directly shortening part of the official path's turns.