Monte Cimone Normal SE Ascent

Rating the Route by Hiking Standards

The short ferrata section

0. General: 1500 m to 2379 m, exposition SE, marked, protected route. Very nice landscape! No water.

1. Effort: 900 m, 3 h 30 min.

2. Power: 3 - medium (over the rock step, otherwise only walk-up)

3. Psyche: 3 - medium.

4. Orientation: 2 - easy.

Approach

You start the tour on the last parking place on Altipiano del Montasio, some 1500 m.

Route Description

Monte zabuš

Forca di Vandul

From the parking place you continue by a cart-road towards the west. When the road turns left, Via Alta, the marked path continues right. This nice path crosses horizontally the slopes of Zabuš towards the west. After some 45 min you reach the shallow valley, falling down from the Forca di Vandul (notch in the main ridge). On the western side of the valley you can see funny rock formations. There you deter right (path No. 640) and ascend in many turns on the notch.

Forca di Vandul is a very wild place (the Hell Gate). A steep gorge is falling northwards into Dogna/Dunja, and the two side pillars are squeezing it strongly. Just above the notch a well secured cable route brings you up, over some 100 m high rocky wall. By a nice ledge you reach the summit ridge of Monte Cimone's fore-summit, called Pizzo Viene (2037 m). There you pass the bivouac. Soon afterwards from the right the Ferrata Norina exits from the north face of Monte Cimone / Strma peč. By the summit ridge or left below it the tiny path crosses very steep grassy slopes and so reaches the highest point.

You best descend by the same route. The alternative is to descend by the steep grassy slope west of Pizzo Viene and below reach the Via Alta.