Hiking in the Brenta Dolomites

You arrive in Val di Sole and check in at the basecamp hotel in the town of Malé. Nestled in a valley between the Ortler-Cevedale and Dolomiti di Brenta mountain ranges, this town is a convenient starting point for many of our guided and self-guided hikes in the region.

You start walking at an elevation of around 2,000 m that you quickly reach with a cablecar from the valley. Today you will hike through Presanella – a mountain group standing next to Dolomiti di Brenta. The trail runs on the eastern slopes of Presanella and offers a broad panorama of the entire Dolomiti di Brenta. There are many lakes in this area, both in the forest belt and at high altitude. You will reach several of them including the Three Lakes which is one of the most beautiful landmarks of this region. This is a group of lakes at 2,300 m of altitude on an exposed slope facing Dolomiti di Brenta. The Three Lakes offer excellent shooting points for photography enthusiasts. You will finish your today’s trek at a hut also located at a lake with an impressive view of Dolomiti di Brenta: do not miss the sunset.

Today you cross the high-altitude regions of the Presanella group and reach Madonna di Campiglio at the foot of Dolomiti di Brenta. The trail runs through pine forests before it takes you to the exposed slopes with panoramic views of Brenta. This region is rich with water: you will be frequently crossing streams while the trail leads you from one lake to another. Breathtaking views from the lakes to Dolomiti di Brenta are the major highlight of these mountains and of this hiking day. Towards the end of the day you descend to Madonna di Campiglio – a five-star alpine resort and the gateway into the Brenta Dolomites.

To gradually ease into the rhythm of the trip, today you proceed along a very moderately paced itinerary through gorges of Vallesinella Valley, which is famous for its cascading waterfalls. Vallesinella gorges are overgrown by a dense mixed forest that conceals hundreds of wellsprings. The springs feed the mountain streams cascading down the slopes. Here waterfalls gush down from gorge escarpments and rivulets combine into churning streams which we will cross via suspended bridges. The gorges radiate a freshness and a pleasant chill even on the hottest of days. Some distance uphill from the waterfalls the forest belt ends, and the trail enters the high-altitude area near the Passo Groste pass. Winding its way under the precipitous cliffs of the central mountain group, the trail reaches a mountain hut with a breathtaking panorama of the Adamello group in the west.

The vast highland region at the center of the Brenta Dolomites can be crossed from west to east at one point only – through the Bocca di Brenta pass. Today you will make your way to this pass and go deep into the very center of the Brenta Dolomites. It features a unique landscape with multiple tower-like mountains separated by precipices that are hundreds of meters deep. You will cross it by the only possible trekking trail, skirting gigantic protrusions with vertical cliffs and noisy flocks of Alpine coughs soaring up above. By midday you arrive at the hut near the pass and can have lunch. If you can muster enough strength, you have a possibility to go on an optional loop hike before descending to your destination hut for the night. There is an easy secured panoramic trail that lets you see the eastern extremity of the Brenta Dolomites and possibly also the emerald-green Lake Molveno at the foot of the slopes.

Today's trek will take you through many exciting places, but it is also the most difficult one in the itinerary. You begin the day by scaling a 600 m high steep ascent to reach a least-traveled wild highland near the peak of Piz Galin. There are never many hikers around here, and you are almost sure to see chamois promenading over the faces of screes and steep rocks near the passes. The trail runs through several different landscapes. As the day progresses, the trail descends from the lifeless heights into a flat green hollow, which, several hundred years ago, used to contain the waters of a lake. Today's other landmarks include mountain lakes and the remarkable Turion Towers. "Grown" on top of a relatively level plateau, these laminose formations resemble towers or even whole fortresses. The long and eventful day ends some distance to the west from the Passo Groste pass. Do not miss this evening's sunset that will cast a bright red light on the pass and the nearby peaks.

Today you have a relatively easy trek to Lake Tovel with several route options to choose from. The main one skirts a massive group of peaks known as the Pietra Grande around its western flank and descends to Lake Tovel. The trek description gives figures for exactly this route option; the other ones are lighter. Under the western wall of the Pietra Grande the trail runs past fallen rocks with plenty of exotic fossil mollusca embedded in it. Fossils are not rare in the mountains, but they do not come often in such numbers. Already from the exposed slopes above the green belt you will see the turquoise surface of Lake Tovel lying 1,000 meters below in an enormous hollow fringed by pine woods. Lake Tovel gained fame thanks to a unique phenomenon: until the 1950s the lake waters would turn blood-red during the warmest period of the summer. It was caused by lake algae that colored the waters red during the blooming season. A light stroll around the lake at dusk is the best imaginable finale to the day's hike.

To spend the night at Lake Tovel without watching the sunrise would be a major loss. It's worth getting up at the crack of dawn today to see a spellbinding landscape of the reddish mountaintops of the Brenta Dolomites above Lake Tovel basking in the rays of a rising sun. The hikers who can muster the strength to get up at first light will be rewarded with unforgettable impressions and take home some magnificent photos to remember them by. The hike continues as you head into the seldom-hiked northern Brenta via wild trails amid untouched nature. Today has in store for you some magnificent panoramas opening up from the tops of ridges, red-colored slopes under mountain passes, peaceful green meadows, and a colony of woodchucks at the foot of Monte Peller.

Monte Peller towers above highland meadows of northern Brenta in complete solitude. It is known as an “observation deck” offering a 360-degree panorama of the northern portion of the Brenta Dolomites. Unlike mountains in the central part of the range, Monte Peller is a fairly low, sloping and green mountain overgrown with grass. It offers excellent visibility in the morning hours. Having scaled Monte Peller right after breakfast, you will be able to see the peaks of Dolomiti di Brenta in detail. After descending from Monte Peller, you arrive to Lake Salare. This lake is nestled in a scenic warm hollow at the foot of the ridge. It is surrounded by green meadows with Alpine highland flowers and rare pine trees standing apart in isolation. Today once again you hike the little-visited trails of the Northern Brenta. As you continue hiking you may follow the trail's branches to some of its peaks – good vantage points to observe the white summits of the Ortler group and the Adamello glaciers. The trek ends with a lengthy descent down the western flanks of the range to the village of Folgarida, from where a transfer will take you back your basecamp hotel.

The trip has come to an end. You followed the full hiking itinerary through Dolomiti di Brenta and saw not just the most-visited summits, mountain passes and gorges of this magnificent range, but also made it as far as northern Brenta with its seldom-hiked trails crossing highland meadows and passes lost deep amid the mountains. You had a chance to admire the sunrise from Lake Tovel of indescribable beauty, and scaled Monte Peller – a 2,319-meter mountain peak popularly known as the “observation deck” of the Brenta Dolomites.

The 8 Day Tour, both guided and self-guided, does not include the first two hiking days of the primary itinerary. It starts in Madonna di Campiglio and then follows the primary itinerary. This is a shorter version of the primary itinerary but with the same characteristics in terms of difficulty. The gear and experience requirements are the same as for the main route. The base camp hotel remains in Val di Sole since it is much better connected by public transport.

On the 9 Day Tour, we planned a one-day crossing of the Presanella group instead of two days on the main route. You will start hiking in Presanella at 2,000 meters and reach the Three Lakes. At the lakes, you can decide whether to descend to Madonna di Campiglio directly or to hike along the panoramic trail to the lakes of Serodoli and Lambin, both of which offer wonderful views of the Brenta Dolomites. If you choose the longer route, we recommend taking the ski lift down to Madonna di Campiglio, otherwise your day will be too long and tiring.

In the 11 Day Tour, both guided and self-guided, you stay an additional night at Lake Tovel. This allows for a one-day loop hike to a totally peopleless part of the Dolomiti di Brenta in the eastern extremity of the group. It is a lengthy hike with a substantial total altitude gain. And yet it is not too difficult: the ascent consists of two separate climbs of 650 and 500 meters; plus you hike light, all the heavy stuff is waiting for you at the lakeside hut. The eastern part of the Dolomiti di Brenta is dominated by two parallel ranges. Trails are quite few around here. Many old trails that might be of use are no longer maintained. The inner range – the taller of the two – is a typical high-altitude formation with minimum vegetation. The outer range is lower; its flanks are thickly covered with creeping pine overgrowth – the balmy pine scent filling the air in the afternoon when the temperature drops. Both ranges offer wide panoramas of the mountains lying far in the east; in the morning Lake Tovel comes into view from the top trail. Ascent 1490 m, descent 1490 m, hiking distance 17 km, hiking time 8 hours. In alternative, some of our guests prefer a rest day at Lake Tovel. There is an easy walk from the hut along a nature trail in the neighborhood of the lake. This variant lets you come back to the hut for lunch and then to relax at the lake in the afternoon.