Stelvio National Park Classic Hiking Trip

You arrive in the Val di Sole valley on your own or with an optional private transfer and check in at one of our basecamp hotels in the town of Malé. It is a typical old Alpine township at the center of the valley when you can enjoy a pleasant evening and feel the freshness of the mountain air.

After the guide rounds us up at the hotel in the morning, a bus takes you to the upper Val di Rabbi valley that is the starting point of this hiking trip. Today you make an ascent to the Saent Valley that is the gateway to high areas of the Ortler-Cevedale group. The itinerary takes you past the Saent waterfalls – a popular tourist attraction that is as far as most tourists venture in these parts. The Saent waterfalls consist of several cascades with a total vertical drop of some 90 meters. A wooden bridge blends into the landscape to span the river in front of the topmost and tallest cascade. The trail then winds upslope through rosebay thickets that are home to woodchuck colonies before leading you over a barren rocky landscape to first mountain hut on this route.

You will start the day with an ascent to the Passo di Saent pass – one of the few points where the ridge can be crossed. It separates the Saent Valley from the Martell Valley. The pass elevation is 2,965 m. Right ahead of the pass, the trail gets fairly steep, and it takes some effort to scale it. The pass offers a spectacular view of the valley and nearby summits. An ice tongue of a glacier dips into a hollow under the pass in the northwest and feeds a few small lakes. On the other side of the pass you cross a typical high-mountain rocky landscape with glacier lakes and next to no vegetation. Later, as you descend into the valley through the gorge, the landscape changes, giving way to green meadows and streams. You go down to the green belt and arrive at the hut after traversing slopes sparsely overgrown by woods.

Today you climb the main ridge of the Cevedale range. The lower leg of the itinerary takes you through picturesque locales with meadows and mountain streams coursing through them. Here you cross a stone dike built by residents of the Val Martello valley in the 19th century after a series of destructive floods. In those days, glaciers would reach as deep as the bottom of the gorge, but today hike uphill over the moraines remaining after them without too much trouble. To cross the Cevedale ridge, you need to scale the Forcola glacier that covers the slopes up to the very peak of Cevedale. To cross the glacier the guide will take you on the eastern route with a gentle upward slope. While on the glacier you will the snow-white Cevedale Peak ahead of you. Looking back, you will see a spectacular panorama of peaks of the Ortler-Cevedale group towering above the Val Martello valley.

Today’s itinerary includes two particularly interesting landmarks – the Careser Glacier and a lake of the same name. The lake is set at an elevation of 2,603 m. It was formed by a dam built back in 1931 along with a small power plant that runs to this day. Your trail runs over slopes above the lake before turning up toward the Careser Glacier which you will cross near the very ridge at elevations of 3,000 - 3,200 m. The Careser Glacier is the biggest albeit also the easiest glacier to cross on this route. As you approach the glacier, it remains hidden until you almost step on it, at which point it opens up unexpectedly in a wide front that completely blocks our view of the horizon. It takes roughly an hour to cross the glacier. Once on the other side, you descend to the hut.

Today you leave the hut early on a radial trek that includes climbing the Cima Sternai peak (3,444 m). The highest point on the eastern ridge of the Cevedale range, it offers a 360-degree panoramic view of the region. The path to the summit takes you past the Sternai Lakes and over a glacier of the same name. After traversing the glacier, you climb to a nameless mountain saddle, scale the ridge and take it to the very peak. The ridge part of the itinerary features one of the most scenic hiking trails in this part of the Alps. It became accessible to hikers quite recently after being equipped for safety. An ascent to the peak takes 4 hours. We might need to get going at the crack of dawn if the weather conditions so dictate.

On the last day of the hike you make it to the Corvo Lakes before descending into the Saent Valley where your trip began a few days prior. After the high-altitude locales of the last few days with their glaciers and snow-capped mountains, the trail to the Corvo Lakes takes you over warm southern slopes and lake hollows sheltered against the wind. You get to ascend to the ridge of the eastern Cevedale range that separates the Italian provinces of Trentino from South Tirol. Proceeding along the ridge, you skirt several peaks and descend to a group of lakes the biggest of which is Lago Corvo. The trail from the ridge down to the lakes runs over a very exposed slope that offers a splendid view of picture-perfect panoramas. On the other side of the lakes you come upon a mountain hut where we take a rest break. After cooling off, you descend into the valley.

The trip ends here. On this hike you covered the eastern portion of the Ortler-Cevedale group – the second highest mountain group in all of the vast Eastern Alps region. On the way, you saw the Saent waterfalls, crossed three glaciers, scaled Sternai Peak (3,444 m), crossed the main ridge of the Cevedale range twice, and saw Lake Careser against the backdrop of the gigantic Vedretta de la Mare glacier. The itinerary took you through the high-altitude areas with a harsh climate where hikers are few and far between even at the height of the season. This is one of the least-traveled Alpine regions where you can still enjoy a break from civilization.

This hike slightly differs from the main itinerary in the Stelvio National Park. It includes all glacier crossings of the main itinerary but excludes the ascent to Cima Sternai – the hardest part of the main itinerary. The route starts with an ascent to the lakes of Corvo, where you will have time to explore the area because your group will stay overnight in the nearby hut. From the Corvo lakes, the route deepens in Ortles-Cevedale, climbs to the Passo Saent pass, and passes through the Forcola and Careser glaciers (days #3, 4 and 5 of the main itinerary). You will descend to the valley via the Saent waterfalls (day #2 of the main itinerary in the opposite direction).