Valbondione - Rifugio Curò
General Notes:
Altitude Difference: 955m
Time: 2h 30'
Phisical Effort: Normal
Difficulty: E
Description:
The fastest and easiest path to reach the Rifugio Curo starts from Valbondione, a small town in the upper Valseriana nestled between some of the most beautiful peaks of the Orobie such as Pizzo Coca, Pizzo del Diavolo di Tenda and other beautiful peaks.
To reach the starting point,once arrived in Valbondione, we will have to follow the road that leads us towards Lizzola and after passing a first hairpin bend,always inside the village of Valbondione, we will find on the left a small road where signs are placed with the names of the shelters and their state,open or closed. We will not be able to follow this road because after even 50m it becomes unpaved and forbidden to cars,near the latter there are not many parking spaces and we will be forced to park at the sports field of Valbondione,about 400m before the deviation,where we will find multiple free parking spaces.
As mentioned above we will follow this small road that after not even 50m becomes unpaved and begins to enter the woods just above Valbondione;this first stretch of path, always immersed in dense vegetation, does not have high slopes,indeed in some places the slopes are almost null.
Along the way we will find more than once concrete structures that contain the aqueduct that supplies the town of Valbondione, and the only intersection that we will find where we will always keep the path to the right is located near the wildlife and floristic observatory of Maslana.
We will arrive after about 1h walk to the starting station of the cable car that supplies the refuge from where the dirt road gives way to a beautiful and wide path;from now on the forest will tend to thin out and the path will begin to climb along beautiful meadows with slopes that will tend to increase.
This is the hardest part of the route, we gain many meters in altitude also thanks to the continuous succession of hairpin bends always along these beautiful meadows, from this point we could also admire the beautiful waterfalls of Lake Barbellino in addition to the Coca refuge, located in the opposite valley.
At the end of the series of these hairpin bends we will find near the last of these,a sign with the indications of the path to Lizzola, in addition to the indications and the missing time,about 30', to reach the Rifugio Cura, the most has now been done,in fact from now on the path is almost completely flat or with very slight slopes.
This is one of the most spectacular points of the entire route, the path is carved between the rock and although it is very wide there are ropes to make it even safer in the case of snow and ice or for those who suffer from dizziness,since on our left we have a beautiful overhang.
This stretch although highly spectacular lasts a few tens of meters, we will arrive near the arrival of the cable car, and we will have to pass inside avoiding touching the wire rope.
After this last structure we are now close to the refuge that we will reach in about 5'. From the refuge you can admire the beautiful Lake Barbellino, famous for its dam and for the waterfall that on the days when the dam is opened is the highest in Italy.
