Pialeral

Pialeral, also Pialeràl, is a place in between 1350 meters and 1430 meters on Grignone, or Northern Grigna, in the municipality of Pasturo in Valsassina at half height of the mountain that rises steeply to the summit through fields and rocks.
Pialeral extends along the side of the mountain that goes up from Alpe Cova up to a meadow in a plan at the end of Foppa del Ger, a valley that descends from Grignone. Exactly the sloping part is referred to as Location Costa

At Pialeral there are a dozens mountain huts, Rifugio Antonietta al Pialeral and a beautiful lawn in plan; it can be reached by Road Pasturo - Alpe Cova and many paths, and leaving of the two trails direct to Rifugio Brioschi just below the summit of the mountain. Pialeral is a popular place by hikers for its location, either as a destination or transit.

Arrived at Alpe Cova 1300 meters, a concrete road goes up the side of the mountain as a continuation of the Road Pasturo - Alpe Cova common trait for trails Sentiero Traversata Bassa Piani dei Resinelli - Pialeral, Sentiero Colle di Balisio - Pialeral along the Valley of Grassi Lunghi, Sentiero Pasturo - Pialeral; it can be assumed that where Alpe Cova ends starts Location Costa and so Pialeral.
After a short stretch, past a hut, you get to a bar that closes the road that says Private Road, it takes the keys to open a lock, Pedestrians Only right. You climb a slope and you will reach a yellow hut with blue shutters newly renovated with a small lawn in the shade of beeches and a fir, probably in the past support point to climb to Grignone.
It continues with more gently sloping or almost flat, the view ahead going to Grigna and on the right side to the mountains of Valsassina. Surpassed two or three huts you arrive, after 10 minutes from Alpe Cova, in the presence of a majestic beech, at Rifugio Antonietta on a wooden sign Rifugio "Antonietta" al Pialeral mt. 1400.

Rifugio Antonietta al Pialeral is reference for location managed by Pensa Family, which replaced the old Rifugio Mario Tedeschi al Pialeral destroyed just above by an avalanche in 1986; until the 2000s it was called Rifugio Pialeral for this there are still indications with that name.
On the hut next to the refuge is hung the second educational panel of the geological and paleontological Pialeral path that starts at Alpe Cova: the fish of the Shield. On the back of the refuge along the road a large fresco of St. George slaying the dragon.

Just after the Refuge a few mountain huts, some even recent, the road ends. All the huts, as well as Rifugio Antonietta, are on right along the side of the mountain, overlooking the meadows that rise from Pasturo with view of the countries of Altopiano Valsassina, Piani di Bobbio, the mountains of Orobie.
The path now becomes steeper, the bottom a little bumpy with gravel and small stones facilitated by horizontal trunks, a cabin often inhabited is on the left, on the right the ruins of a cable car in yellow and a cabin bigger half hidden, you get out on a plan with indications of the trails. We have arrived at the destination for Sentiero Pasturo - Pialeral less than two hours walk uphill, Sentiero Traversata Bassa Piani dei Resinelli - Pialeral about two hours, Sentiero Colle di Balisio - Pialeral 1 hour. The trails are obviously paths in reverse, for the second, the 31 of CAI, and the third, number 33, downhill takes approximately half the time of the climb.

The eye goes immediately at signage of the trails with its trails tables, one points uphill to the large visible trail next to a wooden fence, you go up towards the top of Grignone. On three lines:

• Vetta (Top) - Rifugio Brioschi 2.30
• Via estiva (Summer trail) - Bocchetta Releccio
• Via invernale (Winter trail) - Comolli

Two other as the first by Valsassina, Valvarrone, Val d'Esino and Riviera Mountain Community. The first, flat to the right:

• Traversata Bassa
• San Calimero 1.00
• Rifugio Riva 2.00

The second trail table, pointing downward trail Sentiero Traversata Bassa Piani dei Resinelli - Pialeral reverse:

• Traversata Bassa, added next Rif. Antonietta
• Torrente Pioverna 0.40
• Piani dei Resinelli 2.20

A yellow CAI's trail marker table reaffirms San Calimero Rifugio Riva right.

To the left a tall pole where waves the Italian flag and on the rock a gray metal plate about a meter high and fifty centimeters wide, that it was into Rifugio Mario Tedeschi al Pialeral, memory of the consecration of the walls in 1917.
Side a small hut with green door and stone seat, above a large antenna; few meters and a fountain with a tank for watering the animals, it is the latest water available for hikers headed to Rifugio Brioschi, a seat in the corner with a stone wall to lean. To squeeze out the water you need to press a metal button, the small stone spout is now empty.

Continuing opens a pretty sight: the green plan, just above a stone tub for watering the animals, I saw sheeps, and Foppa del Ger, a valley of glacial origins that descends from Bocchetta della Bassa, and the wonderful view of the Grigna.
In the meadow five wooden tables with benches attached to the table not fixed to the ground which are moved at will and a wooden structure with roof brick protects a billboard by Municipality of Pasturo Panoramica Territorio Comunale (Overview Municipal Territory) with the picture of the mountain and Hiking Main Itinerary. On the structure is hanged up an old sign: on the white background land available for parking or camping, in the center on red background Information at the Refuge "Pialeral" 0341 955462, on white uppercase We accept no responsibility for damage to persons or property arising from the use the same. Beside an educational panel by Park of the Northern Grigna and the Mountain Community Valsassina, Valvarrone, Val d'Esino and Riviera entitled slope of Pasturo coaching on the mountain characteristics, is the third, although not numbered, of Pialeral's geological path.
In the middle of the lawn a natural rock high about four meters and long five, behind a small beech. Thirty meters ahead a small white chapel holded by a brick structure, two stone steps are ahead, a bowl just below. In the chapel a small sculpture of pleasant workmanship of Madonna and Child taken from the bust up, above Ora Pro Nobis. Further on a low stone hut well built with wooden frames.

In the lawn space left blank on closer inspection are other remains of the refuge: a few square meter of its floor, a low wall about ten meters long in which was set the red metal plate that it belonged: Club Alpino Italiano Sez. S.E.M. Rifugio Mario Tedeschi al Pialeral m. 1428.
From the plan of Pialeral you can see just below Alpe Cova and distant the countries of Plateau Valsassina; a location table by Pedalling in the Park facing upstream says Pialeral 1430 meters Pertus - Rifugio Riva - 1 to left, trail coming from a dirt road that goes from Alpe Cova up to the last hut, that one low in stone.

Pialeral or Pialeràl is a place known to every hiker who has been on the Grigna, placed about midway through Traversata Bassa Piani dei Resinelli - Rifugio Riva, halfway between Pasturo and the top of the mountain and quickly reached from Colle di Balisio.
At Pialeral you can spend a few pleasant hours stopping at Rifugio Antonietta, you can quench your thirst at the fountain, the one with the tub for animals, you can stay in the large lawn with wooden picnic tables when there is no avalanche danger, and avoiding the sun too strong, and enjoy the beauty of Grignone in every season.

I went through Pialeral dozens of times, going up and down the mountain, the view of the green or white hollow is always fascinating, other times the area was my destination. I stopped a few minutes or a half hour at the tables of meadow looking toward the valley protected from Grignone, at Rifugio Antonietta or at the hut below. The view from the steep descent to the compression of the road and Refuge always struck me as passing from the mountain to the things inhabited.