Sentiero Pasturo - Pialeral

Sentiero Pasturo - Pialeral is a trail of Grignone, ie Grigna Settentrionale, or in another way on the Mounts of Pasturo, between 650 meters of Pasturo and 1430 meters at Pialeral passing through Cornisella and Alpe Cova. The itinerary has no difficulty, is in fact largely a wide track, often in the shade, the trail time is one hour and a half walking. It's popular in every season, trek in part or entirely.

Sentiero Pasturo - Pialeral has been marked in the past by Club Alpino Italiano, with number 33 that is Sentiero 33 Pasturo - Pialeral, first part, almost half, of the path leading from Pasturo to Rifugio Brioschi and the top of the mountain is just above the refuge at 2409 meters, the highest point of Grigne. From Pialeral the path continues as Sentiero Pialeral - Rifugio Brioschi. Many walkers fit into the trail at Alpe Cova by Sentiero Colle di Balisio - Pialeral, number 31 of CAI, shortest way to reach Pialeral and for someone continue to Rifugio Brioschi.
The path Pasturo - Pialeral despite being one of the main of the mountain is not marked by Valsassina, Valvarrone, Val d'Esino and Riviera Mountain Community running Regional Park of the Northern Grigna. There are anyway many signs while not homogeneous among them, the old yellow trail tables by CAI as vertical signage, and those horizontal red and yellow paint now faded and in the middle 33, many wooden signs recent that always say Pialeral, Pedalling in the Park tables, you can not truly miss.

At Pasturo in Via Alessandro Manzoni taking Via Cantellone you start the trail where, near the corner at the top on a stone wall under the street sign, two big brown arrow signs say Northern Grigna and Pialeral, and the horizontal marker 33 is on a wall. Past the last houses and coasting the garden wall of the house Pozzi, you take the cobbled trail uphill along Torrente Cariola with white railings, it leaves the stream immediately turning right along a villa.
You can also start along Torrente Cariola for a dirt path avoiding Via Cantellone there is a wooden arrow Pialeral Brioschi, from Via San Calimero a hundred meters ahead in the direction of the town center with indications such as in Via Cantellone, from Via Grigna without sign; Via San Calimero joins to Via Grigna and the last one with a mule track crosses that of Via Cantellone.
After the intersection of two paths, on the right the house in Via Grigna 30, in a shady stretch a sign of falling rocks and with a sharp and steep bend to the left with over a hut with a sloping roof it is in sight of Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary at 739 meters high, a path to the right to Baiedo. After the chapel another mountain hut and a fountain where it crosses Torrente Cariola.
It exceeds the stream and a little valley with moderate slope westward reaching the houses of Monteno, a group on the left inside and right a yellow cabin oldest. Here a steep cemented section leads to intersection with the Road Pasturo - Alpe Cova accessible only by authorized vehicles. Passed the bend of the road the path turns right, it says Monteno 850 meters on a Pedalando nel Parco table and two entries Pialeral Brioschi on a wood arrow, also a large sign ban on driving for motorcycles.

The cemented mule rises very steep with some serpentine to pave at view of a meadow on the left topped with a white hut and a baitello (small hut) a little lower on the right where you see the sunny side of Grignone. You enter into a dense forest to get out ten minutes later to a big stone hut overlooking on the left meadows and high-tension wires. Following the row of small trees at left of the trail you arrive soon at the intersection with Strada Pasturo - Alpe Cova where there is the Church of the Alpini Maria Regina Pacis and a fountain with its precious water. It has traveled Sentiero Pasturo - Pialeral in its first stretch from Pasturo to Cornisella.

At the crossroads many signs and a trail marker by CAI indicates Pialeral Northern Grigna Rifugio Brioschi to the road, the location table by Valsassina, Valvarrone, Val d'Esino and Riviera Mountain Comunity says Cornisella 1050 meters, while an horizontal trail marker 33 appears faded on a wall next to the small church. You continue for about 500 meters along the agro-forestry-pastoral road Pasturo - Alpe Cova going down to Acquafredda and Cold Water Bridge over Torrente Cornisella, a fountain has good water. You start to breathe the air of Grignone, fatigue and sweat give way to happiness and the joy of heart for this second part of Sentiero Pasturo - Pialeral from Cornisella to Alpe Cova, to the dear places of Alpe Cova and Pialeral.

After the bridge it bends sharply to the right following a sign Rifugio "Antonietta" Pialeral No Car Pedestrians Only 45 minutes. Soon a steep climb in concrete and some serpentine, after a bend to the right, the bottom now of pebbles, it goes along La Riva cabin m. 1125 and going up with more gently sloping in the shade of pine trees you reach a fountain at a right-bend. You climb now in a forest of beech and fir on a concrete bottom to arrive at a fixed hunting stakeout and meadows with views of Grignone.
A blue sign indicates Brioschi Pialeral left, I'm at 1200 meters altitude, the climb is almost finished by now you will go up more gently to the west and I can enjoy the view of Altopiano Valsassina and its mountains. The view of the Alpe Cova and Costa Reor opens where there are two cabins, a recent under the path that I'm walking, and an older well-maintained just above. After a stone fountain, and finally on a rock 33, with a steeper stretch you out on the Road Pasturo - Alpe Cova.

In the short stretch that precedes the arrival at Alpe Cova I have time to think about myself, about what pushes to come up here and more in general to the man and the mountain, to the destination that soon will open, and the thoughts of all days seem so far away, that in the small delirium appears Alpe Cova preceded by its sign of danger cows: the first house in stone, the small center downhill with the huts, the wooden structure of the old Agriturismo Aliber and the little lake with the Grignetta.
Returned to me, I taste the water at the long stone trough, sometimes I stop in the shade to 1300 meters at Alpe Cova or I climb along the Coast leading to Pialeral. I watch Grignone, often meeting with other hikers who prefer Sentiero Colle di Balisio - Pialeral faster, or some few, from Traversata Bassa Piani dei Resinelli - Pialeral, someone go up, others down. At the crosstrails I give a quick glance at the long wooden sign Rifugio "Antonietta" Pialeral mt 1400 10 minutes, to the smaller one Rifugio Brioschi and at the two yellow trail tables, on a pointed stone two horizontal trail markers 31 and 33.
I go up the track of concrete, I overcome the barrier of the road and I dream again at the yellow hut recently renovated before the 1400 meters of Rifugio Antonietta al (at) Pialeral and of the other huts.

The last climb on slippery bottom helped by horizontal trunks leads to the plan of Pialeral, or Pialeràl, where signs mark upward the Summer route and Winter route to Rifugio Brioschi 2.30, on the right Traversata Bassa San Calimero 1 hour Rifugio Riva 2 hours.
But I go left, drinking my last water in a watering hole by pressing the button and I stop in one of the five wooden picnic tables in the large meadow at the bottom of Foppa del Ger where there was Rifugio Mario Tedeschi al Pialeral m. 1428.
A short rest and return.