Trail

Italiano

I have been walking in the mountains for a long time and I think I know what a trail is. I imagine that a path is narrow and walking trail, with dirt, earth and stones or pebbles. I wonder if it is maintained by man, is it flat or sloping, its degree of difficulty. I assumed it was in the mountains, but it could be in the hills, by the sea, in a city park, surrounded by meadows, woods or rocks.
I'm looking for a more precise definition and I find more than one:[^]

• Trail (or path or cattle track): road with a natural bottom formed by the passage of pedestrians and animals.
• Path that is formed naturally and gradually due to continuous and prolonged trampling by human or animal, in a free path of uncertainties and ambiguities, reported in the cadastral maps.
• A narrow way and barely drawn between meadows, woods, rocks, nature areas and anthropogenic landscapes, plains, hills or mountains.
• path, generically narrow that in rural places, mountain or similar was formed following the frequent passage of people and animals.
• A trail is usually a path, track or unpaved lane or road.[^]

Classification based on difficulty according to the Italian Alpine Club

In order to better define the different types of trail and suggest at the same time the degree of difficulty of the journey hiking, Central Commission of the Club Alpino Italiano has identified a classification of the routes:

• Tourist trail (path or itinerary) (T)
• Hiking trail (E)
• Trail for expert hikers or Alpine trail (EE)
• Trail for expert hikers with equipment (EEA), the classic via ferrata or equipped
• Path in a snowy environment (EAI), with the use of snowshoes

Particular paths of interest, the Historical path, which retraces ancient roads, and the Thematic path, an educational path for information purposes (naturalistic, glaciological, geological, historical, religious), are of difficulty level T or E.

References

1. "Definzione giuridica [Legal definition]". In Sentiero (in Italian) Wikipedia: L'enciclopedia libera. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
2. "Trail". Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
3. Sede centrale (20 November 2021). "Classificazione dei percorsi in base alla difficoltà in ambito escursionistico e cicloescursionistico [Classification of routes based on difficulty in the field of hiking and cycling]". [Word File]. (in Italian). Club Alpino Italiano. Retrieved 3 June 2022.

On Grignone again this summer

Italiano

It's mid-July, I'm returning to Valsassina in Barzio, in June I was only there a few days. Like previous years, I don't spend anything because my brother allows me to use his house for the holidays for free. My program is to walk on the Grignone from Pasturo as a healthy physical exercise in the open air, tread mule tracks, enjoy the cool mountain climate for a few hours in the heavy weather of the sun high on the horizon or in the hottest hours, protecting me with sun cream well spread on my skin, wearing a hat on my head and sunglasses, drinking. I will finally be in nature, free, light, in the fertile meadows, in the shade of the plants, listening to the cows, and I will take some meaningful photographs. Then, at the table, at work, on my new Lenovo laptop, reading the articles from the blog Grignone in the slope of Pasturo that I published last summer to review them. This commitment consoles me because I write about dear places and mountains and motivates me, prolonging the activity of going on trails. I discover that writing is a useful exercise in general, because it requires research, study, analysis; the outcome, remaining as a letter, has an indefinite future development. In me there is the sadness of the loss of my father, who on a morning at the end of July last year, just while I was at Pialeral, called me from the Manzoni Hospital in Lecco to request medical documentation for a final consultation on the tumor to the tonsil from which he suffered.

As in the last two seasons, since 2014, I begin my excursions with the same route, the first part can only be from Pasturo to Cornisella. From the church of the Alpini in Cornisella, the locality just over a thousand meters above sea level in a central position on the Grigna Settentrionale, I take the secondary path Sentiero Cornisella - Brunino, a common route for mountain bikes, marked with the new Pedalling in the Park trail signs. The recent signs prompted me to write a new post, signage of the trails, and add tags to my photos. On level ground and in a cooler climate I walk along the three houses of Spinarolo and in its scenic pasture. If it's lunch time, I stop to eat a first course at Agriturismo Brunino, the price is modest. From Barzio to Brunino, passing through Cornisella, it is a not too long and tiring excursion, round trip, it takes about two and a half hours with five hundred meters of altitude difference, I am not very fit, I would like to avoid having sore legs. Furthermore, I have not been well, the chronic pain in my back has been compounded by pain in my face and teeth, it is better to stay calm and covered. I return to Cornisella with the Sentiero Brunino - Cornisella.

Then, with a few kilometers in my legs, with the trail-running shoes and the faded red The North Face Animas 12 backpack on my shoulder, I'm ready for something more: again this summer I will climb to the thirteen hundred meters of Alpe Cova. Leaving the main mountain road, from Cornisella to Alpe Cova Valsassina opens up from above in its splendor with the Orobie mountains. On one of the benches in the Alp pond, lying in the shade of the trees, near the wooden crucifix, I will regain the strength lost from the climb and from my health, poorly cared for by the doctors and off-axis. Al fresco I will contemplate the Grigne. The non-competitive running and cycling race Pasturo - Alpe Coa is scheduled for Sunday 24 July, which I would like to attend, and participate in the mass, like four years ago.
For the subsequent walks and runs on Grignone, at zero cost to the environment because they start from home, my holiday plans to climb a little further, remaining within the paths and locations of the blog as if they were borders, to the Rifugio Antonietta and the basin of Pialeral. Until mid-September, more trained, I will have time to relax and repeat the routes between Pasturo and Pialeral numerous times.

Signage of the trails

Much of Grignone from 2005 is Regional Park of the Northern Grigna having managing body the Valsassina, Valvarrone, Val d'Esino and Riviera Mountain Community that marks the trails of the mountain, and those of the slope of Pasturo, trails traveled by hundreds of years.

The Mountain Comunity adopted a signage similar to Club Alpino Italiano with the unmistakable red and white colors and vertical signage with tables, and takes their place, Club that in the past had marked the trails of the Grigne. Moreover it traced at an altitude less than 1500 meters five cycling routes named Pedalando nel Parco (Pedalling in the Park).

Examining the tables of the verticale signage, mounted on metal poles, by Regional Park of the Northern Grigna and Mountain Community Valsassina, Valvarrone, Val d'Esino and Riviera, they are like those of the CAI of the present day with the absence of numbering:

• trails tables in the shape of arrow of size 55 x 15 cm.
• the tip of red with white logo Parco Regionale Grigna Settentrionale
• the tail red with in the middle on white the logo Comunità Montana Valsassina, Valvarrone, Val d'Esino e Riviera
• three lines with the destinations, if there is one in the middle, on the right the travel time
• the location table with its altitude, like at Alpe Cova

Similarly are the tables of Pedalling in the Park:

• top a red plate with a bike that goes up and logo Sistemi Parchi Regione Lombardia (Parks Systems Lombardy Region)
• location table with a white line on gray "Pedalando nel Parco" between two logos Comunità Montana Valsassina, Valvarrone, Val d'Esino e Riviera and Parco Regionale Grigna Settentrionale and below the altitude. I saw at Monteno, Cornisella, Brunino, Pialeral
• trails table with three lines, on each the destination followed by a hyphen (-) and the number of the route, on the right a colored circle

Coexist the old signs of CAI:

• trail table on yellow background, smaller than at present, and without the arrangement of lines, tail and numbering
• arrow engraved in red, white, yellow, white at center larger
• written C.A.I. vertically on the left or on the right of destination(s)

Scattered on trails and crossings arrow wooden signs indicating the destination, some metal, real arrow road signs like two browns at Pasturo in Via Cantellone and Via San Calimero indicating Grigna Settentrionale (Northern Grigna) and Pialeral.

For horizontal signing, the three colors trail markers red white red, or at two red and white, on rocks, walls, and visible points, you see only at high altitudes. Remain faded the old and rare CAI signs red white yellow, or yellow white red, with the number of the trail in the middle.

On Northern Grigna at low altitude there are mixed routes, roads, mule tracks, trails, which connect the locations by car, on foot, by bicycle, motorbike. Mountain Community Valsassina, Valvarrone, Val d'Esino and Riviera has traced for hikers the quickest path to Pialeral, and from there you go to altitude and to Rifugio Brioschi, that is from Colle di Balisio, leaving out others above all Sentiero Pasturo - Pialeral; the latter up to a thousand meters of altitude is not part of Park of the Northern Grigna. Bloom signs, usually of wood, or improvised tables that make up for this shortage, some of the refuges, other that divide the path type such at Acquafredda, vehicles on one side and on the other pedestrians. Here and there remains the old CAI's signals with its numbering.
The body that manages the mountain has favored the bike with five itineraries, creating an overlap with the trails, or a part of them, which were already known in another way, and confusion in those who go on foot (which are the majority) in having indicated in only one direction. Useful are its locations tables.

Signs with its stratification reflects the popularity of the Grigne, and for those who go often is nice to see again. It lacks a unified policy with trails marked by CAI on many mountains.

Sentiero Pasturo - Pialeral (descent)

I run Sentiero Pasturo - Pialeral descent for most of the time repeating the same trail from where I went up. Sometimes I go down from higher Rifugio Brioschi, Comolli, other from Pialeral, Rifugio Antonietta al Pialeral, or go through only a part from Alpe Cova, Cornisella.

I go down from the plan of Pialeral at 1430 meters paying attention to the steep slippery descent of small stones, gravel and horizontal trunks, and more quickly going along Costa through Rifugio Antonietta, the yellow restored mountain hut, the shaft that prevents the car passage up to the concrete downhill, the little lake is already there.
I slow down the pace along the dirt road, if I'm thirsty I drink, now in plan I look at Cascina Cova to 1300 meters, I know that in short will be a memory.

I run along the Road Pasturo - Alpe Cova in part shade, in winter sometimes snow ends here as the cool on the summer hot days, after the wooden hut I leave the road at the hairpin for the short but steep section of the trail, on concrete I read 1980.
I go on in level overcoming the two huts, arriving shortly at the junction that right after the hunting fixed stakeout lead to the woods and the steep descent. A look at the fountain at the hairpin, if I'm thirsty I drink again, then straight in the shadow and the best part is over but there is still Cornisella. After Baita La Riva the steep descent to the compression of Cold Water Bridge and the small ascent at Acquafredda for Cornisella along the road that sometimes you feel in legs and breath.

I'm at Cornisella 1050 meters, after 20, 25 minutes from Pialeral, I stop at the small Church of the Alpini Maria Regina Pacis for a sip at the fountain and down goodbye.
Here the hut in stone of Cornisella low, and move! down into the woods, watch out to bumpy trail up to the bend of Monteno, down left for the huts and in short I'm on the two bridges on Torrente Cariola, the Our Lady of the Rosary still sees me go.
Here in the summer the heat is felt, now you just have the trail by large cobbles, a little attention and I arrive at the small gate of villa Pozzi and to the houses of Via Cantellone in Pasturo, forty-five minutes after departure if I hurry otherwise an hour.

Grignone a farewell hoping is good bye.

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.

Rifugio Mario Tedeschi al Pialeral

Rifugio Mario Tedeschi al Pialeral, also Rifugio Mario Tedeschi, Rifugio Tedeschi, has been a refuge on Grignone at Pasturo in Valsassina to 1,428 meters high in place Pialeral, belonged to Società Escursionisti Milanesi (SEM), Milanesi Hikers Company.
The refuge was destroyed by an avalanche from the top of Grignone and fell down in Foppa del Ger a valley of the mountain, in the night between 30 and 31 January 1986; fortunately the refuge was empty and there were no casualties.

The refuge was born as an extension of Capanna Pialeral built in 1910 in an enchanting location, in a meadow in plan, an alpine pasture, with perfect view of Grignone, in front as from a balcony Alpe Cova and in the distance Valsassina. It was a landmark for Grignone in the slope of Pasturo, base for the ascent to Rifugio Luigi Brioschi on the top of the mountain, about a thousand meters above, and for many other excursions.
Destroyed in 1944 by the Nazi-fascists was re-built after the war.
It was dedicated to Mario Tedeschi, president of CAI Section of Milan between 1910 and 1912, promoter of a popular mountaineering.

Rifugio Mario Tedeschi was a large two-story building, consists of a ground floor with terrace, first floor and attic one.
At Pialeral of the refuge remains:

• a small wall high about a foot and long about ten meters, that is its base facing downstream
• a red plaque Club Alpino Italiano Sez. S.E.M. Rifugio Mario Tedeschi al Pialeral m. 1428, attached to the small wall
• a plaque in the gray metal of the size of about one meter for fifty centimeters with the dedication of the building, probably still Capanna Pialeral, by Società Escursionisti Milanesi July 17th, 1921. It fixed on a rock next to the signage of the trails, behind a tall green pole waves the Italian flag

In plaque at the center a naked woman standing on a mountain top with hands raised holding a row of flowers. On the four edges of the plate engraved flowers, in the upper edge the pick ax and down its toe cap. On both sides of the woman a number of names, on the left between the belly and her feet:

    Barbieri Aldo
    Barbieri Mario
    Cameroni Ugo
    Castiglioni Pietro
    Clerici Cornelio
    Corradini Carlo
    Cova Nemo
    Donini Lamberto
    Fantaguzzi Olimpio
    Lavezzi Carlo
    Lucchini Pietro

On the right of the woman:

    Mariani Ettore
    Mazzolari Osvaldo
    Moreo Arnaldo
    Piazza Edilio
    Rimoldi Salvatore
    Sgolmin Emilio
    Scattolin Aldo
    Tadini Domenico
    Zanini Adriano
    Zoja Pietro
    Zoppis Giuseppe

Under the woman and the mountain:
La Società Escursionisti Milanesi consacra ai maschi compagni morti per l'Italia queste mure ospitali, Milanesi Hikers Company consacres to male comrades dead for Italy these hospitable walls
XVII Luglio MCMXXI, luglio is July.

The refuge after the avalanche has not been built anymore, in its position a large lawn equipped with wooden picnic tables.
The place of Rifugio Mario Tedeschi al Pialeral was taken by a mountain hut below became first Rifugio Pialeral and now Rifugio Antonietta al Pialeral.

1. Società Escursionisti Milanesi, caisem.org

Rifugio Antonietta al Pialeral

Rifugio Antonietta al Pialeral, also referred to as Rifugio "Antonietta" al Pialeral or Rifugio Antonietta, is a refuge on Grignone at Pasturo in Valsassina to about 1,400 meters of height in Località Costa of Pialeral. The refuge is located about halfway between Pasturo and Rifugio Luigi Brioschi which is few meters below the summit of Northern Grigna, easily reached by many trails.

Rifugio Antonietta al Pialeral's manager is Dario Pensa, Refuge Telephone: 0341 955462, Home Phone: 035 4517465, Mobile Telephone: 338 3154374, Website: http://www.rifugioantonietta.it.
The refuge is open for 2015 every day in July, August, until 13 September and weekends.

The trails to Rifugio Antonietta are Sentiero Pasturo - Pialeral less than two hours walk uphill, Sentiero Traversata Bassa Piani dei Resinelli - Pialeral about two hours, Sentiero Colle di Balisio - Pialeral one hour; just above the refuge Sentiero Pialeral - Rifugio Brioschi (summer and winter trail) two hours or two hours and a half, Sentiero Traversata Bassa Pialeral - San Calimero - Rifugio Riva one hour and a half, for cyclists Pedalling in the Park's signs.
You arrive uphill at the shelter on the mule track partially cemented along the coast of the mountain among other huts as continuation of the agro-forestry-pastoral Road Pasturo - Alpe Cova ten minutes from Alpe Cova, the trails here have common trait.

On arrival at refuge along the road a great beech and with a few steps leads to the outside of the shelter, a wooden sign between ivy tells Rifugio "Antonietta" al Pialeral met in 1400, under a flower bed with flowers of different species indicated by their name, under the beech a small Christ on the cross. On a long table and two benches on the sides you can stand either the refuge is open or closed.
Hanging on a cabin bordering the refuge an an educational panel by Regional Park of the Northern Grigna and Valsassina, Valvarrone, Val d'Esino and Riviera Mountain Community, in a tourist project that originated from Geosites of Insubria, the second of the Path geological-paleontological of Pialeral. The title is Pialeral: i pesci dello Scudo (Pialeral: the fishes of the Shield) and showing fossils found on Grigna dating back about 235 million years ago.
A few meters further well-visible a wooden sign which points Sentiero Scaccabarozzi San Calimero hours 1 Rifugio Riva hours 2 Can not bike, is a path that connects to Traversata Bassa.
A fountain of rain water is just at the entrance door and entering into a small space always open that makes as bivouac in case of need. On the facade to the road a fresco of three meters by two of St. George slaying the dragon.

Rifugio Antonietta is a two-storey building can accommodate up to 35 people, of which twenty-two in a large room and the rest in three bedrooms.
Getting in a bench with the cash and behind the kitchen, on the right a small room to eat, many memories of the place and the mountain also vintage are on the walls. A large and beautiful terrace adorned with red flowers with views of the Valsassina and its Plateau is the place to eat on wooden tables in the beautiful summer days.
The cuisine is homemade with products primarily of the area. The main dishes are those of the mountains as pizzoccheri, vegetable soup and polenta, polenta of cheeses, polenta overcooked, and other typical, apple pie.

Rifugio Antonietta point of support of the place replaced Rifugio Mario Tedeschi al Pialeral destroyed by an avalanche on January 31, 1986 in the great plan of Pialeral at the end of Foppa del Ger just above the current. Pialeral remained without its reference, the mountain hut Innocente of Antonietta Pensa became first base for the mountain rescue and then Rifugio Pialeral that over time was enlarged.
Since the 2000s Rifugio Pialeral or Rifugio "Pialeral" became Rifugio Antonietta, there are still around the mountains signs with the old name. The refuge is now managed by Dario son of Antonietta.

I stopped a few times at Rifugio Antonietta al Pialeral, to eat a slice of cake or a quick meal on the terrace watching the valley before the descent.

1. Rifugio Antonietta al Pialeral, rifugioantonietta.it