Cortina, Tofane, Falzarego e 5 Torri

Tour completed on August 10, 2023

Another beautiful all-mountain tour around the Cortina d'Ampezzo basin that follows part of the Super Panorama Freeride MTB route. The trail consists mostly of singletrack through the Dolomites and forests, with the use of a few lifts. It wasn’t always smooth going, and the second half was wet due to recent rain, but it was a lot of fun and we were surrounded by breathtaking views.

We left the van at the Via del Parco parking lot in Cortina, walked to the Drusciè cable car, and took two lifts to reach an elevation of 2,100 meters at the Duca d’Aosta mountain hut. from there we began the tour with a fun descent on the easy Tofanina trail until we turned off at the intersection with the small road leading up to the Angelo Dibona refuge; once we reached the refuge, our route was supposed to continue along theAlta Via delle Dolomiti CAI 404, which runs along the flank of the Tofana di Rozes at around 2,300 meters. However, at the refuge we had to turn back because we were told that Trail 404 had recently been closed due to a landslide, The only alternative was to descend and take the paved state road, but since we had a daily bike pass, we opted to go down a bit further to the new Skyline cable car (which, starting in 2023, is also open in the summer and allows bike transport). So we ended up with an impromptu descent—which, incidentally, turned out to be fun—taking the forest service shortcuts right away and then rejoining the Tofanina trail, veering off near the lift’s valley station.

Once we arrived via the Skyline cable car in the Bai de Dones area, we descended a few hundred meters through the woods until we crossed State Road 48, then climbed back up the forest road in front of us, which would take us back to an elevation of 2,100 meters to rejoin the original trail descending from the Col dei Bos pass, and then continued climbing to 2,180 meters to the ruins of the old World War I military hospital. From there, we resumed skirting the mountain along CAI Trail 423, a route with ups and downs featuring a few short sections where we had to push our bikes due to obstacles and small landslides, before descending to the Falzarego Pass at 2,110 meters.

After crossing the pass, we descended along a somewhat marshy trail to Bai de Dones to catch the last lift, which took us to the Scoiattoli refuge, just a few meters from the beautiful Cinque Torri. After the customary photos, we set off on a fun 10-km descent to Cortina; the first part is on a dirt road, then the trail becomes steeper and rougher, alternating between easy sections and challenging S2 sections with a few short difficult passages.

This tour covers 1,300 meters of elevation gain (by bike + lifts) for a total of 40 km.