ETNA NORD 1: Ragabo-Monte Pizzillo-Monte Nero-Altomontana

Challenging loop ride due to sandy terrain but worth it for the trails and views. It starts from the Chalet Clan dei Ragazzi where you can eat and stay overnight to possibly get some trail days in the area.

Start uphill on asphalt towards Piano Provenzana (if you want you can do trails but the climb up to the GPM is very challenging), arrived at Piano Provenzana take the dirt road to the summits, watch out for jeeps bringing up tourists. Past the ladybugs ski lift at 2380 meters you turn right and take a path with the beautiful Mount Pizzillo in front of it that we are going to circumnavigate clockwise, the path is not marked so trust the trail. As soon as you reach the southern part of the mountain the descent on sometimes challenging sandy terrain will begin about for 1.5 km and dsl -300, difficulty S1. The trail continues through a series of button craters and then head towards Monte Nero which we will circumnavigate counterclockwise with a short ascent. finished the ascent begins a S1 trail (Black crocodile trail) in the midst of lava flows with a few passages a bit technical, and then reach the faggette of Timparossa. Here the trail becomes flow difficulty S0 and as we descend we take a super flow trail to the right (Timparossa Descent), nice and fast that takes us up the Altomontana, from here we ride for a few km and then take a detour to the right that serves as a link back to the Boys Clan.

Trail

BLACK CROCODILE: km 1.14, dsl - 112mt, average gradient -9.6%

TIMPAROSSA DESCEND: km 1.35, dsl -10.1%

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