Viel del Pan historic merchant trail

From Pordoi Pass to Fedaia Pass along the Viel del Pan trail

A high-altitude trail in the South Tyrolean Fassa Valley with lots of views and flowers. A great start to your vacation! The (new) "Col Dei Rossi" cable car takes you straight up to the so-called Bindelweg. This mountain station alone offers fantastic views of the large, rugged mountain regions around you: Latemar, Rosengarten, Sella, Marmolada. Brilliant! Then you continue on wide and large hiking trails, relatively flat, to the Refugio de Pan of the same name. There was a short detour towards the Pordoi Pass for the sake of the view. Up to this point it is really busy, but it is fairly pleasantly spread out. From here you can also see the Marmolada and its blue, shining glaciers at well over 3000 meters. The meadows along the way are a sea of flowers! The variety of different orchids is particularly brilliant. I was most impressed by the extremely rare fire lily, which I saw again and again. From the Rifugio I made a short detour to the summit of Sass Ciapel - I couldn't resist taking it with me. The rest of the path now becomes much more lonely down to the Fedaia reservoir. But it never gets difficult. After a leisurely stop at the lake, we went back with one of the buses that drive down into the valley every 30 minutes. A nice hike and an ideal introduction to getting an overview of this corner of South Tyrol in its entirety.

We climb up with the cable car from Alba (or the combined cable car + cable car from Canazei) to Col de Rossi, ready for the adventure on the famous Viel del Pan. 🚡🥾 In the summer months, this trail is very popular, so don't expect absolute solitude, at least until the Rifugio Viel dal Pan. Many hikers stop here, satisfied by the view of the Marmolada and the pleasant walk. 😉 We, however, continue! The trail becomes slightly more challenging, but without great difficulty. 💪 We reach the final climb towards Porta Vescovo, where a breathtaking view awaits us also on the Arabba side. 🤩 The effort of the last climb (short but intense!) is amply rewarded. The descent towards the Fedaia Pass and its lake begins, with the Marmolada always in front of us. ⛰️ At the lake, right at the end of the trail, we find the bus stop to return to the valley. 🚍 Note: Check the bus schedule from Passo Fedaia to Alba/Canazei. 🚌 The descent to the lake can be tough on the knees (trekking poles may help)🦵

From Vigo di Fassa with bus line 101 to Canazei Belvedere and from there with the cable car up to Col dei Rossi. Very easy to walk high-altitude trail at 2300 to 2400 meters altitude to the Fedaia reservoir with great views of the Piz Boe and the Marmolada. If you feel like it, you can walk to the Passo Pordoi and then take the cable car to the Piz Boe at 3152 meters.

I didn't want to walk into the valley with the new shoes after all. Walk in for the first time