The training routes
Three training routes on the summer race trails, in Val Dogna and Val Alba. For each one you get the figures, a description of the route, what to watch for and a GPS track to download.
The loops follow sections of the race courses, sometimes in the opposite direction: train here and you will meet the same trails on race day. These are alpine routes, with long climbs and faint paths: download the GPS track and keep it available offline. The Monte Schenone and Val Alba loops both go above 1,800 m, so carry proper mountain kit; if the weather is unsettled or visibility poor, leave it for another day. The full description of each loop, with the map, is on the linked page.
Monte Schenone loop – Lipnik
An alpine loop with wide views, taking in Forcella del Clap Jovel, the slopes of Monte Schenone, Sella Bieliga and Malga San Leopoldo.
Distance
12.5 kmA loop starting and finishing at Malga Poccet, at 1,367 m.
Ascent
993 m+The first 450 m of ascent takes you up to Forcella del Clap Jovel, at 1,817 m.
Trails
CAI 601 · 602A technical loop: it follows about 1.5 km of the most exposed part of the race course, in the opposite direction.
You set off from Malga Poccet and climb steadily to Forcella del Clap Jovel, on a dirt track and an easy path. From the col, around the 2.8 km mark, the loop joins the race course the other way round and heads for Monte Schenone. The loop does not go to the summit, but the top is right there above you at 1,949 m, and the detour — not counted in the figures in the box — is worth making: the view takes in the Montasio group, Monte Manca and Jôf di Dogna.
You then descend a very steep grassy gully — in the race you climb it — and traverse wide meadows, in the most open part of the amphitheatre between Clap Jovel and Monte Schenone. Towards the end you come into a band of dwarf pine: it is passable, though in places the vegetation crowds the path. Shortly after, on the right, a direct path drops through meadows and woodland to Sella Bieliga.
From Sella Bieliga a good forest road leads to Malga San Leopoldo. The fountain there is closed and covered with sheet metal, but a little above it there is a usable spring, which we have tested and which will also be a water point in the race. If you are not used to drinking from springs, bring purification tablets. From there you head back to Malga Poccet.
Before you go
Malga Poccet is reached by an old military road, narrow and with no guardrail in places: drive it only if you are used to driving in the mountains, and ideally not in a large car.
Watch out for the steep grassy gully below Monte Schenone and for the band of dwarf pine. Lower down, on the descent to Sella Bieliga, the path is not always obvious: this is the point where the GPS track really matters.
Full route page: the two Val Dogna loops Track on Trace de Trail
Mincigos loop
A hard climb from Dogna to Forcella Mincigos, then the descent through beech woods and past the old cableways of Mincigos.
Distance
11.3 kmA loop starting and finishing in Dogna, at 428 m.
Ascent
1,210 m+Almost all of the climbing is in the opening ascent to the col.
Trails
CAI 602 · 602aA relentless climb. The first part is on the race course.
From Dogna the climb starts straight away towards Chiout Pupin, where the race has a water point, then follows the opening section of the race course up to Forcella Mincigos, at 1,488 m: just under five kilometres of unbroken climbing. On paper the whole loop reads as an hour and a half: in practice it can take three or four hours.
At the col you leave the race course and drop left into the woods. The first stretch is poorly marked, then come two kilometres of runnable beech wood, easy and flowing: a half-forgotten path, and a fine one to rediscover. You come out at Mincigos, an isolated hamlet under Clap Forât, with its old cableways and its houses, some abandoned, some restored.
From Mincigos a kilometre of fainter path, including the step from woodland onto the dirt track, leads to Prerit di Sopra. From there you have two ways back: 1.5 km of cycle path, which needs care, or the lower road along the Fella, a dead end with little traffic.
Before you go
The descent from the col, and the point where the woodland path meets the dirt track after Mincigos, are the two places where it is easiest to go wrong: that is where the GPS track really matters.
A few sections of the climb have subsided or slipped away: none of it is exposed, but it needs care. Where an extra handhold helps we have left temporary ropes: do not count on them, they may no longer be there. The two fixed lines, at around the 3 km and 4 km marks, will only be rigged for the race.
Full route page: the two Val Dogna loops Track on Trace de Trail
Val Alba loop – Vualt, Bianchi, Fonderis
A loop of 15.5 km inside the Riserva naturale regionale della Val Alba. Between Bivacco Bianchi and Forcella Fonderis it follows the trails the Alpe Adria Ultra 120 takes through its most remote stretch.
Distance
15.5 kmA loop starting and finishing at the Val Alba car park, at 1,065 m.
Ascent
1,289 m+About 300 m of ascent builds up in the ups and downs of the traverse.
Trails
CAI 450 · 428 · 425An alpine loop, with the 428a link on the way up and the 450A from the col.
From the Val Alba car park you climb to Rifugio Vualt, at 1,168 m, and then to Bivacco Giuseppe Bianchi, at 1,712 m: woodland, ledges cut into the rock, open slopes and the valley walls rising all around. This first part is perfectly kept, and Bivacco Bianchi is one of the busiest destinations in the area.
From the bivouac the CAI 425 traverse begins, heading for Forcella Fonderis at around 1,800 m. This is the section not to underestimate: a level traverse on paper, constant ups and downs on the ground, over scree, gullies and long stretches cut across the slope. The detour to the ruins of Ricovero Sot Cretis starts at the col too: the race passes the ruins and carries on towards Costa Mauron, while in training you turn round and come back the same way. It adds 4 km and 300 m of ascent to the figures in the box, and ends on a ledge fitted with a cable handrail.
From the col you carry on along CAI 450A and then the 450, past the ruins of Casera Crostis, where the long descent to Rio Fonderis and Rio Alba begins. Here the route changes character: a clear, obvious path, with the grass cut for long stretches. On the last part of the descent the old 450 is cut by a landslide: you leave the path and follow the waymarked variant, which crosses a beech wood and rejoins the outward route.
Before you go
The last water before the traverse is the spring just below Bivacco Bianchi, at around the 5 km mark; the next spring is a long way on, on the descent towards Rio Alba. Start with enough water for the whole loop.
Straight after that, on the 425 traverse, some sections are exposed and the slope can shed rock, especially around the Tieris Rossis and in the Rio Fonderis gully: it is best not to stop below the steepest parts, and to keep an eye on any animals above you. In the wet, the loose ground needs even more care.
At the end of the loop the old CAI 450 still looks passable, but a little further on it ends at the collapsed spur and there is no way through. Follow the waymarked variant without hesitating — this is the point where you really need the GPS track offline.
Where they come up in the race
The two Val Dogna loops take in sections of the trails that Jôf Trail 31, Montasio 55 and Alpe Adria Ultra 120 follow through Dogna, Forcella Mincigos, Monte Schenone, Malga San Leopoldo and Sella Bieliga. On the Val Alba loop the shared stretch is the one between Bivacco Bianchi and Forcella Fonderis, which only the Alpe Adria Ultra 120 covers, between the life bases of Val Aupa and Dogna.
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