Strepeis – Refuge Migliorero

Strepeis 1281 m – S. Bernolfo 1702 m – Passo di Laroussa 2471 m – Rifugio Migliorero 2100 m

Medium length stage and of considerable interest especially due to the presence of the town of S. Bernolfo, with characteristic wooden buildings with rye thatch roofs. Unfortunately, this is an important cultural heritage that is disappearing. The stretch from Strepeis and San Bernolfo is a bit boring, on a partly asphalted and partly dirt road.

From Strepeis 1281 m, leaving the large barracks complex on the left, take the carriage road, asphalted in the first section, which runs alongside the Corborant stream. The environment is harsh and not particularly interesting, except for some landfills which remind us of the exploitation of the lead and silver mines existing in the area until recent times.

After about a kilometer you leave on the left first the crossroads for Grange Marina, a group of houses located at the beginning of the Tesina valley, then the town of Callieri 1445 m. Both villages have become summer mountain pastures.

The carriage road now proceeds between small plots of land now only partially cultivated and rises gently into the Corborant valley until it reaches the village of S. Bernolfo 1702 m, located in the center of vast prairies: 1.30 hours.

Even this town with its characteristic construction typology, with walls made of squared logs and thatched roofs, is now inhabited only in the summer months: currently there is only a single thatched roof left!

Having gone up the entire village, you pass in front of the small church of S. Lorenzo (fountain) and a little further on take the path (P24) which first rises up in the middle of the meadows, then turns left to cross the stream which descends from the steep slopes of Mount Laroussa. Now the path passes between the alders and climbs up the orographic right bank of the little valley with numerous short bends.

About halfway up the path the path reaches a grassy shelf at 2085 m, upstream of which there is a small spring (the last one before the hill), then it crosses the stream (snow tongue until late summer) and goes up the opposite slope between thin stony pastures, but with a less steep and tiring path. Thus you reach the Laroussa Pass 2471 m, located between the rocky offshoots of the mountain of the same name and Monte Saletta: 2.30 hours.

From the hill you descend into the upper Alpette Valley following the path (P 24) which is difficult at times due to the presence of large debris alternating with patches of snow which remain until late summer. A final short descent between the scree slopes and the last offshoots of the rocky ridge on the left and you reach the lower Ischiator lake 2064 m. Passing between the two bodies of water, you go up the rocky mamelon, located in the center of the valley, and reach the Migliorero refuge 2100 m 1.00 hour.

Starting from the refuge, a short trip (approximately 1 hour) to the glacial lakes of Ischiator at half 2410 m is recommended.