It is hard to find a wider and more colourful loop among the peaks and lakes of the upper Val Gerola. A route that brushes the waters of four lakes of the Orobie, with wide views of the peaks of the Valtellina, in the company of the ibex that gather in clusters around Rifugio Benigni.
From Gerola Alta a narrow road with hairpins climbs to Pescegallo (m1454), where we park in the large square by the chairlift to Rifugio Salmurano, which also runs in the summer months. We take the lane that climbs steeply from the eastern edge of the car park, to the right of a small stream, and leave it near an alpine pasture where a fine path begins, stepped in places, heading into a conifer wood. It comes out further on to join the dirt road that, winding uphill towards the east, quickly leads to the dam of Lago di Pescegallo (m1862, 1 hour) and its crystal-clear waters.
We retrace the stretch of dirt road we have just walked and then take a small path that branches off to the left and, on the level, leads round behind Rifugio Salmurano (m1830, 30 minutes). Anyone wishing to shorten the route can use the section of chairlift that comes up from Pescegallo.
We now climb the meadows that open up before our eyes (turned into wide ski runs in winter), where our gaze keeps falling on the improbable shapes of the Denti della Vecchia, the rocky pinnacles on our right.
On reaching Passo Salmurano (m2017, 30 minutes) the landscape turns harsher. Over on the Bergamo side, we follow a traverse to the foot of an entertaining little gully of rock and scree; once we have climbed it and a few hairpins, we finally look out onto the rocky balcony that holds the Lilliputian Rifugio Benigni (m2222, 45 minutes). Numerous ibex live on the boulder fields around the hut and on the shores of nearby Lago Piazzotti, unconcerned by the human presence, if anything rather curious about the crowds of hikers who gather here on summer Sundays.
After a more than well-earned rest, we take the path heading south-west; after a short descent we reach the end of a small grassy valley where, with a couple of hairpins, we gain a first notch without too much effort, and then, on the level, the nearby Passo Bocca di Trona (m2224, 30 minutes). From the pass we descend over scree on an uneven route, accompanied by the towering shapes of Pizzo Tronella and by the view of Lago Zancone and Lago di Trona, which we soon reach just after passing an evocative graveyard of huge boulders fallen from the surrounding walls. It is a real pleasure to linger among the rhododendrons of Lago Zancone (m1856, 45 minutes).
We now skirt the large Trona reservoir (m1806, 15 minutes); at the dam we take the path heading away to the east. A long traverse, sometimes in the woods, sometimes over boulders or meadows, brings us back towards Pescegallo; past a small pond, the path enters the Val Tronella for a few dozen metres, then plunges two hundred metres in a series of wide hairpins; finally, after a last stretch in the woods, the path comes out at the chairlift square (m1454, 1.30 hours).
