Hikes in Valmalenco

The best hikes in Valmalenco: the Rifugio Bignami at the Fellaria, the Rifugio Gerli Porro at the Ventina and the larches at the Rifugio Cristina.

Valmalenco is the valley of Valtellina that takes you closest to the Bernina glaciers, and two of its best-known hikes follow a glaciological trail, meaning a marked route that shows where the glacier reached in past decades: the Ventina trail from the Rifugio Gerli Porro and the Fellaria trail from the Rifugio Bignami.

The third is a short, easy walk to the Rifugio Cristina, on the Alpe Prabello, which becomes one of the most beautiful destinations in Lombardy when the larches change colour in autumn.

Good to know about the Valmalenco

The Valmalenco is a valley of stone: for centuries its serpentine rocks have yielded pietra ollare, a soapstone soft to work and resistant to fire, from which lavecc are made, the lathe-turned pots that craftsmen in Chiesa in Valmalenco and Lanzada still produce and bind with copper or iron. In the Valbrutta the old wooden lathes that until a few decades ago were driven by water power are still there, and a themed trail lets you see them. If you pass through Chiesa on the way down from the hut, a soapstone pot is perhaps the most authentic souvenir of the valley, as well as the heaviest to carry home.

The valley's two glaciological trails show a retreat that, on the other side of the Bernina in Switzerland, is measured every year by the GLAMOS network: Swiss glaciers lost about 6 per cent of their volume in 2022 and about 4 per cent in 2023, ten per cent in just two years. Near the snouts the ground changes from one season to the next, glacial lakes can grow or drain quickly and moraines just released by the ice are unstable. It is wise, then, to stay on the waymarked path, keep away from ice walls and not set foot on the glacier without mountaineering equipment and skills.