After a rest day in Canazei we were ready to hit the trail again. We had a short bus ride from Canazei to the Ciampac cable car in Alba di Canazei. The cable car took us to 2170 m and we hiked up the dirt road the rest of the way to Sella Brunech (there was a chairlift, but we wanted to hike to tire out Norah. And needed it with all the yummy food we’d been eating!). It was a beautiful day and we took our time at Sella Brunech before embarking on the Lino Pederiva trail. This trail is an impressive ridge walk spanning from Sella Brunech to Passo San Nicolo and traversing under Sas Bianch de Roseal and Sas de Roces. When we weren’t carefully watching our steps on the narrow trail, we enjoyed the expansive views on this memorable trail.

We arrived at Rifugio Passo San Nicolo around lunch time. We ate lunch outside with a number of other hikers, but as we approached late afternoon most hikers had departed for the valleys and we more or less had the pass to ourselves. Steve hiked up Colac and Norah and I spent some time at a nearby viewpoint with astounding views of Gran Vernel and Marmolada. We were the only hikers staying at the rifugio (it sleeps fourteen) and it was a quiet, beautiful evening. This was one of our favorite rifugios.

We had seen Malga Contrin and Rifugio Contrin from the pass and the next morning we made the one hour descent to the Contrin basin. Malga Contrin is a small dairy farm offering fresh dairy products and this was another favorite stop on our trip. The food was delicious and the setting beautiful. We originally thought we’d stay at Rifugio Contrin, but our day hiking options were limited by the snow and we hiked down Val Contrin to the small village of Penia di Canazei in Val di Fassa. We caught a bus to Lago Fedaia for some hiking on the other side of Marmolada. It was a great two days - we really enjoyed our time at Passo San Nicolo and Val Contrin! Book times and elevation gain/loss for our hike:

Ciampac cable station (2170m) to Sella Brunech (2428m): 258m/847 ft elevation gain, 45 minutes
Sella Brunech to Passo San Nicolo (2340m): 62m/203 ft elevation gain, 150m/492 ft elevation loss, 1 hr 30 min
Passo San Nicolo to Malga Contrin (2027m): 313m/1027 ft elevation loss, 1 hour
Malga Contrin to Penia di Canazei (1555): 472m/1549 ft elevation loss, 1 hr 15 min

Total: 4.5 hours, 320m/1050 ft elevation gain, 935m/3068 ft elevation loss