Capù at the End of the Trail – Lago Branchino

Overview ~ Notes ~ Geology ~ Flora ~ Photos

  

Left: View north toward Passo dei Laghi Gemelli.
Center: Hike route from Valcanale to Lago Branchino and back.
Right: Food - Capù con polenta at Rifugio Alpe Corte.

The Third Time’s a charm? Maybe.

We generally don’t repeat hikes, except for destinations very close that we start out on foot from the house like Canto Alto, Canto Basso, Maresana, or Misma. So, it is interesting that we’ve been to Lago Branchino three times over 10 or so years. We generally want the next valley, the next rifugio, the unexplored trail. But today, we were invited to participate, and when a free and easy ride to the mountain arrives at the doorstep, you get in and don’t make too much of a fuss even if it’s been a hike, you’ve already done.

Overview

Duration: 4.5 hours with stops for snacks and lunch (3 hours walking)
Elevation: 736 m
Length: 10.8 km
Location: Val Seriana – Valcanale

Parking for this hike is typically in one or two big lots at the end of the Valcanale when you can’t go any more like here and here. The higher lots (or maybe all) require a ticket that you can buy at a bar/cafe on your way in or at a ticket machine.

From the parking lots, just follow the well marked trails. You’ll be following bits of Sentiero 218A: Giro dell'Alpe Neel, Sentiero 218: Rifugio Alpe Corte - Baita GAN, and at the start Sentiero 220: Ardesio - Valcanale - Rifugio Alpe Corte.

Notes

We have a “three nights minimum in a city” rule when traveling for more than a few days. Why don’t we have a “three visit rule” for hikes? Maybe we should start thinking about that: three hikes are how a trail starts becoming a place rather than an itinerary. And as you will see, we learned a little more about Lago Branchino and ate something interesting!

In fact, during this hike we had a small sense of becoming local through repetition. Times we've passed this way:

• Hike in Valcanale: Rifugio Branchino and Lago Branchino - early July
• An Early Spring Hike to Lago Branchino in Valcanale (Ardesio), in the Upper Val Seriana - early April
• Seven Days on the Sentiero delle Orobie – A Journey Through the Bergamo Alps - mid July

And we sort of lied; this would be our fourth time passing by Rifugio Alpe Corte (lower part of the hike). We forgot we did it on our Sentiero delle Orobie trek. How easily do we forget.

On the other hand, some things are hard to forget, like where to stop for coffee on our way up Val Seriana whereas our companions (Bergamaschi) forgot. That place is Minuscoli, where we always stop on our way to hike or ski in Val Seriana. We’ve stopped so many times with different friends; it’s a habit.

Parking for this hike is typically in one or two big lots at the end of the Valcanale when you can’t go any more like here and here. The higher lots (or maybe all) require a ticket that you can buy at a bar/cafe on your way in or at a ticket machine.

From the parking lots, just follow the well marked trails. You’ll be following bits of Sentiero 218A: Giro dell'Alpe Neel, Sentiero 218: Rifugio Alpe Corte - Baita GAN, and at the start Sentiero 220: Ardesio - Valcanale - Rifugio Alpe Corte.

After parking, we headed straight for the Lago Branchino (1,784 m) bypassing the always busy Rifugio Alpe Corte, which we would return to later. Just before the lake, we stopped at Rifugio Branchino (1,787 m) for coffee and cake. After coffee and cake we went up the pass just beyond and above the lake. A mass was in progress, people spread out on the hillside listening to the sermon.

We left before the amen and headed back down to Rifugio Alpe Corte (1,410 m) for lunch. It’s there that we saw on the menu and much to our surprise capù con polenta. (Love culinary surprises!)

A friend’s aunt once made something similar, but she called it nosècc, another name for it. But this was the first time we ever saw it in a rifugio. (See, this is why we want new rifugio for every hike.... our stomachs demand it.)

Capù con polenta is a dish that belongs to the Bergamo valleys through and through. Capù are cabbage rolls traditionally filled with breadcrumbs, local cheese, egg, garlic and parsley; later versions often include pork or sausage. The historic Parre/Val Seriana version is di magro, without meat. The name means “capon” in dialect, and your lunch note includes the lovely folklore about poor mountain families making a cabbage-leaf “capon” for a child who couldn't have the real bird.

Geology

While we have visited this small lake before, we didn’t truly appreciate the geology of this area until we wrote this post.

Lago Branchino is a small, alpine karst lake located at an altitude of approximately 1,784 meters within the Orobie Bergamasche Regional Park in Lombardy, Italy. But what does that mean? A karst lake is a geological formation dictated by karstification. Thanks, but still not helpful. Karstification occurs when soluble bedrock is dissolved by water. Karst lakes are formed as the result of a collapse of caves, especially in water-soluble rocks such as limestone, gypsum and dolomite.

Intriguing, tell me more.

The vast majority of alpine lakes in the Orobian range are formed by glacial excavation carving out impermeable granite or slate basins, Lago Branchino is an exception because:

• Soluble Limestone Bedrock: The lake sits in a high-altitude basin surrounded by the limestone and dolomite peaks of Corno Branchino and Corna Piana. Over millennia, acidic rainwater and melting snow slowly dissolved the calcium carbonate in the rock. This chemical weathering ate away at the mountain surface, opening up cracks, fissures, and ultimately collapsing underground voids to form a natural depression known as a doline or sinkhole.
• The Sealed "Lakebed" Effect: Usually, water in a limestone landscape immediately drains straight down through the porous rock into subterranean cave networks. Lago Branchino holds water because its shallow bed is layered with a thick buildup of insoluble clay, silt, and organic sediment. This residual material has acted as a natural waterproof plug, blocking the underlying rock fractures and allowing water to collect pool-style in the basin rather than draining into the mountain.
• Exclusively Rain and Snow-Fed: True to karst lake behavior, Lago Branchino has no surface inlets (streams or rivers) flowing into it. It is entirely fed by precipitation, surface runoff, and subterranean snowmelt. Because it lacks a steady surface river supply, the lake water level can fluctuate significantly depending on the season and dry spells.

Nearby the lake are the limestone peaks of Corno Branchino and Corna Piana. 

Lago Branchino serves as a central hub for hikers traversing the Bergamasque Alps. Right next to its western shore sits the seasonal mountain hut, Rifugio Lago Branchino. Someday, we going to do the Sentiero dei fiori, which passes through the pass (where the mass was being held).

Flora

The end of August was not the best time for flower spotting. We managed to get just a few.

[Asteraceae] Carlina acaulis
 

[Asteraceae] Centaurea sp.


[Asteraceae] Solidago sp. with hoverfly
 

[Gentianaceae] Gentiana asclepiadea
 

[Ranunculaceae] Aconitum napellus
 

Photos

  

Left and center: Mass at Passo del Branchino (1,821 m).

Right: One of the flock has escaped. Bergamasca - pecora gigante.

 

Left: Baita Bassa Alpe Neel above Valcanale.

Right: Sign showing biodiversity of the area - all the flowers and butterflies we didn't see today!

  

Left: Capù con polenta at Rifugio Alpe Corte.
Center: Penne con crema di porcini, tartufo and taleggio at Rifugio Alpe Corte.

Right: Rifugio Alpe Corte coffee and cake.

 

Left: Coffee and cake at Rifugio Branchino.

Right: Rifugio Alpe Corte menu.

  

Left: Above Valcanale, looking east over Alpe Neel.

Center: Pasture above Valcanale with view toward Passo dei Laghi Gemelli.

Right: View from pastures looking east with Monte Secco on the right.

A Short Post About a Long Hike - Vò Valley to Rifugio Tagliaferri

Overview ~ The Route ~ Photos ~ Flora

  

Left: Malga Venano di sopra (1870 m). Center: Baita Malga Venano di sopra. Right: A mossy beginning to trail 413.

Sometimes you have to wait to get or do something, and it’s worth it and you are probably better for it. Case in point: a hike to Rifugio Tagliaferri via the Valley Vò. We were supposed to go on Saturday with friends and for various reasons it didn’t happen and we were bummed. Then, a few days later on Wednesday, we decided to give it a go, just the two of us, and it was magical and worth the wait (and less crowded).

Overview

Length: 22.6 km
Elevation Gain: 1270 m
Duration: 8.25 hours (about 6 hours moving)
Highest Point: 2331 m
Starting Point: 1067 m
Destination: Rifugio Tagliaferri

The Route

The CAI Sentiero 413: Schilpario - Rifugio Tagliaferri is what we followed except for a small deviation on the last part going, which was more a “direct” route and not really worth the hassle and the sweat. Our advice, follow Sentiero 413 up and back. Easy-peasy.

The first 30 minutes of the hike are in a forest of spruce, mountain pine, alder, and hazelnut trees. The Vò torrente is always nearby and visible at times through the trees. Then the forest opens up to pastures. As you climb the mule track you come across: the Baita del Venano di sotto (1542 m), the Baita del Venano di mezzo (1679 m) and the Baita di Venano di sopra (1859 m). At the uppermost baita we saw a herd of about 1000 Pecora Gigante Bergamasca (Bergamasque Giant sheep), a massive Italian breed native to the mountainous valleys of Bergamo. The shepherd said he had been doing his job for 50 years and was ready for retirement. What does retirement look like for a shepherd?

We visited Rifugio Nani Tagliaferri back in 2019 approaching the rifugio from the adjacent valley with the Gleno Dam. See the post A Hike to Rifugio Tagliaferri via Val di Gleno. It was fun to come back and visit. This rifugio is the highest in the Bergamasque Alps at 2328 m. It’s also interesting for the story of why it was built.

The namesake of the rifugio, Nani Tagliaferri, was a mountaineer from Bergamo whose life and spirit embodied the rugged devotion to the Orobie Alps. His untimely death in in 1981 in the Peruvian Andes inspired his brother Francesco and a group of close friends resolved to honor his memory in a way that reflected his spirit—by building a refuge at altitude, where others could experience the same communion with the landscape that had shaped him.

The rifugio’s construction in the 1980s followed the logic of the military mule tracks of the surrounding valleys—meticulously graded, drained, and reinforced—linking the alpine valleys of Scalve and Valtellina. Set amid the Orobie Alps, the refuge overlooks a panorama that sweeps from the Bernina and Disgrazia groups to the peaks of Camino, Bagozza, and Concarena.

One botanical note: we saw so many raspberries on this hike. We sampled all along the trail, and they were good.

Photos

  

Left: Heading back down the mountain to to Malga Venano di sopra on trail 413.

Center: Last bit of the direct trail to reach Rifugio Tagliaferri.
Right: Sheep in Malga Venano di sopra.

  
Left: Leaving the rifugio on trail 413.

Center: Looking down on Malga Venano di sopra.

Right: View from the trail looking south toward Pizzo Camino.

  

Left: Trail 413 starts out gentle in the forest.

Center: Trail 413 goes by two small lakes in the upper reaches.

Right: View of Pizzo Tornello (2687 m).

  

Left: Venano di sopra conca.

Center: Trail - View from trail up to rifugio (hidden).

Right: Trail - Malga Venano di sopra – shepherd's hut.

   
Left: Rifugio Tagliaferri - special dish of the rifugio.

Center left: Rifugio Tagliaferri – spezzatino.

Center right: Rifugio Tagliaferri – dishes for a group of hikers

Right: Rifugio Tagliaferri - in the kitchen.


  

Left: Sign about charcoal production.

Center: Trail Sign at Malga Venano di sopra (1870 m).

Right: Just below the rifugio, out of sight.

Flora

[Apiaceae] Bupleurum sp.

[Asteraceae] Leontopodium nivale - edelweiss
 

[Asteraceae] Carlina acaulis

 

[Asteraceae] flower


[Campanulaceae] Campanula sp.

 

[Caryophyllaceae] Lychnis flos-cuculi

[Crassulaceae] Rhodiola rosea
  

[Crassulaceae] Sempervivum montanum
 

[Papaveraceae] Pseudofumaria lutea


[Rosaceae] Potentilla sp.


[Rosaceae] Rubus idaeus


[Saxifragaceae] Saxifraga aizoides