Sfazù - Rifugio Viola(Lake's trail)

General Notes:

Altitude Difference: 862 m

Time: 3h

Phisical Effort: Normal

Difficulty: E

Description:

To reach Rifugio Viola from Sfazu there are many paths,one of the most beautiful is what we call as the sentiero dei laghi or Lake's trail, an extremely panoramic path that will lead us to rifugio Viola among the various alpine lakes.

Sfazu is a small Swiss town along the state road of the Bernina pass that from Poschiavo goes up towards the pass,there is no real village but the only building we find is a small yellow restaurant/bar to the right of the state road,after about 20m from the accommodation we will find on the left a large parking lot,free of charge,where you can leave your car.

The path starts near the restaurant where a dirt road comes off on its left.

We will start to walk this dirt road that in the first 5' will enter a beautiful wood of larch and fir trees before entering Val di campo, once you enter Val di Campo the landscape becomes wonderful, the dirt road that we will continue to follow goes up with slight slopes between pastures and beautiful meadows where cattle graze.

After about one hour of walking always following the dirt road, we will reach a junction near a beautiful wooden bridge with signs that indicate us to the right Rügiul, we will continue straight and in about 10' we will reach the Saoseo refuge, after passing another wooden bridge.

During the summer period July/August the Postal service,the Swiss buses,provide a small bus/shuttle that leads in a short time to the refuge thus avoiding 1h and 15' of walking,allowing us to preserve our strength.Once we reach the refuge we will pass it keeping to the right where we will find signs indicating the Viola pass and the Viola and Saoseo lakes,from this moment the dirt road leaves room for a path that always with slight slopes goes into the thick larch and mughus forest.

During the climb we will find some signs that indicate the possibility of reaching Lake Saoseo,but we will continue straight ignoring all the signs and the various signs,after about 20' our path will reconnect with the path used by the MTB to reach the Rifugio Viola,this last path comes off just before the Rifugio Saoseo but we must avoid taking it as we will lengthen the path by about 20'.

Following the path we will come to a second junction where the two signs indicate us on the left Plan de la Genzana, Passo Viola and on the right Passo Viola, Lago Viola, Lago Saoseo, we will take this last detour and descend in about 5' up to Lago Viola.

Once we reach Lake Viola we can stop to admire the clear waters of the lake,to continue towards the refuge we will cross a small stream thanks to a small wooden bridge,after which we will turn left and for about 50 m we will go up the meadows parallel to the stream until we reach a sign that makes us turn right;begins a stretch where we will overcome some small streams also thanks to some bridges.

After this stretch the real climb will begin, the path will enter between some boulders and sometimes we will be forced to help us with our hands,the vegetation becomes more and more sparse and begins a stretch with high slopes and multiple hairpin bends,gaining more and more meters in height we can also admire the beautiful lakes of the Val di Campo.

After about 40' since we started from the Viola lake, we will reach a small inlet from where on our left we can see the Viola pass with a small road that goes down from the pass and a small pond,we will continue keeping the right going into continuous valleys where there are multiple alpine lakes;before reaching the inlet we will walk through a beautiful valley where we can admire countless marmots who have made this valley their home.

From the bocchetta the path will cover short ups and downs between a pond and the other,at the entrance of the last bocchetta we will find a rock with the indications of the state border,behind which we find another alpine lake from where the path turning left after a short flat stretch will begin the descent towards the refuge.

We will start the descent towards the refuge that we are already able to glimpse with its characteristic color and immersed in the lakes of the Val Viola;it will take about 10 minutes to reach the refuge where we can stop to rest and eat at reasonable prices.