Route 2: "Malga Ra Stua" ring course
Time:	3 hours - 3 hours 30 minutes (ring course).
Height difference:	300 metres; (1420 m. Tornichè - 1720 m. Spònes dei Ciadìs).
Best period of the year:	All over the year, except when the snow is too high; in winter with snow rakets.
Main sights and points of interest:	Landscape, antrophical, geomorphologic and vegetation.
Difficulty:	The itinerary is not at all difficult. It is ideal for a downhill walk along one of the two branches when the through road to Malga ra Stua is closed to traffic and there is a shuttle service in operation.
How to get to the starting point:	Take the State Highway no. 51 (Alemagna) to just after Km. 111, where there is a crossroads near a sharp turn; there is a car park just after the crossroads.
Excerpt from "Tabacco" map scala 1:25000:	Click to enlarge

General description

Just up from the Sant'Uberto car park, near the turn in the State Highway where the road for Malga Ra Stua goes left, take the pedestrian path on the left, which leads up to a mixed wood of fir and beech trees and follow the track of an old trench dug during the First World War. After a couple of sharp turns, you get to the level of the asphalt road, go past it and, going up along a well-kept section of the old road to Malga, you arrive near "Crosc de Son Pouses", for an exceptional panorama of the Boite valley and the Pian de Loa basin.

The entire Son Pouses area was the site, during the First World War, of fortifications and battles, since it was one of the strategic points of the Austrian front, from where it was possible to access the Cortina basin directly. There are some remains, currently used for tourist purposes, of roads and paths and trenches and tunnels, which at the start of the 20th Century had considerably modified and upset the woods and prairies of the past and which even today, more than 80 years later, still mark out the high-level territories of the Ampezzo Dolomites.

Just beyond, there is the crossroads where the ring course begins. It is best to start off going up to the right along the winding track on the old war path that brings you to the Western slopes of Son Pouses. Having passed the most difficult part of the excursion, cross, to the left, the recent rock slips and pass by a beautiful spring coming directly from a wall of red rock. Going up slightly to the North, you go past a nice panoramic point where you can see the Antruiles basin, on the opposite side of the valley.

The Pian de Loa and Antruiles clearings are still grazed for certain brief periods of the year. In June, when the grass at mid-level is already abundant and the snow is still melting at the top level, transhumant summer mountain grazing is practised, which consists of staying temporarily with the herds and flocks where the grass is greener and moving up with the blooming. Pian de Loa is the first stop for the summer mountain grazing of the cattle who move, near the end of June, to the Ra Stua pasture; Antruiles is the first stop for the summer mountain grazing of the sheep that will be brought to the vast pastures of the Foses plateau at the start of July. If there is some early snow in September, these areas will be frequented for a few weeks before the definitive return to the owners' stables.

Crossing the Western slopes of the Croda de r'Ancona, you can often bump into the most characteristic and representative animal of the Ampezzo Dolomites: the chamois. The herds, consisting of females, young and small individuals can be seen more often on the screes and in open areas, while the more solitary males are more frequently seen on the slopes covered with vegetation or in more withdrawn areas.

The path gradually becomes a road (built during the First World War to get to Son Pouses from the North) and crosses the steep Western bend of the Ciadis de r'Ancona, a nature reserve of the Piano del Parco. Towards the valley, among the vegetation, you will notice the bridge on the Ru de ra Lainòres which leads back down to Sant’Uberto and further on, the waterfall which the Boite forms just below the Ra Stua glare; you can reach it by going down slightly, passing the bridge on the Ru de ra Cioures, which comes from the Alpe di Lerosa through a series of waterfalls on sheer rock walls.

In toponymy, "Stua" means "blocking of a water course" and the name bears witness to the presence on the site of a dyke, which was presumably used to power a stone saw; the outcrop of red stone known as "Ammonite Red" is almost unique in the Ampezzo valley and, if it is true that the steps of the ancient Santa Caterina Parish Church, which emerged from the digs of the foundations of the Albergo Posta (built in 1354), is made from this rare type of rock, we can suppose that the Ra Stua pit and sawmill were already active by the mid-14th Century.

To get back to the Sant’Uberto car park, cross the asphalt road and start to go down by crossing the Boite on the bridge built over a lovely waterfall ("Souto de Ra Stua"). The path crosses a magnificent red fir wood ("Boscato”), erected by a single-level collection of age-old plants and used as a nature reserve. After a few serpentine turns, you cross Ru de ra Lainòres over a recently rebuilt bridge.

Then go down to the bottom of the valley and cross the Boite again over a third bridge. Without going back up too much, go right along a logging track which, going down slightly, leads to the road for Antruiles; go back up slightly to "Sas Scendù" ("Rock broken in two") and, taking the asphalt road flanking the valley, you arrive at the Crosc de Son Pouses crossroads, near which the ring course ends. Take the route taken going up along the old road and the trench and you will soon be back at the Sant'Uberto car park.