Zacchi Hut - Porticina ring from the Fusine Lakes RING CURRENTLY IMPASSABLE

From the car park, go down the paved road for a few meters until you come to the trace of the path that goes up into the wood with the CAI 512 trail sign. From here, you gradually go up along the wooded ridge, in the beech and fir wood, remaining in the shade of the plants on the northern ridge of Monte Svàbezza, initially without a view of the valley and with a traverse section with little slope. At the barely visible peak of Svàbezza, a first glimpse opens towards the lakes below and a narrower stretch of path begins, which always proceeds across and on a slight slope with ever wider views in the stretch that dominates the Bosco Suscia, between the 1400 and 1600 meters of altitude. In the gentle gait, the path outlines between larches and dense pine woods and the most beautiful and panoramic part of the path offers the view of the rocky chain of Ponze and Mangart up to the lakes and, behind them, the Lussari. At an altitude of 1637, near some rocky cliffs that mark the furrow of the Rio della Forcella below, there is a crossing on steep and friable ground facilitated by a footbridge and a metal cable. After this stretch, the path enters the small wooded basin where, after crossing a stream, you meet the crossroads that goes up to the Porticina with trail sign 512a. Climbing about two hundred meters in altitude, you pass the last plants of the wood and following a stretch of path between crumbly rocks that climbs up in hairpin bends, you gain the suggestive rocky saddle which interrupts the chain between the Ponza Grande and the Ponza Piccola and which offers a view over the border towards Slovenia, towards the Plain of Ratece: La Porticina. During the ascent you notice a trace of the path that goes to the left and which, with a little attention on landslides, goes up a canal and leads to the exposed top of Ponza Piccola (for experts only). Going down to the stream again, take the original path again and pass next to the Capanna Ponza - managed by the Tarvisio forestry station - in a flat section between large larch trees. Now the trail slightly traverses the valley in a southerly direction with a pleasant descent in sparse woods and with an aided point with a beautiful panoramic view of the basin until you reach the Zacchi refuge. After a stop at the refuge, which is also managed in winter, take the beautiful path just below which always bears the same trail sign 512 and descend pleasantly, avoiding the long forest service track, until you cross it when the slope is zero, now near at Lake Superior of Fusine. From the lake, with about a kilometer of paved road, you return to the car or, more pleasantly, you follow the eastern shore of the two lakes along the tourist trail. Climbing about two hundred meters in altitude, you pass the last plants of the wood and following a stretch of path between crumbly rocks that climbs up in hairpin bends, you gain the suggestive rocky saddle which interrupts the chain between the Ponza Grande and the Ponza Piccola and which offers a view over the border towards Slovenia, towards the Plain of Ratece: La Porticina. During the ascent you notice a trace of the path that goes to the left and which, with a little attention on landslides, goes up a canal and leads to the exposed top of Ponza Piccola (for experts only). Going down to the stream again, take the original path again and pass next to the Capanna Ponza - managed by the Tarvisio forestry station - in a flat section between large larch trees. Now the trail slightly traverses the valley in a southerly direction with a pleasant descent in sparse woods and with an aided point with a beautiful panoramic view of the basin until you reach the Zacchi refuge. After a stop at the refuge, which is also managed in winter, take the beautiful path just below which always bears the same trail sign 512 and descend pleasantly, avoiding the long forest service track, until you cross it when the slope is zero, now near at Lake Superior of Fusine. From the lake, with about a kilometer of paved road, you return to the car or, more pleasantly, you follow the eastern shore of the two lakes along the tourist trail.