Bivouacs and shelters on the Grem, the Alben and the Menna

When a source says «always open» it almost always means the winter room, a room left open as an emergency shelter, while the rest of the building, with the beds, opens only on certain days or on request. At the Telini bivouac, for example, Diska.it describes a winter room with a picture window, a fireplace, a table, two benches and a stove, and a locked door separating the dormitory; at the MAGA the always-open room has beds and a fireplace (CAI Bergamo).

None of these rooms can be booked and none guarantees water or food: even where there is a refreshment service, as at the Telini on summer Sundays, the Val del Riso portal points out that only drinks and simple refreshments are served and that walkers must bring their own food.

It stands in the Valle dell'Orso, on the south side of the Grem in the municipality of Gorno, at between 1,780 and 1,800 metres depending on the source. The owner is the municipality of Gorno, the manager the Gruppo Camós: ten beds, cold water, solar-panel electricity, a wood stove, staffed on Wednesdays and Sundays, winter room always open (valdelriso.it). The bivouac festival falls on the last Sunday of July (CAI Bergamo).

You reach it from the Colle di Zambla on CAI trail 223, in about half an hour from the Baita Alta di Grem, or from Gorno on trail 263 from the Alpe Grina. In 1908 a miners' hut on this spot became a small CAI Bergamo refuge, destroyed in the First World War; the Gruppo Camós built the present bivouac in memory of Giovanni Mistri, inaugurated on 30 August 1992 (Ecomuseo Miniere di Gorno), while Wikipedia dates the rebuilding to the early 1980s.

The bivouac dedicated to Enrico Telini stands on top of the Preda Balaranda, at 1,647 metres, on the ridge between the Grem and Monte Golla, in the municipality of Premolo. The Gorno Alpini group built it between 1989 and 29 August 1993, the day of its inauguration; beside it is the Madonna degli Alpini, placed in 1985 in memory of Alpini who died in war and in peace (Ecomuseo Miniere di Gorno).

It has ten beds, cold water, solar electricity and a wood stove; it is open every Sunday from May to September and the winter room is always open (valdelriso.it). The bivouac festival is on the fourth Sunday of August (CAI Bergamo). You climb from Gorno on trail 263; from the Zambla side, from the col after the Preda Balaranda a track leads in about 20 minutes to the Baita Alta di Grem and trail 223 (CAI Bergamo).

The Baita Carlo Nembrini, at 1,730 metres, stands on the north side of the Alben at the foot of the Torrione Brassamonti face and belongs to the CAI Valserina subsection (CAI Bergamo). It is not an open bivouac: it is a stone hut with ten beds, kept locked. Escursionismo.it lists it as closed, with the keys held by the CAI Valserina subsection in Serina, and Luca Gherardi says the same; the reports by Sass Balòss (2011) and Diska.it (2012) also named the Centro Sportivo Valle at the Passo di Zambla. The CAI Bergamo page gives its owner, not its opening times. It is dedicated to Carlo Nembrini, a mountain guide who died on the Illimani, in Bolivia, in 1973 while searching for the body of a French climber (VisitBrembo, Wikipedia).

It is reached from the Colle di Zambla on trail 501 and a short detour after the Col dei Brassamonti, in about an hour and a half (VisitBrembo). A quarter of an hour higher, at the Passo della Forca, at 1,847 metres, is the Gioan bivouac, a shelter built under a large boulder (CAI Bergamo, OpenStreetMap): useful in an emergency, not for spending the night.

The MAGA bivouac, which the CAI also calls the Bivacco Gerolamo Palazzi, stands at the head of the Val Carnera, below the Cima di Menna: the CAI and Diska.it place it in the municipality of Oltre il Colle, while on OpenStreetMap's municipal boundaries the point falls just across the line, in the municipality of Serina. It is run by the M.A.G.A. group of Zorzone, an acronym of Menna, Arera, Grem, Alben according to Diska.it; the building is private and the refuge opens at members' request, while the winter room is always open, with beds and a fireplace. The Monte Menna festival is held on the first Sunday of August (CAI Bergamo).

Its altitude is 2,005 metres on the trail 234 page and in OpenStreetMap, 2,095 on the bivouac's page on the CAI geoportal. From Zorzone (1,019 m) trail 234 climbs through the woods of the Val Carnera, passes the Cascina Mattuida (1,470 m) and with a last steep ramp reaches the bivouac; from there a spur and a stretch of ridge lead to the summit (2,299 m). In all 4.8 kilometres, 1,250 metres of ascent, 4 hours up and 2 hours 15 down, grade E (CAI Bergamo).

On the Arera the reference is the Capanna 2000, at about 1,960 metres on the south side, a staffed hut with beds and a kitchen; Rifugi Lombardia warns that its opening dates are indicative and advises phoning at the start and end of the season. The Rifugio Cà d'Arera of the Società Alpinistica Bergamo Alta, halfway up from Plassa, is private and reserved for members, as the sign on the door says (Diska.it). The Rifugio Lago Branchino, below the Passo Branchino, opens on Saturdays and Sundays in September and October in 2026.

On the Gorno side, finally, the Baita Golla of CAI Leffe, at 1,756 metres on trail 260, has an always-open winter room and a closing festival on the fourth Sunday of September (CAI Bergamo).