Capanna 2000 hut

The shortest approach starts from the Alpe Arera car park, at 1,600 metres above Plassa in Zambla Alta, reachable by car in summer and when free of snow with a €4 ticket bought in Plassa before the climb. From there you walk up CAI trail 221, which climbs the meadows, or the farm track, longer but gentler, which reaches Pian Cansaccio. The regional portal gives one hour and 400 metres of ascent, Luca Gherardi 1 h 15 and 370 metres, Wikipedia 45 minutes.

Without a car, or in winter when the upper road cannot be used, you start from Plassa, near the Camping Arera, at about 1,150 metres. For trail 221 the CAI gives about 3.6 kilometres and 900 metres of ascent, with 1 h 10 up, while the regional portal allows 1 h 50 from Zambla Alta. In winter the 221 follows the road that climbs across the hillside for about 4 kilometres to the start of the old ski lifts, then the spur above the Val Vedra up to the hut.

From the Colle di Zambla you arrive on CAI trail 238 via the Santella, the Cascine Sinelli, the Baita di Monte di Zambla and the Baita Camplano (1,830 m), then trail 237 to the Baita Zuccone and a marked but unnumbered path to the hut: about 3 hours according to the CAI. From the Seriana valley you climb from Valcanale di Ardesio on trails 220 and 218, via the Alpe Corte hut and Lake Branchino; from Roncobello you leave the car at the Baite di Mezzeno and climb trail 219 to Passo Branchino, then follow the Sentiero dei Fiori. L'Eco di Bergamo also mentions routes from Gorno across the Grem and the Camplano huts.

The 2026 calendar published on the Rifugi di Lombardia portal marks as open the Saturdays and Sundays of May, 1 and 2 June, the weekend of 6 and 7 June and then every day from 12 June to 7 September; from October to April it shows no dates. The same portal warns that the dates are indicative and that at the start and end of the season opening should be checked by phone.

Other sources widen the picture. For Wikipedia the hut is open continuously from mid-June to mid-September and on weekends and public holidays between May and June and between October and November. In June 2025 the mayor, Ferruccio Ghilardi, told L'Eco di Bergamo that it opens at weekends all year round and every day from 15 June until the end of September or into October, depending on the weather.

Bookings by phone, at the hut on 0345 95096 or on the mobile 339 6986367, or by email to rif.capanna2000@virgilio.it. The regional portal gives half board between €48 and €60 without stating the year: ask for confirmation when booking. From the regional page you can also view the hut's webcam, useful for checking the weather and snow before setting off.

The regional register gives 25 beds, 80 seats for lunch and 30 at the outdoor tables; Wikipedia reports 30 beds and 70 seats, OpenStreetMap a capacity of 30. Next to the building the Rizzi family also runs two Starbox, wooden cabins 3 metres by 3 that L'Eco di Bergamo describes as minimalist lodgings for sleeping at altitude under the stars.

The services declared on the regional portal include those listed below. The hut can only be reached on foot; its national identification code (CIN) is IT016146B8EYN32OC8.

The Capanna 2000 began as an outpost of the Alpe Arera ski lifts; when they were closed, in 1996, the hut changed role and became the base for hiking on the south side of the Arera. It is owned by the municipality of Oltre il Colle, as Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap and the mayor in L'Eco di Bergamo state; the CAI Bergamo geoportal, on the other hand, lists it as privately owned.

In June 2025 the municipality announced works worth about €200,000, €181,000 from a Lombardy Region grant and €20,000 of municipal funds, to renovate the kitchen, bathrooms, some of the rooms and the bedrooms without changing the character of the building. The works were planned for after summer 2025, with closure periods to be agreed with the manager: we found no news of their completion, one more reason to phone before going up out of season.

From the Capanna 2000 start the normal route up the Pizzo Arera, which the regional portal gives as 1 h 20 for 543 metres, the Sentiero dei Fiori, the botanical loop of about 3 hours to Passo Branchino, and the circuit of the Pizzo Arera on trail 244, 5 hours and EE according to the hut. The portal also lists the ascents of the Corna Piana, Cima di Valmora, Cima di Grem, Monte Vetro and Cima di Menna and the excursion to the Laghi Gemelli; Wikipedia adds the Valmora-Fop-Secco ridge traverse, graded F.

Prima Bergamo notes that the hut can also be reached by mountain bike from Zambla Alta. The Edo Sport hire shop in Zambla Alta, however, does not allow its rental e-bikes to be ridden up the Arera.

In winter the road to 1,600 metres is not used: VisitBrembo says that in the winter months you drive only as far as Plassa, and from there you climb trail 221 with about 900 metres of ascent, on snowshoes when there is snow. This is the snowshoe walk described in its own page. The regional calendar shows no winter openings, while in 2025 the mayor spoke of weekends all year round: ask the hut before setting off.