Cima di Grem (2,049 m) from the Colle di Zambla

From the car park on the pass, follow the signposted lane north. At the first fork keep right and in five minutes you reach the Santella, the chapel of the Madonna di Caravaggio at 1,251 metres, where mass is said once a week in summer (L'Eco di Bergamo). Carry on to the right following the 223/238 waymark painted on a power-line pole, first on the level and then downhill, to the fork at the Cascine Sinelli (1,238 m).

Where the dirt track ends, two paths leave: the right-hand one goes to the Alpe Grem hut, trail 223 is the left-hand one. A little further on, trail 238 branches left towards the Baita Camplano, while 223 keeps right and climbs in wide zigzags through a beech wood until it comes out on the pastures of the Baita di Mezzo di Grem (1,457 m).

Along the hut's service track you reach the junction with trail 239, which climbs from Plazza di Oneta. Turn left across the meadows, pass a cattle pond and reach the Baita Alta di Grem (1,631 m). From here about half an hour leads to the Mistri bivouac; from the bivouac, on the stretch that 223 shares with 263, another half hour takes you to the Bocchetta di Grem (1,976 m) and a quarter of an hour's climb to the left to the cross. Come down the same way or by one of the variants below.

The Colle di Zambla is the only pass between the Brembana valley and Val Seriana crossed by an asphalt road (Wikipedia). From the Brembana valley you leave the main road at Ambria di Zogno and climb the SP27 through Val Serina via Serina and Oltre il Colle; from Val Seriana you turn off at Ponte Nossa onto the SP46 through the Val del Riso, via Gorno and Oneta. The SP27, closed from 28 August 2026 after a boulder fell at Rosolo di Algua, reopened on the afternoon of 1 October 2026 (Valbrembanaweb).

On the pass there is a free car park (Luca Gherardi, OpenStreetMap) with a fountain: fill your bottles there, because there is no water along the route (L'Eco di Bergamo). Without a car, the pass is served by Arriva bus line B, with runs to and from Passo Zambla.

If you prefer to start higher up, use trail 237 from Plassa: in summer you can park at around 1,600 metres on the toll road to the Alpe Arera, and reach the summit in 1 hour 50 minutes with 450 metres of ascent, passing the Baita Zuccone and the Baita Camplano (CAI Bergamo).

From the Baita Alta di Grem you can leave trail 223 and climb the south ridge. Camillo Fumagalli, writing in L'Eco di Bergamo, describes it as long and tiring: it tops out on a fore-summit at 2,001 metres and ends with a narrow but not steep stretch of crest. Luca Gherardi uses it for the descent: his loop, up via the Mistri bivouac and back along the grassy ridge, measures 11.5 kilometres with 850 metres of ascent.

From the Bocchetta di Grem the Cima Foppazzi is about twenty minutes away over easy grassy slopes, up to the stone cairn on top (CAI Bergamo). Its height depends on the source: 2,097 metres for the CAI, 2,093 for Wikipedia and for the regional map used by OpenStreetMap.

The fullest round drops north from the saddle on trail 237, below the Cima Foppazzi and the Cimetto, to the Baita Camplano (1,830 m), and returns to the pass on trail 238 across the meadows of Monte di Zambla. In-Lombardia, the Lombardy Region's tourism portal, gives the loop as 14.5 kilometres and 961 metres of ascent; the L'Eco di Bergamo account, which adds the Cima Foppazzi, speaks of 15 kilometres, 1,100 metres and five hours of walking.

From the mid-nineteenth century to the 1970s many local people worked in the mines: the Grem, the Arera, the Val Vedra and the Val Parina were districts riddled with tunnels, producing sphalerite and calamine for zinc, lead and small amounts of silver (L'Eco di Bergamo). Between the Baita di Mezzo and the Baita Alta you still walk among diggings, adits, spoil heaps and old shelters.

Closing dates differ slightly between sources: L'Eco di Bergamo ends the story in 1982 with the last plant at Gorno, while the Ecomuseo Miniere di Gorno says mining went on until 1981. On the Val del Riso side, trail 239 from Oneta leads beyond the Baita Bassa di Grem to the disused calamine mines; up to the Baita Bassa it follows the Baita Alpe Grem ethno-naturalistic trail, with panels on the mine, the pond, the forest and the summer pasture made by the schools of Gorno and Oneta (CAI Bergamo).

The Mistri bivouac stands in the Valle dell'Orso, on the south side of the Grem in the municipality of Gorno; its height is given as between 1,780 and 1,800 metres depending on the source. It belongs to the municipality of Gorno and is run by the Gruppo Camós: ten beds, cold water, solar-panel electricity and a wood stove; it is staffed on Wednesdays and Sundays and the winter room is always open (valdelriso.it). A bivouac festival is held every last Sunday of July (CAI Bergamo).

The site has a long history: when mining in the Valle dell'Orso ended in 1908, a miners' hut was handed over to CAI Bergamo and turned into a small refuge, later destroyed during the First World War. On the ruins the Gruppo Camós built the bivouac dedicated to Giovanni Mistri, inaugurated on 30 August 1992 according to the Ecomuseo Miniere di Gorno; Wikipedia instead speaks of a rebuilding in the early 1980s.

The summit cross, made of metal and fitted with a bell (in-Lombardia), was carried up in pieces on people's shoulders and set up in 1962 in memory of don Severino Tiraboschi, parish priest of Gorno (CAI Bergamo, Ecomuseo Miniere di Gorno). From the top you see the Alben, the Arera and the Menna close by, Val Serina on one side and Val Seriana on the other and, on clear days, the plain (Luca Gherardi, L'Eco di Bergamo).

The Cima di Grem is the western edge of Special Area of Conservation IT2060009, managed by the Orobie Bergamasche Park: 3,369 hectares between 578 and 2,512 metres, from the slopes of the Pizzo Arera to the Cime di Belloro, in the municipalities of Ardesio, Gorno, Oltre il Colle, Oneta, Parre and Premolo (Province of Bergamo). The provincial description lists golden eagle, black kite, honey buzzard and peregrine falcon among the breeding birds; there are also black grouse, hazel grouse, rock partridge, eagle owl and Tengmalm's owl, and the red-backed shrike in the Golla-Grem mining area.

Even the cattle ponds you pass on the way up matter: according to the same description, keeping them in good order helps the yellow-bellied toad and the Italian crested newt, two amphibians protected by the Habitats Directive; on nearby Monte Golla the newt has been found at 1,675 metres, the highest altitude known in the Alps.

The CAI recommends April to October, with boots and high-mountain clothing. From the Baita di Mezzo upwards you walk outside the woods: on hot days start early.

At the Mistri bivouac the valdelriso.it portal lists cold water among the facilities, but OpenStreetMap marks the spring next to it as not drinkable: for drinking, count only on what you carry from the pass.