Monte Alben (2,019 m) from the Colle di Zambla

From the Colle di Zambla car park you follow via Prealpina towards the Al Trapper bar and restaurant, with the cross-country track signs: a few metres of tarmac, then a forest road heading south that after about a kilometre reaches Passo della Crocetta, 1,267 metres. About 300 metres further on, at Calchera, a sign on the left marks the start of trail 501.

You leave the forest road and climb quickly through the woods; Luca Gherardi remembers a beech wood with centuries-old trees. After half an hour the view opens onto the ridges and the path enters a gully that it climbs in many hairpins to the Col dei Brassamonti, 1,755 metres, at the top of the gully. You continue across a steep spur to a junction: straight on leads shortly to the Baita Nembrini, while to the right the 501 passes below the Torrione Brassamonti and reaches Passo della Forca, 1,848 metres, the saddle between the main summit and Cima della Croce, where trail 502 also arrives from Serina.

From the pass you follow the ridge east. The route has been worked out among the rock formations: short grade I steps, stretches of gravel, a passage through a cavity under a large boulder and finally a small path zigzagging up to the cross. Luca Gherardi reports exposed, non-trivial moves, to be taken carefully, especially on the way down. The CAI allows 2 h 15 from the Colle, Gherardi about 2 hours, Gulliver and Wikipedia 2 h 30.

The Colle di Zambla, 1,264 metres, is the road pass between Val Serina and Val del Riso and can be reached from two sides. From the Brembana valley you drive up from Zogno through Val Serina via Serina and Oltre il Colle; from the Seriana valley you leave the main road at Ponte Nossa and climb through Val del Riso. Waterwind gives 50 minutes from Bergamo and 1 h 40 from Milan on the Seriana side, about twenty minutes more on the Brembana side.

At the pass there is a public car park along the road, next to the trail signposts; in winter the same area also serves the cross-country track. When the SP27 road of Val Serina is closed, as happened from 28 August to 1 October 2026 because of the landslide at Rosolo di Algua, traffic from the Brembana side goes via Costa Serina, or you come up from the Seriana valley.

From Serina, CAI trail 502 starts from via Pineta, climbs to Passo del Sapplì, follows trail 503 to the Casere Alte, passes a few minutes from the Rifugio Monte Alben and reaches Passo della Forca, where it joins the 501: 7.5 kilometres, about 1,320 metres of ascent, 2 h 30, EE, recommended from June to October. From the pass, for about 40 minutes, the CAI describes a route that is almost all rock, with some airy moves. From Cornalba, at 900 metres, Wikipedia describes an ascent of about 3 hours via the Pian delle Casere pasture.

Instead of returning the same way, Gulliver suggests descending from Passo della Forca on the opposite side on the 502, among pastures and ponds, and returning to the Colle di Zambla by going round part of the massif, through clearings, a wood and past a farmstead: allow at least 3 hours from the pass, and overall the day exceeds 1,000 metres of ascent because of the ups and downs.

On the north side the Maurizio via ferrata, listed by the municipality among its itineraries, climbs a wild face to the fore-summit and Cima della Croce. Ferrate365 grades it difficult: 400 metres of ferrata, about 2 hours from the start of the cable and 4 hours for the whole itinerary, starting from the car park of the Conca dell'Alben lifts. From Cima della Croce a ridge with grade I rocky steps leads to the main summit. Full via ferrata equipment is required.

There are no staffed huts along the 501. The Baita Nembrini, owned by the CAI Valserina sub-section, stands at the foot of the Torrione Brassamonti, a short way off the trail; according to the OpenStreetMap notes you need the keys to use it, to be requested from the sub-section or from the Centro Sportivo Valle at the Colle di Zambla. Near Passo della Forca there is the small Bivacco del Gioan, a shelter in bad weather. On the Serina side, along the 502, the Rifugio Monte Alben is run by the La Cordillera association.

As for water, no springs are recorded along the climb: OpenStreetMap shows a drinking fountain at the Colle di Zambla and a fountain just before Passo della Crocetta. Set off with all the water you need for the day.

Wikipedia describes a panorama ranging from the nearby Arera, Menna and Grem to the main peaks of the Orobie, with Resegone, Grigne, Pizzo dei Tre Signori, Pizzo del Diavolo, Redorta, Coca and Presolana, as far as the more distant Monte Rosa, Disgrazia and Adamello groups. To the south, beyond the plain, on clear days you can make out the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines on the horizon. The panorama table on the summit, mentioned by the CAI, helps put names to the peaks.

Primula albenensis, endemic to the Bergamo area and recognised as a species in 1993, takes its name from this very mountain: it flowers between April and June, between about 1,150 and 2,000 metres. On the south side, above Cornalba, the crag is a climbing venue with more than a hundred routes from grade 5 to 9a+, climbed by Adam Ondra among others.

In winter the basin at the foot of the north face keeps its snow until late spring and is the setting of the cross-country track and the snowshoe walks. The snow-covered summit ridge, on the other hand, is no longer a hiking route: with snow and ice it requires mountaineering experience.

The CAI gives no season for the 501, which faces north, while for the 502 from Serina it recommends June to October; the condition to respect is a dry ridge free of snow. Gulliver suggests autumn, when the summit can be combined with the circuit of the Alben basin for the variety of colours.