Cima di Menna (2,300 m) from Zorzone

From Zorzone you climb north through the woods, on the left bank of Val Carnera, the valley between the slope of Monte Aral and the Chignol d'Aral. Diska describes the start along via Piani Bracca and via Monte Menna, then the path that leaves the road on the left, climbs through the woods and crosses a dirt track. At about 1,200 metres, next to a stony gully, the 234 splits: the direct route climbs to the right of the gully, the panoramic route continues on the track and is a quarter of an hour longer; higher up the two paths rejoin.

The direct route climbs Val Carnera steeply, crosses an open gully, passes to the other side of the valley at about 1,300 metres and reaches the Cascina Mattuida, 1,470 metres, with a large centuries-old beech beside it. A short flight of steps between the two buildings puts you back on the path, faint at first, which climbs north over thin meadows. Higher up the trail runs close to the two cables of a goods ropeway, and a sign warns to watch out for suspended loads. A last steep ramp, with the metal cross near the hut already in view, brings you to Passo di Menna.

From the bivouac, at 2,005 metres, the CAI has you turn right, east, up the spur to 2,150 metres, then north along the ridge to the summit cross; Gulliver speaks of a faint path, Gherardi of very steep and exposed points in the last stretch. From the bivouac to the summit takes about an hour. The descent is by the same route, or from the Cascina Mattuida you can take the panoramic route, which at a junction also lets you pass through the Piani Bracca.

Zorzone is the hamlet of Oltre il Colle at about 1,016-1,019 metres. From the main village, at kilometre 37 of the SP27, take the road beside the petrol station that descends to the bridge over the Parina stream, at about 850 metres, and climbs the other side. The CAI recommends parking in via Colombi; Diska describes a large car park at 1,020 metres reached via via Giorgi, Gulliver a small lay-by at the hairpin on via Menna.

From Bergamo you arrive through the Brembana valley, Zogno and Val Serina, or from the Seriana valley via Ponte Nossa and the Colle di Zambla, then dropping down to Oltre il Colle. When the SP27 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.

At Passo di Menna there is one building with two functions. The Rifugio Palazzi, which the CAI calls Bivacco Palazzi Gerolamo, is usually closed and opens at the request of the members of the M.A.G.A. group of Zorzone, which runs it; Gulliver says that booking and keys go through the Gruppo Quattro Cime M.A.G.A. The bivouac, a room on the upper floor, is always open: reports describe a fireplace, a table, benches and a few camp beds for emergencies, from two to five depending on who visited; Diska found no blankets.

The elevations do not agree: the CAI trail pages give 2,005 metres for both the bivouac and Passo del Menna, the bivouac page 2,095, OpenStreetMap 1,995 for the pass. On the first Sunday of August the Sagra del Monte Menna, the mountain festival, is held up there.

On 4 October 1944, at 6.45 pm, a B-24 Liberator took off from Brindisi on a secret mission: it carried supplies for the partisans and three Italian agents of the OSS, the American secret service, to be parachuted into the Bergamo area. La Voce delle Valli places the drop zone near Lake Endine; the American report studied by the researcher Giulio Borlini, quoted by L'Italo-Americano, gives the hills of San Fermo near Lake Iseo. With low cloud and strong wind the commander, Charles Robert Sloan, called off the drop.

Shortly afterwards the aircraft crashed below the ridge of the Menna, at about 2,250 metres, at Pezzadello. The ten American airmen, aged between 20 and 29, and the three Italian agents died; only one of the agents has been identified. At dawn the next day the first miners and villagers climbed to the site. The bodies were buried up there and remained until after the war, until early 1950 according to La Voce delle Valli, when the United States moved them to a common grave at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis. The salvaged metal sheets were turned into pots, lids and buckets in the village.

The causes were never clarified: bad weather, in the simplest hypothesis, or anti-aircraft damage, according to some witnesses who saw the aircraft already in flames. At the crash site stands a wooden cross made by the Trappist monks of New Melleray Abbey in Iowa; since 2016, in a wing of the Museo dei Minerali in Zorzone, a memorial born from the research of Massimo Maurizio displays remains of the aircraft and the utensils made from its sheets.

From the Brembana side you climb from Costa di Roncobello, 1,025 metres, on trail 235: woods, the Corna Buca, a vast cave at 1,292 metres, the clearing of the Baita dello Zoppo or Baita di Baresi, 1,383 metres, then the steep gully called «Il vallone» up to Passo del Menna and the ridge eastwards to the summit. The CAI gives 4.7 kilometres, about 1,300 metres of ascent, 4 hours up and 2 h 15 down, grade EE for the ridge section, season May to October and parking at Costa, in via Ronchetto. With two cars, going up one side and down the other turns the outing into a traverse.

Luca Gherardi describes to the north the upper Brembana valley with the Pizzo dei Tre Signori, the area of the Rifugio Benigni and the Ponteranica lakes, Passo San Marco and in the distance the Valtellina peaks; on the other side stand out the outlines of the Pizzo Arera and the Corna Piana. The regional hut portal, on the Capanna 2000 page, links to a sunrise time-lapse filmed from the Cima di Menna itself.

The CAI gives the 234 from April to October and the 235 from May to October, with boots and high-mountain clothing; Gulliver gives the route a southern aspect. With no water on the way up, in summer it is worth starting early and carrying plenty. In a thunderstorm the shelter to keep in mind is the always-open bivouac at Passo di Menna.

For a short outing Luca Gherardi suggests going up by the panoramic route and stopping at the Cascina Mattuida, at 1,470 metres, without continuing to the pass.