Ski touring and winter ascents on Arera, Alben and Menna

With the European avalanche micro-region boundaries that came into force on 3 November 2025, the line between the two bulletin zones follows the depression of the Colle di Zambla and Pian della Palla: everything to the north, including Arera, Menna, Plassa and Zorzone, is zone 60 Orobie Bergamasche; the Alben massif is zone 61 Prealpi Bergamasche. In season the bulletin is updated every day and the first of winter 2026-27 is announced for Tuesday 1 December 2026. ARPA's regional snow and avalanche centre is based in Bormio (0342 914400, nivometeo@arpalombardia.it).

Since 1 January 2022, Legislative Decree 40/2021 has required ski tourers, off-piste skiers and snowshoe hikers to carry a transceiver, shovel and probe in snowy terrain where there are avalanche risks. ARPA Lombardia also asks for safety distances and a critical assessment of each slope, because the bulletin describes large areas. The Prealps are not lesser terrain: on 19 February 2026 the mountain rescue service reported danger level 3, considerable, on the Bergamo Prealps and 4, high, on the Orobie, after numerous accidents in the previous weeks.

In winter the road to the Alpe Arera is closed by a municipal ordinance (in 2025-26 from 18 November to 22 April), so you start from the car parks on via Plassa near the Camping Arera, at around 1,150-1,200 metres. CAI Bergamo describes the winter route like this: follow the road to the start of the old lifts, reached on the hillside after about 4 kilometres, then climb north-west on the spur overlooking the Val Vedra until you meet the forest track that soon leads to the Capanna 2000, at 1,960 metres. The CAI gives trail 221 a southern aspect.

From the hut to the summit, at 2,512 metres, the Rifugi di Lombardia portal gives about an hour and a half on the normal route with a short protected section, and CAI Bergamo documents the protected gully above the Capanna 2000. With snow it is mountaineering terrain: ciaspole.net specifies that in winter the top can only be reached with winter mountaineering equipment. In all, from Plassa, you climb more than 1,300 metres; in winter 2026-27 the hut may offer no support because of the renovation works.

CAI trail 501 is the quickest and busiest route up the Alben. From the Colle di Zambla car park follow via Prealpina towards the Al Trapper bar-restaurant and the cross-country track signs; after the first asphalted metres the forest track heads south and reaches the Passo della Crocetta in about a kilometre. About 300 metres further on, on the left, the 501 starts: a first steep stretch in the woods, then a gully with numerous hairpins up to the Col dei Brassamonti, at 1,755 metres.

From the col you continue across the slope, traversing a steep spur, to the Passo della Forca, at 1,848 metres, where trail 502 also arrives, and climb the north ridge over easy rocky steps to the summit, at 2,019 metres, where there is a panorama dial. The CAI grades the route EE and gives it a northern aspect, with 3.7 kilometres, about 750 metres of ascent, 2 hours 15 up and 1 hour 20 down. In winter the gully with the hairpins and the traverse towards the Forca are the points to assess against the zone 61 bulletin, and the final ridge with snow and ice requires crampons and an ice axe.

CAI trail 234 starts from Zorzone, at 1,019 metres, with the recommended car park on via Colombi. It climbs north through the woods on the left side of the Val Carnera to about 1,300 metres, crosses to the other side, reaches the Cascina Mattuida at 1,470 metres and climbs the valley over thin meadows to the MAGA bivouac, at 2,005 metres, with a last steep climb. From here you bear right along the spur to 2,150 metres and follow the ridge north to the summit, at 2,299 metres. The CAI counts 4.8 kilometres, about 1,250 metres of ascent, 4 hours up and 2 hours 15 down.

The Val Carnera is also the only avalanche risk scenario in the municipal civil protection plan, published in May 2024: the avalanche that can break away from the south-eastern slope of the Corna di Menna along the Val Carnera, above the village of Zorzone, with a historical event recorded on 11 January 1977 and a sheet in the regional avalanche map. The plan rules out any involvement of inhabited houses, but anyone climbing in winter goes up exactly that valley: it is an outing to do only on a well-settled snowpack.

For the Arera the natural base is the Capanna 2000, a municipal hut run by Attilio Rizzi (0345 95096, 339 6986367): for winter 2026-27 the renovation works awarded in April 2026 and the regional portal's indicative calendar, which shows it closed from September, make a phone call essential. On the climb to the Menna there is the MAGA bivouac at 2,005 metres, on trail 234.

The CAI recommends three car parks: via Plassa in the Camping Arera area for the Arera, the Colle di Zambla for the Alben and via Colombi in Zorzone for the Menna. The road from Plassa to 1,600 metres stays closed all winter and the corridor between the Colle di Zambla and Pian della Palla is a cross-country track: anyone heading for the Alben leaves the tracks to the cross-country skiers.