Rifugio Capanna 2000

The regional register gives 25 beds, 80 seats for lunch and 30 at the outdoor tables; OpenStreetMap gives a capacity of 30, and Prima Bergamo wrote of thirty beds and seventy seats in 2018. Next to the building the manager's family runs two Starbox, 3 by 3 metre wooden cabins that the mayor, in L'Eco di Bergamo in June 2025, described as minimalist and very popular places to sleep at altitude under the stars.

Among the services the regional portal lists those below, as well as the hut's webcam, useful for checking the weather and snow before setting off. There is a defibrillator registered by AREU in the entrance hall.

The 2026 calendar on the Rifugi di Lombardia portal showed it open on weekends in May, on 1 and 2 June, on 6 and 7 June and then every day from 12 June to 7 September; it gives no dates from October to April, and the portal warns that the dates are indicative. The municipality's management contract, by contrast, requires a broader minimum opening: Sundays, public holidays and the days before them all year, every day from 15 June to 15 September and the Christmas and Easter periods, except for bad weather, agreements between the parties and the renovation works.

In June 2025 the mayor, in L'Eco di Bergamo, spoke of the hut being open at weekends all year and every day from 15 June until the end of September or October, depending on the weather. To find out whether it is open and to book, call the hut on 0345 95096 or the mobile 339 6986367, which the Pro Loco publishes for information and bookings, or write to rif.capanna2000@virgilio.it.

The final renovation project, approved by the municipal executive on 1 April 2026, is worth 202,000 euros; the Lombardy Region awarded a 90 per cent grant of 181,800 euros under its 2024 mountain hut programme, and the municipality covers the rest. The works were awarded on 28 April, the contract was signed on 17 June and in September the municipality paid the contractor the 20 per cent advance. In 2025 the mayor explained that the work would redo the kitchen, the bathrooms, some of the common rooms and the bedrooms.

To avoid closing the hut, the municipal executive extended the management contract from 1 May 2026 to 30 September 2027: the manager has undertaken to work in coordination with the building site, accepting even significant limitations, up to total or partial suspension of the service. While the works last, opening times may change at short notice: before going up, especially to stay the night, phone first.

The shortest climb starts from the Alpe Arera car park at 1,600 metres, below the old ski lifts, which can be reached by car from Zambla Alta via Plassa when the road is open; parking costs 4 euros a day, with the ticket bought in partner shops or at the Plassa parking meters before driving up. From there you climb in under an hour on CAI path 221, or on the longer, gentler dirt road up to Pian Cansaccio: the regional portal gives an hour and 400 metres of ascent.

The Plassa-Arera 1600 road is closed in winter, in 2025 from 18 November, and from 5 October to 18 December 2026 an ordinance provides for temporary closures with flagmen, between 8 am and 5 pm, for logging work. Without the road you start from Plassa, in the Camping Arera area: path 221 is 3.6 kilometres long with about 900 metres of ascent, 1 hour 10 minutes up according to the CAI and 1 hour 50 minutes from Zambla Alta according to the regional portal.

On the regional portal the hut has published some of its recipes: oven-roasted pork shank, marinated overnight in herbs, slow-cooked and served with polenta; the Torta Piero, with ricotta, amaretti, chocolate and sliced apples; and a gluten-free carrot and almond cake. A menu for food intolerances is among the declared services.

The hut also hosts parties: the Pro Loco's 2026 summer programme included the opening of the season on Saturday 27 June and an evening on Friday 17 July.

From the Capanna 2000 the regional portal gives an hour and 20 minutes to the summit of the Pizzo Arera, 2,512 metres, with 543 metres of ascent and a steep equipped section in a gully; the north ridge is given as 2 hours, very difficult, the east route 2 hours and a half. The Sentiero dei Fiori, the loop via the Passo and Lago Branchino among endemic flowers such as Linaria tonzigii, takes about 3 hours; the circuit of the Pizzo Arera, 5 hours and 703 metres of ascent, is for expert hikers.

The same portal mentions the climbs to the Corna Piana, the Cima di Valmora, the Cima di Grem, Monte Vetro and the Cima di Menna and the walk to the Laghi Gemelli. As the crow flies the SABA's Cà d'Arera hut is about 1.3 kilometres away, the summit of the Arera about 1.3 and the Alpe Arera car park about 1.2.