After parking in Stafal, take the gondola up to the right to Lake Gabiet(here for information on schedule and fares).

At Lake Gabiet, go up the dirt road for a very short distance until you reach Adler’s Nest (formerly Lys Refuge): follow the signs for Trail 6A or 6B.

The marker at Adler’s Nest

Go up a few dozen meters along a marked trail until you reach below Albergo Del Ponte, where you take a left across the ski slope. Continue along a wide dirt road until you reach a nice little stone bridge that crosses the Endrebach stream .

The bridge over the Endrebach stream from the top of trail 6A/6B

Shortly after the bridge, the 6A/6B trail we are on is joined from the left by trail 7B, which climbs from Stafal. From here on, the trail is shared between 6A, 6B and 7B .

The trail passes a small rocky rise, and reaches a small dam at 2511m.

The dam as seen from the top of trail 7B, the trail comes to it from the right

At the dam, the trail forks: 6B continues straight to the Orestes Hutte, we abandon it and continue on 6A/7B to the left.

After a few hundred meters there is another fork in the road: 7B turns away to the left, toward Blue Lake and Punta Telcio. For 6A you have to go straight ahead.

The junction between trail 6A and 7B

We continue to climb, passing on the right the area where the Orestes Hütte stands and the wide esplanade, furrowed by the thousands of rivulets flowing down from the Indren glacier, above which towers the Stolemberg (3190m).

Walloon towards Indren Glacier, top right Stolemberg

The path ascends, passes along the left side of the slope (in the photo below you can see the roof of the Orestes Hütte on the left)…

It goes up traverse along the left flank

… past a small marshy plateau that often in the summer is home to a veritable multitude of eriophorus…

Eriophores beside the marsh.

…and comes to a further junction with trail markers, at about 2750m : on the left, 6B goes straight to the Salza pass (in the photo below, the pass is up there where you can see the sky). The 6A, on the other hand, goes right, toward the Mantova refuge.

At this junction, trail 6B continues straight in the direction of Salza Hill, trail 6A continues to the right in the direction of Mantua refuge

Continue turning northeast, meandering up the slope, until at 2900m you reach a further marker marking the point at which you could veer to the left to reach Colle Salza. Instead, 6A continues to the right.

Junction: Colle Salza to the left, 6A to the right

At 30224m, shortly after a new turn to the northwest of the trail, there is a solitary iron cross embedded in the rock, with an inscription“JBA 1885,” about which I have not yet been able to find any information (if anyone knows anything about it, please contact me!).

Iron cross, with the inscription JBA 1885

At 3077m a further marker is reached: from here, continuing to the left would rejoin 6B and Alta Luce (one can in fact climb to Alta Luce and from there continue in the direction of the Mantova refuge without necessarily having to return to Colle Salza). Instead, continue to the right, still heading northwest, and then turn north after a few meters.

Junction between connection to trail 7B for Alta Luce and 6A for Mantua

It is in this area that our final destination finally comes into view, clouds permitting: in the photo below, the Mantova refuge is just visible on the ridge profile, in the center slightly to the right. You can already see on the left the snowfield that we will soon pass, and the next, wide slope of flat rocks that you will have to climb in the direction of the hut.

The Mantua Shelter shortly after junction 6A/7B

We continue to climb in an extremely rocky landscape (although the trail remains comfortable), until about 3110m one encounters a short area of messy boulders, which one must cross (carefully) to cut from left to right a small gully (snow-covered even in summer) and bring oneself to the base of the long, wide slope of flat rocks that remains the only obstacle before Mantua.

Snowy gully

The slope has lots of yellow marker bolts painted on the rocks, so it is virtually impossible to get lost. It climbs fairly straight up to the hut: only toward the end might you need to rest your hands in the steeper passages (in the photo below it looks much steeper than it actually is). The path comes to you from the left, and it’s remarkable the feeling you get when you get there because until a second before you were scrambling through piles of steep rocks, and a second later you’re plunging into this totally horizontal terrace of polished wood, seconds away from a well-deserved Coke Zero at the counter! We are finally at the Città Di Mantova refuge, 3455m.

The last few meters before the arrival at the Mantua refuge.

The new wooden part of the shelter, added in 2007, is clearly visible next to the old stone part, opened in 1984.

This Google Earth image shows the final section of the trail, starting in the area next to the Orestes Hut, with some notable points highlighted.