Monte Boletto and the Bolettone from Brunate

Above Brunate, from San Maurizio, a mule track through the woods passes the baita Carla, the baita Bondella and the baita Boletto, where you can lunch on local dishes, and climbs towards the summits of Monte Boletto, the Bolettone and the Palanzone. The route follows the Dorsale del Triangolo Lariano. From the Brunate funicular station, at 715 metres, you go up towards the church of Sant'Andrea and by the footpath between villas and gardens to San Maurizio, at 906 metres, where a short detour leads to the Faro Voltiano. From the square at San Maurizio a wide mule track through the woods reaches the little church of Santa Rita, at the entrance to the CAO square. Past the CAO hut you enter the woods to the baita Carla, at 997 metres, and a track crosses the slopes of the Pizzo dei Tre Termini at the same height to the baita Bondella, at 1075 metres, with the view of the Alps and the little lake of Montorfano, and to the Ristoro del Boletto, at 1180. A little further on you choose: the crest route, the Dorsale per Cresta, climbs to the top of the Boletto, at 1236 metres, and rejoins the Dorsale at the Bocchetta di Molina, at 1116 metres; the Dorsale itself runs along the north side of the Colme, with the view of Lake Como. After the Bocchetta di Molina, at a signed junction, the crest route climbs the Bolettone, between 1310 and 1320 metres high, and goes down to the Bocchetta di Lemna, while the Dorsale curves below the north face through the beech wood of the Senté di Foo. This stretch is also part of the CAI's Sentiero Italia between Como and the Pian del Tivano, under the name Sentiero delle Colme: ups and downs over the Pizzo dei Tre Termini, Monte Astele, the Boletto and the Bolettone.

1. 01From Brunate it is half an hour to San Maurizio, an hour and twenty minutes to the Ristoro del Boletto and two hours to the Bocchetta di Molina; by way of the Boletto's summit, the stretch from the Ristoro to the saddle grows from forty to fifty minutes. From the Bocchetta di Molina the crest route reaches the top of the Bolettone in three quarters of an hour and the Bocchetta di Lemna in an hour and ten minutes, the same time as the Dorsale: three hours ten from Brunate.
2. 02To come down, a path leads from the Bocchetta di Molina to Molina, three and a half hours from Brunate in all, and a track drops from the Bocchetta di Lemna to Lemna in an hour and a half, five hours from Brunate; Molina and Lemna, hamlets of Faggeto Lario, both have a bus stop for Como. You can also return to Brunate the same way.
3. 03The Senté di Foo faces north: after snowfalls it stays slippery until late spring. From the Bocchetta di Lemna the Capanna Mara is a quarter of an hour away.
4. 04Brunate is reached from Como by the funicular, which leaves from Piazza De Gasperi; fit walkers can also go up on foot from the Salita Carescione.

WhereBrunate · Como · Faggeto Lario