Sorapiss (Sorapis)

The best-known peaks

• Punta Sorapiss3,205 m
• Croda Marcora3,154 m
• Punte Tre Sorelle3,005 m

Elevations from the map (OpenStreetMap).

How the massif is built

Sorapiss rises with high walls on both its north and south sides, and for the Ampezzo park it acts as a barrier for the climate too. The south side is dry and warm, covered in pine woods and dwarf mountain pine; the north side is snowy and avalanche-prone, with spruce and beech woods and, higher up, larches and stone pines.

The highest cirques still hold three small glaciers, the only ones in the Ampezzo Dolomites that the park still calls glaciers. The western one is the largest and, for the park, the most beautiful of the Ampezzo glaciers: in 1990 the western and eastern glaciers each covered 22 hectares. The blocks of the Saetta del Sorapiss, a 300-metre rock tower that collapsed after the 1976 earthquake, fell onto the western glacier.

For the Dolomites UNESCO Foundation the cirques and hanging valleys of Sorapiss, with moraines, polished rocks and small lakes, are unique in the Dolomites.

Lago di Sorapis and trail 215

The lake lies in a basin carved by the glacier, a few minutes from Rifugio Vandelli, beyond a low hill. At 3.08 hectares it is the second largest lake in the Ampezzo Dolomites. It has no surface outlet: the water runs underground and comes out at the Piss waterfall. Its colour, from blue to aqua green, comes from the rock dust carried by the glacier's meltwater.

You start at Passo Tre Croci on trail 215. Cortina's tourist office classes it as a trail for experts: 10.5 kilometres there and back, 434 metres of ascent, 4 hours, with metal ladders and exposed sections on a ledge equipped with cables. You return the same way. You can leave the car at the pass, but it is best to arrive early because it gets very busy. The route step by step is on our trail page.

Rifugio Vandelli and the via ferratas

Rifugio Vandelli stands in the middle of the northern cirque, almost on the edge of the step where the waterfall drops. The first hut, built by the German and Austrian Alpine Club, was destroyed by an avalanche in 1895; after the First World War the Venice section of the CAI rebuilt it, a fire destroyed it in 1959 and today's building, named after the Venice CAI president Alfonso Vandelli, opened on 18 September 1966. The CAI gives 20 June to 20 September as an indicative opening period.

The protected routes start from the lake. The Vandelli via ferrata, of intermediate difficulty according to Cortina's tourist office, starts at 2,110 metres and is reached on trail 243: the seven short ladders at the start are not protected by the cable all the way, and the approach is long. Gear and rules are in our via ferrata guide.

The forests at the foot of Sorapiss

Below the cirque lies the Valbona forest, where the Ampezzo park points out firs more than a metre across and up to 50 metres high. Among the Sorapiss walks the park also lists the Somadida forest: the Republic of Venice, which received it as a gift in 1463, used its tallest and straightest trunks for centuries as yards for the ships of its Arsenal.

Names and UNESCO World Heritage

Sorapiss for the CAI Venice section, Sorapis for Cortina's tourist office, Sorapìs for the Ampezzo park: the name is spelled three ways. In German the lake is the Sorapiss-See.

For the Dolomites UNESCO Foundation, Sorapiss, together with the Marmarole and Antelao, dominates the Cadore Dolomites, one of the four areas of the Northern Dolomites system. The nine systems are explained on our Dolomites UNESCO page.