Two days of MTB in Valmalenco: Lake Palù and Alpe Ventina
- Mtb life
- June 3, 2025
For a long time, Valmalenco was not an obvious MTB destination in my eyes because it lacked an extensive network of the kind of singletrack I was seeking. There were plenty of routes, but they often involved either wide jeep tracks or very technical paths, with fewer flowing trails between those extremes. Nevertheless, exploring a little revealed some worthwhile surprises.
These notes describe our outings and the conditions we encountered, rather than the current state of the entire trail network.
Day one: Lake Palù and the Boletus bike-park descent
From San Giuseppe we climbed to Lake Palù and rode around this beautiful lake. The ascent first passed alpine pastures and huts, then entered dense mountain-pine and larch woodland. Arriving at the lake was memorable.
We continued a little higher towards the ski-lift plateau and joined the bike-park trail, whose start was marked by a wooden structure and tape. The first section zigzagged across the ski slopes. On our visit it looked a little neglected, with damaged berms, but it soon entered the woods and became a lovely pine-needle trail descending to Rifugio Sasso Nero.
Another option is the Paluetto trail directly from Lake Palù, although it includes technical sections.
Day two: San Giuseppe to Rifugio Ventina
The following day we again started on the San Giuseppe plain and followed the signposted gravel road to Chiareggio. From there we climbed steadily towards Rifugio Gerli-Porro; the gradient gave little respite.
The glacier views were striking. A few hundred metres further on we reached Rifugio Ventina. We descended and returned along the same route.
