The Croda del Becco, whose summit is 2818 meters high, is part of the Braies Dolomites. Thanks to its position it marks the border between the Ampezzo and Tyrolean territories, and delimits the northernmost point of the municipality of Cortina. At the foot of its northern side is the famous lake of Braies. Its Italian name “Croda del Becco” derives from the fact that along the slopes of this relief, a large community of ibex thrives; its German name “Seekofel” simply means “Peak on the lake” (of Braies); Ladin denominations, on the other hand, have two different origins (taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia):
- the name Sass dla Porta has mythological origins; in fact, it derives from the saga of the Reign of the Fanes, an ancient realm of Ladin mythology that would have existed in the current Dolomite valleys in time immemorial. Every year, on a full moon night, the few survivors of the Fanes people, destroyed by the greed of a usurper king, come out of the enormous natural hole dug in the rock of the mountain and travel by boat around the lake of Braies, guided by his own queen and by Lujanta, the mythical heroine [3].
- the name Cul de ra Badessa would instead draw its origins from historical facts. The ridge of the Croda del Becco marked for several centuries the border between the territories administered by the Ampezzo Rules and those under the jurisdiction of the castle-abbey of Sonnenburg, now called Castel Badia, in the municipality of San Lorenzo di Sebato, near Brunico. Towards the middle of the 15th century, however, the most famous of the abbesses of Sonnenburg, the energetic and warlike Verena von Stuben, persistently tried to annex the prosperous Ampezzo basin to the territories subject to the authority of her convent. After many clashes, the abbess (who among other things had repeatedly rebelled against the authority of the powerful bishop of Bressanone, the philosopher and cardinal Niccolò Cusano) had to give up. It is thus, therefore, that the people of Ampezzo scornfully began to call this mountain with a rather rounded shape and which marked the southern boundary of the possessions of the hated abbess, Cul de ra Badessa.
Croda del Becco offers a hiking itinerary; starting from the Hotel Lago di Braies (1,494 m asl), go along the eastern shore of the small lake basin until you take the mule track (trail no.1) that leads to the Sora Forno saddle (Ofenscharte, 2,388 m) and the underlying Refuge Biella at the Croda del becco (Seekofelhütte in German, 2,327 m). At the saddle, it is possible to take a path of greater difficulty that leads up to the summit of the Croda. From the refuge, however, continue along path no. 23 which, skirting the Alpe di Sennes, crosses the Riodalato saddle (also known as Forcela de Riciogogn, at 2,331 m) and then descends to path no. 19, which connects to Lake Braies. Although this is one of the major routes to access the Croda del Becco, the opposite itinerary is also possible.
Walking time: 1-1.15 hours EE: via uncensored path (part attr.) From Forc. Sora Forno.
