Technical data
Entrance: 800mt
Exit: 350mt
Gap: 450mt
Development: 4500mt
Highest slope: 30mt
Shuttle: 12 Km
Approach: 5 minutes
Progression: 4 hours, 30 minutes (until the confluence, then look for description of the Vinadia)
Difficulty: E / EEA
Period: July through August
Cartography: Tabacco chart 1:25000 sheet #013 – Carnic Prealps Val Tagliamento.
Description
The Vinadia Gorge trail is equipped with rings, and it presents two different degrees of difficulty: a loop stretch, fit for the average excursionist.
An annex fit for the expert. It presents the typical difficulties of a via ferrata classifiable as EEA route.
Given the torrential regime of the watercourses, the journey is advised against in the periods following heavy precipations, or when weather forecasts warn of possible storms. The flow rate can suddenly change and it can constitute a problem, especially for the EEA annex route.
The track, though marked, is not always even and stable. Take into account wading across the creek, climbing over boulders or mazes with cobbly and/or unstable terrains.
Good physical conditions are required, and so adequate footwear with non-slip soles and ankle containment. The hard had is also recommended.
Slipping is by far the most relevant danger, since the routes unfurl in a perpetually humid environment, passing straight into the creeks’ rocky bed and often rising over wet rocks covered with moss and lichens.
Due to the elevate humidity rate, it is strongly advised to traverse it out of summertime -when after a squall, in the first hours of the morning or that same night, or during the dew, the bottom gets covered by ice layers.
Due to its structure, the gorge is a scarcely illuminated environment. It is thus recommended to frequent it during the middle of the day, with the sun high on the horizon.
Footwear may get wet. Bring a change for the end of the excursion.
Due to the presence of exposed stretches, the route is not fit for small children.
Keep your hands free during the traverse, so to make sure of your hold and keep yourself balanced.
No mobile range in the gorge. Solitary excursion is advised against.
Water temperature is nearly constant at about 10°C
The hereby description is related to the hiking trail and not the more challenging one.
The route starts from the Vinaio suburb, and runs down a recently fixed trail along the Vinadia creek bed. It eventually reaches the tributary –the Picchions creek.
Nearby the tributary, it is possible to appreciate an imposing view on a monolithic rocky tooth, split off a river’s slope and leaning on the opposite side.
A few meters upstream the confluence, you can hear the rumble of the Picchions waterfall, an attraction in whose clefts the blackbird water nests.
Shortly after meeting the tributary, the track splits in two: A stretch runs down into the gorge, the other runs up the Picchions left orographic bank until the arrival in the village.
Leaving behind the track that we will resume on the way back, walk down the bed and into the depth of the gorge.
After a few hundred meters, find the first equipped stretch, which allows – on ladders and ropes – to cross a deep pool that obstructs the passage.
With your legs knee-deep, proceed with a scouting of an artificial tunnel dug into the slope’s left orographic side. Once out of there, cross the route’s narrowest stretch along a poky cleft where the sides are separated by a few meters only, and the sun penetrates with difficulty, thus creating suggestive tricks of the light.
To proceed along this stretch, you must immerse completely in the water.
The route goes on with continuous openings and closings. After opportunely equipped cliffs, arrive to the end of the itinerary, where the creek dives into a some dozen meters-jump, thus creating a thundering waterfall.
From here on, the descent is reserved to the canyoning lovers. Provided with adequate equipment and after some hour of breathtaking rappelling, they can reach Villa Santina and the confluence with the Tagliamento.
It is worth to take some moment and enjoy the majestic view, before walking back.
Out of the gorge, resume the track you previously left behind and go down the bed. Turn right and proceed: The trail climbs up a steep slope around the waterfall, and it allows the walk up to the summit.
Still following the marked track, get back into the creek bed, where you can admire particular examples of fluvial erosion that created slabs oddly smoothed out.
The track runs uphill until it reaches the Buttea municipal road’s bridge, after which it runs on into a sort of natural canal eroded and embedded into the rock.
After some dozen meters, before an impracticable stretch, the trail runs out of the bed to its orographic right, passes by the wood and joins the overlaying road to the village, thus closing the loop.
EEA route’s further security warnings
Other than the indications for the above route, the complete immersion in the water is required in this stretch. Hard hat, harness and safety lanyards are indispensable.
It is necessary to cross a water basin in the initial stretch. Depth changes according to season, and it may be necessary to swim for a dozen meters.
Vinaio parking lot coordinates: 46.439612, 12.945568
