Rifugio Vioz - "Mantova"

At the refuge – whose load-bearing structure was made of laminated wood, covered with thick copper plates – a “totem” type LPG gas generator was installed (which therefore does not produce any pollution) that is able to simultaneously supply electricity and hot water. The water is heated by the generator itself. While the generator set supplies the 220 V electricity for the kitchen and other service equipment, a series of 30 solar panels placed on the roof of the refuge supplies the energy, which is stored in batteries that feed a secondary lowest voltage (24V) to meet indoor lighting needs. If there is no sun, the excess energy produced by the generator directly charges the batteries. At the refuge, the only example in the Alps at this altitude, a biological purifier has also been installed: the activated sludge heated by resistances and by hot air supplied by the “totem” generators, allow perfect purification of the water which can be entirely recovered for services hygienic. The first refuge on Vioz was built in 1908 by the S.A.T. in a lower position than the current one, at the Crozzi Taviela, a rocky outcrop between the Val del Vioz and the Val Taviela. This first refuge, dedicated to the city of Mantua, was destroyed by fire during the First World War and was never rebuilt. Meanwhile, the German mountaineers of the Halle Section of the D.u.Oe.A.V. thanks to the guide Matteo Groaz, who was the manager for a long time, they too had built, just below the top of the Vioz, a hut inaugurated in 1911. At the end of the war this hut was entrusted to the S.A.T. like all the other Austro-German huts in Trentino. The hut was definitively assigned by the Italian State to the S.A.T. in 1947 and in that same year, on the initiative of a committee headed by Quirino Bezzi – then president of the Sections of the Alta Val di Sole (and then also of the S.A.T. from 1985 to 1988) and to whom the main hall of the new refuge – the small church dedicated to St. Bernard of Mentone and to the fallen of all wars was built, next to the refuge.

Mountaineering guide: BUSCAINI, Gino, Ortles-Cevedale: Stelvio National Park, Milan, CAI, TCI, 1984 (Guide of the Mountains of Italy) Hiking guide: VALCANOVER, Adolfo – DEFLORIAN, Tarcisio, Guide of the paths and refuges of Western Trentino, Trento, SAT, 1994 Cartography: – Ortles-Cevedale Ortlergebiet, Feletto Umberto (UD), Tabacco, [199-?], scale 1:25.000 (Topographic map for hikers; 08) – KOMPASS map in scale 1:25.000 n. 637 “Cevedale-Valley of Peio-Alta

• from Peio m. 1556, path 105 which passes through Malga Saline 2089 m., near Cima Vioz m. 2504 and the Dente del Vioz m. 2901 – 6 hrs;
• taking advantage of the lifts, up to Dos dei Cembri 2313 m. – 3.30 hrs.