The 3,064 m high Mt. Piz dles Cunturines (in Ladin language), or Conturines Peak, is the highest peak of the Fanes Group
Image gallery: Piz Cunturines
Mt. Piz Cunturines (or Conturines) can be found 3 km east of San Cassiano and 4.5 km north of the Passo di Valparola mountain pass, dominating the landscape of this area. In the north, there is the 3,055 m high Mt. Piz Lavarela, in the other directions its slopes descend towards the valley.
The Piz dles Cunturines, how it is called in the Ladin-speaking valleys, was climbed for the first time in 1880. Nowadays the several hours’ mountain tour starts either at the Capanna Alpina hut near San Cassiano (1,720 m a.s.l.) or at the Rif. Valparola mountain hut on the eponymous pass (2,168 m a.s.l.). The last rocky section to the top has to be managed on the Conturines Route (Tru Dolomieu), a secured hiking path of medium difficulty with iron and wooden hedges.
Mt. Piz Cunturines, located amidst the Fanes-Senes-Braies Nature Park in the Dolomites, is also famous due to another fact: in 1987, in the Conturines Cave at 2,800 m a.s.l. bones of a previously unknown cave bear were found. To this prehistoric Ursus ladinicus, also called “Conturines cave bear”, the Museum Ladin - Ursus ladinicus in San Cassiano has been dedicated.
