Mount Conturines, located in the Fanes-Senes-Braies natural park in the Dolomites UNESCO World Heritage, is the highest mountain in the Fanes group of which it is also one of the most representative.
The hike to Mt. Conturines, in the Fanes-Senes-Braies nature park, starts in San Cassiano / Capanna Alpina. The ascent to the cave is challenging, the hike is therefore recommended for well trained mountaineers only.
On trail no.11 climb up o the Col de Locia towards Fanes until you reach the Gran Plan (great plain in Ladin language). Continue to the left on a slope of mountain pines and climb on steep screes to the foot of Mt. Conturines at 2800 m, where you will find the entrance of a bear cave.
The discovery of the Conturines cave at the end of the 80s (in 1987) was a big sensation: In the cave there were found fossil remains of a cave bear. Studies of the bones have subsequently revealed that the fossilized skull, teeth, and bones found in the cave do not originate, as initially suspected, from a cave bear of recent times, but rather do belong to a cave bear of the Middle Ice Age. The Conturines bear was named Ursus ladinicus, in honor of the Ladin valley where it was found.
The access to the cave is allowed only on the occasion of guided hikes organized by the Alta Badia Tourism Cooperative. The fossil remains are exposed in the Museum Ladin Ursus ladinicus in San Cassiano.
Follow the SS244 Val Badia road towards La Villa and continue on road SS37 to San Cassiano.
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