The CAI trails of the Karst — the network behind the Corsa della Bora

The Trieste Karst is crossed by a dense network of trails numbered and maintained by the Club Alpino Italiano (CAI), Trieste branches. Each route is identified by a three-digit number (sometimes followed by a letter, e.g. CAI 001a) and marked on the ground with the classic white-red-white trail blaze, painted on trees, rocks and posts, alongside the trail number; at the main junctions there are signposts with destinations and walking times. The official, up-to-date list of trails, with routes and technical sheets, is published in the CAI FVG trail register — Sector 0 Karst.

The routes of the Corsa della Bora largely rely on this network, alternating stretches on CAI trails with short race-specific connectors — stretches not numbered by CAI, marked on the spot by the organisers with tape and dedicated signage. A trail never “becomes” another: the route joins it, leaves it, crosses it or shares it for a stretch, before continuing on a race connector or a different trail.

The CAI trails touched by the 2027 races

The table lists the CAI trails in Sector 0 Karst covered by the 2027 Corsa della Bora distances, with the places they cross and the races that use them. Proper names exist only for some trails: where the CAI register does not assign a title, the trail is identified by its number alone.

S1 Bora Ultra (116 km) is the concatenation of the two longer routes — the S1 Trieste Ultra (61 km) in the first part and the S1 TransKarst Ultra (55 km) in the second — and for this reason touches practically every trail in the table except CAI 008, reserved for the Family and Half variants.

Non-CAI itineraries crossed by the route

Along the way, the Corsa della Bora also crosses some well-known local itineraries that are not part of the CAI numbering: they are independent itineraries, with their own signage and their own history, which in some stretches simply share the same trackbed as the CAI trails listed above. They are not equivalent names or synonyms of the CAI trails: sharing a stretch does not make the two itineraries the same thing.

• Rilke Path — the scenic path between Sistiana and Duino; the race route shares it for a stretch in the cliff sector, on CAI 001.
• Alpe Adria Trail — an international trail that also crosses the Trieste Karst; it briefly overlaps with the race route at several points, in particular around Crogole and on CAI 001.
• Vertikala SPDT — shares some connectors with the race route, from Val Rosandra to the Bottazzo sector and, further on, along CAI 003 towards Bosco Flondar.
• Sentiero dei Pescatori/Ribiška pot — in the upper stretch between Miramare and Contovello it overlaps with CAI 009, but it is not equivalent to the whole segment.
• Percorso didattico di Aurisina/Učna pot Nabrežina — shared only in part with CAI 001 on the stretch towards Strada della Salvia/Žajbljeva pot.
• Walk of Peace/Pot miru — the cross-border route linking the First World War memorial sites from the Alps to the Adriatic: on the Karst it touches the open-air museum of Monte Ermada/Grmada, restored as part of this very project and crossed by the races in the cross-border sector.

This description has editorial value, useful for understanding how the route is built trail by trail. To actually follow the track during training or in the race, only the official GPS track and the race signage placed by the organisers, are authoritative. Distances, elevation gains and cut-off times for each distance are collected on the page Official data 2027; a general overview of the Karst trails is in the guide Trail running in Trieste and the Karst.