The Upper Val Mora valley, with the Piano dell’Acqua Nera (Acqua Nera Plateau) and the vast Alpe Cul (Alpe Cul mountain pasture) is divided between the municipality of Santa Brigida, where the peak of Monte Colombarolo (alt. 2,117 metres) is a distinctive landscape feature, along with the municipality of Averara. The artificial Val Mora lake, built in the 1950s, altered the valley’s landscape and also changed the course of the mule tracks. Basically, at the foot of the present dam, two routes branched off from the track arriving from the lower part of the valley: one went to the right towards Ca’ San Marco and the San Marco Pass; the other ran to the left towards the Verrobbio Pass, also known as the Morbegno Pass, and Val Gerola. The road for vehicles that now leads to the dam connects to the state road SS 470 at the San Marco 2000 mountain lodge, while at Ponte Superiore dell’Acqua on the same road, the CAI 110A path named “Alta Via Mercatorum” (high-altitude Mercatorum Way) branches off, leading to the aforementioned Verrobbio Pass (alt. 2,026 metres). The situation illustrated by the 1819 Austro-Hungarian survey reflects the road network at that time, when the branch for the Verrobbio Pass was not where the dam is today, but at Ca’ San Marco (today reached by CAI trails 101 – 161).