You start this climb in Masino (273m) if coming from the Morbegno area and if you come from the Tirano area on the main valley road you start at Masino ‘east’ (266m). If you or coming here via the higher going road from the east you start in Ardenno (266m). All the roads meet up around 290m and from here it is a nice climb up to Cataeggio (791m) in Val Masino. There is then a short-cut road up to Preda Rossa I did not know of myself when climbing the road, but would make the climb harder still. The tough part anyway start from Cataeggio.

The road to Preda Rossa was closed for several years after a massive landslide and there were doubts it would ever be restored, but that has now been done by building a new road on the other side of the valley. This does not make the previous hard section that was destroyed any easier from what I can tell. It was also not fully paved when I was here in 2013, but might have been so now, but in any case it is possible to use with a road bike. There is a steep concrete ramp and it is steep when getting back onto the old road, then there is a nice section of serpentines up to the Preda Rossa alp. Asphalt ends at 1947m, but I think you should continue up the grassy track to 1961m on the left hand for a still better view (one could cycle up there).