One of the things that I was most excited about in moving to Italy was the prospect of discovering new ski areas. Anyone that has seen my Facebook page would know that one of my favorite activities is sliding down the side of mountain on snow. I’d skied in Europe before, over a decade ago in Austria, and was eager to explore the Italian Alps in the northwest and the Dolomites in the northeast. Last winter, my first in Italy, I made several skibus forays into the Apennine Mountains outside of Rome for daytrips to the local ski areas of Campo Felice, Ovindoli Monte Magnolia, and Campo Imperatore. Though they provided a good introduction to Italian skiing (sunny days, fun groomed runs) and helped to sate my desire to play in the snow, they are not the big mountain ski resort experience I was dreaming about. So at the beginning of my second Italian ski season, I booked a trip for my family to Val Gardena.
Why Val Gardena?
I’m not sure the first time I heard of Val Gardena (maybe mentioned in Downhill Racer?), but the name fired memory neurons when I was doing internet research on the Sellaronda, a 42-km lift-accessed ski circuit in the Dolomites on which one can circumnavigate The Sella Group of rocky mountains in a single day. A friend had done it several years ago and posted amazing photos. These had also stuck in my brain. Val Gardena, lying generally northwest of The Sella, is one of the four valleys on the circuit.
There are three beautiful villages in Val Gardena, each providing ski lifts in multiple directions, as well as all the other ski resort amenities like lodging and restaurants and hot tubs. At the eastern end of the valley is Selva, the highest elevation village and the one providing the best access to the Sellaronda. The middle village is St. Christina, where the famous Saslong Classic World Cup Downhill Race course finishes. And the western-most and lowest elevation village is Ortisei.
Realistically, Val Gardena is four different ski areas using a common lift pass (only 5 euro more for the Dolomiti Superski pass which covers the whole Sellaronda). South of Selva and St. Christina, the main ski area lies between the two giant rock faces of the Sella and the Sassolungo mountains, with access all the way to Sella Pass. I guess I would call this Val Gardena proper. The Ciampinoi gondola from Selva and the Saslong gondola from St. Christina access this area and the counter-clockwise route of the Sellaronda. The clockwise route starts from Selva and heads east via the Costabella lift toward Dantercepies Mountain and Gardena Pass. This is a smaller second ski area. The third area, called Seceda, is north of St. Christina and Ortisei. An underground funicular (the Val Gardena Ronda Express) accesses the Col Reiser lift to Seceda from St. Christina, while the Furnes gondola links Ortisei with the Seceda tram. The fourth area is Seiser Alm, a vast high-elevation plateau west of The Sassolungo with moderate slopes and it’s own extensive lodging and restaurant ecosystem. The Seiser Alm gondola from Ortisei accesses the plateau for skiers from Val Gardena. If you find all of this confusing, you are not the only one (more on that later).
Where to stay?
I came late to the game and many places were already booked when I started to look for early January lodging in early November. Though ski tourism is mature in Val Gardena and lodging options are vast, my search for moderately priced lodging (there is nothing cheap about skiing) took me west of Ortisei to the Alpin Stile Hotel. I used lodging search engines to make inquiries with specific hotels in combination with GoogleMaps to narrow the choices. The Alpin Stile had space for my family of four in two rooms, had a spa with two types of saunas and a hot tub, provided breakfast and dinner (if we wanted it), ran a ski shuttle to the lifts in Ortisei, and accepted our dog. The place was great, the food was wonderful, and the proprietor (Michael) was so helpful in answering all my newbie questions.
Getting There?
We rented a car in Rome and drove to Val Gardena, skis down the middle and big old dog on the floor. GoogleMaps said it would take 6.5 hours to go the 660 km and, boy, did they get that wrong! We left home before noon and pulled into the hotel at 11 pm. It was mostly the stop-and-go traffic between Rome and Florence, but the heavy fog just after sunset outside of Modena sucked too.
Over 90 percent of the route is on a toll highway, which generally provides pretty good infrastructure to get from here to there. Along the route there exists an economy based on convenient rest stops, where the gas stations, toilets, and Autogrills come together seemingly every few dozen kilometers. At first glance, these stops are attractive because you can get your pizza and panini fix while watering the dog. And look, they have giant tubes of Pringles here too! But pretty soon, you realize that they are all the same – lines to pay, lines for mediocre food, lines for the dirty bathroom. Since it’s a toll road and economic activity has been concentrated at these autogrills, businesses have not developed around highway exits, as on the free American highway system. Exiting the highway to avoid the autogrills likely means venturing into villages, sometimes a distance from the highway, to find an alternative. These alternatives are not bad in and of themselves, but the detours made a long drive home a little longer.
The Skiing?
The skiing was great! It was mostly sunny with barely freezing temperatures every day. And, an amazingly beautiful landscape!! Steep rocky mountains with ski slopes everywhere and barely a lift line for the three days. But, let me say that a downside of 300 days of sun per year is that there isn’t much opportunity for storms to refresh the snow. So, while the snowmaking is extensive and the grooming is perfect every morning, there was little chance to venture off piste.
On the first day, at Michael’s suggestion, we took the gondola from Ortisei to Seiser Alm. The view from the top of the lift was fantastic, with the vast plateau with ski lifts to the horizon and Sassolungo dominating the skyline to the southeast. Making sense of the map, however, which attempts to describe undulating fall lines on a near treeless landscape, was difficult. We ventured forth, barely taking the same lift twice, and covered most of the plateau. All the runs are basically intermediate in difficulty and provided a great place for us to start our ski season. We even had an excellent vegetarian pizza lunch in the middle of the plateau at the Hotel Paradiso.
On our second day, it was just two of us, with the others having brought “work commitments” on a holiday and stayed back with the dog. We again got dropped off by the shuttle in Ortisei, but this time at the Furnes gondola to the Seceda. Interestingly, the gondola links partway up with a tram, where we packed in with our fellow skiers (the snowboarders are few). The steep rocky cliff below the tram gives way to a cold windy ridge at the top, where the first few turns on the other side are steep and icy and glorious in the sun. We hit this slope several times, happy (at least I was) to be off the intermediate runs of the previous day. Then we skied the slope almost all the way into St. Christina, but had to take the underground funicular the last bit through a hillside into town. Then on to the Saslong gondola up the other side of the valley into the Val Gardena ski area proper. We again explored the landscape, not taking the same lift more than twice. There are so many gondolas I was constantly taking off and putting on my skis (a hassle on old tele gear!). A highlight was the wide high-speed turns under the Gran Paradiso lift between the giant rock faces of The Sella and Sassolungo. We found an Austrian-style ski lunch at a refugio near the base of the Piza Pranseies lift. With our tired legs, we then had to retrace our path to where the shuttle had dropped us off. This took us down the steep and fast Saslong downhill course and back up to Seceda. The long twilight run from the top down the valley to Ortisei was another highlight of the day, undulating and turning under hanging cliffs and frozen waterfalls to the smell of smoke from the après ski fires in town.
On the third and last day, rejoined by the rest of the family, it became apparent that we weren’t going to complete the Sellaronda. Though we’d already skied at three of the four areas at Val Gardena, basic exploration of this one valley was plenty. We agreed that we’d have to come back to bag the circuit (always leave them wanting more). On this day, we opted to drive to Selva to start at a new place. We ventured up to Sella Pass and were a little disappointed by the crowded moderate slopes and an active road providing easy access to what I’d hoped was a remote mountain ridge. Instead, we had an expensive refueling outside in the sun at the Passo Sella Resort, which at least had awesome views. The 2-person “coffin” cable car up to Rifugio Toni Demetz in the saddle below Sassolungo was not running when we were there, but we could see someone hiking the very steep approach.
At the end of the day, we took a wrong turn on the way down and ended up heading toward the Saslong Downhill run. Listening to her tired legs, my wife opted instead to take the gondola down. Saying that we’d meet her in town, the rest of us skied off. At the bottom we quickly ran into her and she said, “Good news!” I said, “Yeah, we’re altogether.” Then she said, “Bad news.” I said, “Yeah, we’re in the wrong town!” We were in St. Christina. Luckily, the après ski bar at the base was lively enough to keep the family entertained while I figured out how to catch the bus up valley to retrieve our car in Selva.
Après Ski?
I’m sorry, but nowadays my idea of a good après ski includes a beer, a hot tub, a nice meal, and another beer. With good friends and family of course. There is very little loud music or dancing! A good night’s sleep means being better rested for tomorrow’s turns.
Every night after skiing on this trip we ended up back at the hotel. As soon as possible. I got out of my ski gear and made my way barefoot outside to the hot tub, usually with someone from my family. The tub wasn’t terribly hot but the jets were strong. After awhile, I’d go stand in the snow to let the cold penetrate my feet, before heading into the regular sauna, not the herbal one. I’ve never been much of a sauna guy, but they are a great place to slow down and introvert. Then, following the laminated spa instructions on the wall, I’d shower, make a cup of herbal tea, and lie on a bed in the darkened spa grotto listening to excruciatingly “relaxing” music. It wasn’t long before I changed and was in the hotel bar for that aforementioned beer!
Dinner tends to start pretty late in Italy. When we showed up in the restaurant for dinner on the first night, Michael told us that dinner had to be prearranged with him in the morning, so there was nothing ready for us. We didn’t know how the system worked. Luckily, there was a nice restaurant 100 meters down the road that served local fare, and I was able to have my first schnitzel since I was last in Austria. On successive nights, we indeed prearranged our dinners at our hotel, and were surprised and delighted by the quality of the 5-course meals. Michael even presented us with excellent vegetarian options. When we left on the last morning, we told him that we will be back.
