Circuit & See

Get more from your skiing trip, by tackling the awesome Sella Ronda circuit, which offers you Unescohonoured landscapes, breathtaking views and filling restaurants all in one day.

Epic views, plenty of pistes, great food and a dash of history — it’s all too much for Alf Alderson, who spends a day doing Italy’s Sella Ronda ski tour

If you’re looking to get a snapshot of the best skiing Italy has to offer, then the Dolomites Superski area could be what you’re after. With about 450 lifts serving 1,220km of marked runs and some of the most glorious views this side of the Himalayas, it delivers in both size and beauty.

And I’m here to ski a particularly popular part of it – the Sella Ronda, an amazing 24km circuit based on an ancient high- level trading route around the Sella Massif, which crosses the villages of Selva Gardena, Corvara, Arabba and Canazei at each corner of a four-valley square.

When conditions are perfect, top skiers can do the Sella Ronda in just three to four hours, but for most of us intermediates the circuit represents a day trip to complete, with incredible views along the way. You’ll tackle many fun red and blue runs and ride on about 14km of lifts, giving you the chance to relax and take in the magnificent panoramas as you glide gently uphill between each section.

So grand are the mountains here that all the mechanical jiggery-pokery you’ll be using to get around seems just a blip on the sublime landscapes that it interlaces, and doesn’t in any way spoil the vistas. Indeed, when locals tell me that in their modest opinion these are the world’s most beautiful mountains I find it hard to disagree. The glorious pale yellow and orange limestone peaks – which transform with beautiful warm shades of mauve, pink and purple every dawn and dusk – were recently declared a Unesco World Heritage Site, making them the skier’s answer to the Grand Canyon or Great Barrier Reef.

Any of the four main villages will make a great base and start point. This trip my Aussie comrade Cam and I have chosen to start and end our circuit at Selva. Once we are all suited up and ready to go, we gaze upwards at the slopes that World Cup ski racers hurtle down each winter with some alacrity, until we realise these are not on the itinerary!

It’s an easy start, hopping onto what will be one of the day’s many ski lifts to ascend the summit of 2,254m Ciampinoi. Here we enjoy a quick break before we begin, simply to take in the exhilarating mix of wide red and blue runs that will take us on our circumnavigation of the Sella Massif, as the monolithic Sassolungo (3,181m) bears down on us from the west.

The Sella Ronda can be skied in both directions and is marked clearly with orange signs for clockwise and green for anti-clockwise. Clockwise is the most popular and slightly quicker, but some skiers prefer anti-clockwise because it’s usually less busy. Don’t worry if you’re in a group with different abilities, because with a little logistical work it’s possible for everyone to enjoy the circuit and meet up at a mountain restaurant or two along the way.

The best day for avoiding long queues is usually Saturday, and remember that most lifts close between 4pm and 4.30pm. So aim to be at your final high point by about 3.30pm. Miss the last lift and you could be in for a very expensive taxi ride back to your hotel.

Easy, sunny skiing on mostly blue runs sees us approaching the 2,239m Pordoi Pass by mid-morning. Here we throw our skis over our shoulders, making the short walk up to the Pordoi cable car for the steep 550m ascent up to the towering massif of the Sass Pordoi. The views are awesome, with the gigantic limestone crags and pinnacles of the Dolomites giving way to shadowy blue lines of mountains stretching north to Austria and Switzerland like an enormous ocean swell.

Beneath the pass we can see the bulky mausoleum commemorating Italian and Austrian troops who fought each other here

between 1915 and 1918, in a little-known theatre of World War I. The soldiers burrowed into mountainside caves, dug trenches in the snowfields, and created many of the narrow, exposed footpaths known as “via ferrata” – now scrambled along each summer by adventurous hikers. A favoured means of attack in this conflict was to fire shells into mountainsides and snowfields above the enemy, bringing huge rockfalls and avalanches down on them. “Man’s ingenuity knows no end when it comes to doing each other in,” says Cam laconically.

This dismal thought quickly evaporates though, as we set off again with a fast, swooping run down to the elegant Sporthotel in Arabba and a sumptuous lunch, complete with fine local wines and what is possibly the world’s best chocolate pie. We’re of the opinion that we can afford to indulge, because straight after lunch we will be taking the Boé gondola to the top of the Passo di Campolongo to burn off the calories with yet another fun and fast undulating red run, down to the village of Corvara.

Onwards and upwards, our final leg of the circuit sees us ascending the Passo Gardena via a mix of chair lift and tow lift for the final long, high-speed descent back in to Selva – first across wide open alpine pastures, before dropping into verdant forested slopes above the village.

The Val Gardena into which we’re rushing has a long and illustrious skiing history – it’s

over 100 years since the first ski races were held locally, and Val Gardena’s famed Saslong World Cup course is located here. The early season races are a well-known precursor to Christmas among the racing set here, who reach speeds of over 100km/h on the steep, camel-backed course.

We check out the run once again, then Cam looks sidelong at me, and says: “Wanna give it a go, mate?”

“Yeah, sure,” I reply nervously. “But some other time maybe. After all, we’ve just spent the whole day on skis, right?” Which I think – as we stomp into the bar in our ski boots at the party resort of Selva Gardena – is a pretty good excuse.

Dolomite resorts not to miss

Just to the west of the Sella Ronda area are the resorts of Obereggen, Andalo and Folgaria, all worth a day trip or longer. Andalo (www. andalovacanze.com) will appeal to skiers looking for a challenge. The resort sits beneath the 2,125m peak of Paganella and offers long, challenging red runs like the Dosso Larici, where 1,000m of downhill will have your quads and lungs working overtime.

Obereggen (www. obereggen.com) is divided into five separate ski areas, offering a total 150km of pistes, all set beneath imposing limestone peaks. It’s popular with families, thanks to a profusion of user-friendly blue and red runs – although skiers and boarders needing an adrenalin fix will find some steeper terrain too.

Folgaria (www. folgariaski.com) is the most southerly of the resorts, sitting in a picturesque location beneath heavily wooded slopes. Like Obereggen, it’s a good family option, with a range of small ski areas scattered above the village. This being Italy, the slopes are frequently sunny, which means you can enjoy alfresco breaks at one of the area’s numerous mountain bars and restaurants.

Fast facts

GETTING THERE:

The Sella Ronda ski circuit lies about two and a half hours’ drive from both Venice (Treviso) and Verona airports. Bus and taxi transfers can be arranged by visiting www.flytovalgardena. com. Alternatively, car hire is available at both airports through Hertz (www.hertz.com) – Ryanair’s exclusive car rental partner, offering special rates to Ryanair passengers. Ryanair operates 23 routes to Venice (Treviso); and operates eight routes to Verona. For more details, and to book your flight, visit www.ryanair.com

APRÈS-SKI:

After all this mountain action you’re going to want to relax at day’s end. And this being Italy, good food and wine served in gregarious restaurants – whether on the mountains or in the towns and villages – comes as a matter of course. Alta Badia valley alone has three Michelin-starred restaurants. The region is also renowned for its spa towns and wellness centres, with Vitalpina Hotels (www.vitalpina.info) in particular focusing on pampering its guests when they get down from the hills. Indulge with everything from spa treatments to steam baths at its hotels dotted around the Dolomites.