Sella Ronda is a circular ski tour around the Sella massif. It consists of four ski resorts: Alta Badia, Val Gardena, Val di Fassa, and Arabba/Marmolada. The slopes of the four resorts have a total length of 500 km, and are covered by around 220 ski lifts. If you decide on the Sella Ronda experience, you're in for an exciting tour, consisting of versatile runs and lifts linked across four mountain passes. On your way you'll be experiencing breathtaking views of Sella's dense forests and impressive rocks.
You can start your tour by taking the ski lifts in any of the four villages - Alta Badia's Corvara, Val Gardena's Selva/Wolkenstein, Val di Fassa's Canzei, or Arabba. In case you decide on following the orange arrows, you'll be doing the clockwise route. If you follow the green arrows, you're on the anti-clockwise route. Each route consists of at least 23 km of ski runs and 14-16 km of ski lifts. The runs are of a moderate difficulty level. Nevertheless, the slopes are located at high altitudes, and we're speaking of many kilometers here, so the tour is recommended to more experienced skiers in good physical shape.
Before you set off for your skiing adventure, be sure to check the weather forecast so as to avoid possible blizzards, mountain pass closings, or avalanches. Bad weather can turn a potentially pleasant ski day into a real disaster. Mountain passes information and other useful info are usually obtainable at the ski lift starting points in the valleys, where you can also get the ski maps of the whole area.
Start your tour not later than 10 a.m. You will spent two hours only riding the ski lifts (and this is in case there are no crowds). The last mountain pass has to be reached by 15:30 a.m. at the latest; the ski lifts close between 16 a.m. and 16:30 a.m.. Depending on your skiing skill, you'll spend about an hour and a half, or two hours on the runs. If you like taking breaks on sunbathed terraces, do start your tour at 9 a.m. - there are nice terraces galore.
The runs are well cared for, which is the case at all Italian resorts. However, prepare for lower quality of snow on passes, which cause bottlenecks to the movement of skiers. Owing to high altitude (even the villages in the valleys are at 1500 m a.s.l.) Sella Ronda has plenty of snow. Also, 70% of its runs are covered by snowmaking system.
The runs that more experienced skiers are definitely not to miss are the Gran Risa run in Alta Badia and the Saslong in Val Gardena, on which the men's super-G and downhill WC events are staged around Christmas. More advanced and skillful skiers also shouldn't miss skiing the black runs in the Porta Vescovo area. Those who are less experienced can enjoy quite a number of less demanding runs, especially in the Alta Badia area. And here's an advice for extreme skiers: take the gondola to Sella from the Pordoi pass, walk across Sella (which will take you about an hour), and head down the freeride terrain toward Colfosco. By all means, take a guide and ski in a group; apart from being dangerous, the terrain is not monitored by mountain rescue.
As for accommodation, there are choices for every kind of pocket; deep pocketed customers will be satisfied in Alta Badia and, especially, in Val Gardena, while Val di Fassa offers much affordable prices, as well as the smaller villages in the Canazei region. Arabba-Marmolada has considerably lower accommodation capacity, and is not such a fancy resort.
For skiing the slopes of Sella Ronda, you need the Dolomiti Superski ski pass, which, together with Sella Ronda, covers 12 connected valleys totalling 1220 km of slopes and 460 ski lifts. Dolomiti Superski 6 days ski pass is obtainable at EUR 193 in low season, and EUR 220 in high season.
At the end of a ski day, do not miss the fun in some of the numerous apres-ski bars; as the sun goes down, the mood there goes up. Most of the bars are 'furnished' in igloo style. There you can make a Grappa* toast to your successful ski tour, which is definitely one of the most beautiful ones in this part of the Alps.
Sella Ronda is definitely worth a visit. And if you don't feel like taking the whole tour, you can make your day by skiing at any of the four Sella Ronda resorts, without having to descend twice down the same run.
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*Grappa - Italian white grape brandy with a reputation for a fiery character
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