By Dee Dee McKinney
The Sella Ronda Italian ski circuit is one of the best known ski tour loops in the Alps with trails and terrain for all levels of ability. The high Dolomites form a beautiful skiing backdrop as skiers pace themselves according to the level and ability of preference.
The panoramic tour covers over 40 kilometers traveling over 4 mountain passes: Pordoi, Sella, Gardena and Campolongo. It also passes through 4 Ladin Valleys: Fassa (Trentino), Gardena, Badia and Arabba all in the high Italian Dolomites. The ski route takes skiers through mountain villages and towns, descending past old refuges with inviting mountain restaurants, opened for a warming drink, local food or a gourmet mountain lunch.
The ski tour can be comfortably completed in 5-6 hours, even by the least experienced skier. The tour is a loop that runs either clockwise or counter-clockwise around the massif of the Sella Mountain Range by following color coordinated signage. Skiers begin the route in any of the mountain valley ski villages, deciding on which color route to follow riding approximately a mixture of fourteen lifts to complete the circle. The more diehard skiers might even want to challenge themselves by doing both routes to completion and return via the opposite route in the afternoon.
Skiers should begin the tour by 10:00 am to be assured they can complete the route in a day. If skiers find they cannot complete the tour in a day, there’s no worry about being left on the mountain as the valleys all have bus and taxi service to return you to your beginning site of the tour. The trails officially close at 5:00 pm local time but some lifts stop operating before the trails officially close. Skiers should carry an accurate ski map of the route which is available at all the lift stations and tourists offices in the region. The Sella Ronda is about an hour commute by bus from the Olympic ski resort village of Cortina.
Adventurous skiers who decide to explore this wonderful diverse tour through the Italian Dolomites will make a lifetime memory rewarded with extraordinary grand vistas of pure snow meadows with jagged mountain peaks!
