Skirama Dolomiti

On the Australia day weekend, I went skiing in the Italian Dolomites. I went with my friend and colleague who loves to ski. We chose the Skirama Dolomiti resort as we could get up to five free days of lift access with our 2024 Epic Australia season pass.

Getting to Pinzolo

I was staying in Bucharest at the time so to actually get to the ski fields took almost an entire day of travel. I had to walk up insanely early to catch a 6:00 am flight to Treviso airport (next to Venice). There I met my friend and we traveled together on 3 trains to get to Trento, the regional capital, where we had lunch.

Trento was really nice with some awesome old architecture.

We had lunch at a cafe right on the main central square, at an outdoor table. While we were eating the sun kept us warm until the shadow of the tower briefly shaded us. That is when I took the above picture.

From Trento we took two regional buses to get to Pinzolo, the ski town where we would be staying at.

This was the view from the balcony of our accommodation at Pinzolo. We arrived not long before sunset, after a full day of traveling.

First Day Skiing

This was my first day skiing outside of Australia, in the northern hemisphere, in Europe.

I took this picture on the second gondola at the ski field. Pinzolo is at about 800 meters elevation and there were no ski runs that went all the way down to the town (except a black run but there was no way I could do that). The first gondola from Pinzolo took us up to were all the main runs ended. This gondola was the main access point and we would need to return to Pinzolo by going back it.

I was quite nervous about skiing in Italy and I wanted to practice on a blue run (the easiest colour in Europe) first before trying the red runs (the medium colour). There was a nice blue run up a chair lift that we could get to from the first gondola. I completed it a couple times before we took the second gondola even higher up the mountain. From there, we could ski over to a gondola that links the Pinzolo ski area with the Madonna di Campiglio ski resort.

Madonna di Campiglio has a much larger ski field with runs on both sides of the valley. The above images were taken from a look out spot near where we had lunch. In the right (second) image, you can see the town of Madonna di Campiglio in the the valley (its elevation was much higher than Pinzolo, at around 1500 meters). You can also see all the ski slopes on the other side of the valley. What I found so amazing was that from where I took these picture, I could ski all the way down to the valley bottom, then take a gondola up the mountains on the other side. The gap in the mountains (between the two images) has ski runs and there is a chair lift that goes all the way up there.

Here I am on the other side of the valley. This building is at the top of the long gondola from the valley floor. The mountain peak shown here, now right up close, is the same one that was on the horizon of the previous pictures. This building is also the highest elevation I have ever been to so far (apart from an airplane), at an elevation of 2442 meters (higher than Kosciuszko).

As I was skiing down I had to stop and try to capture the mountain. On this ski run I was so close to the soaring peak, there was no way I could capture it in one image so I had to use multiple images to make a panorama.

Here is a view looking back across the valley. Again you can see the ski slopes on the other side of the valley, and somewhere on those mountains is where we had lunch.

From Madonna di Campiglio we had to take the link gondola back to Pinzolo. This gondola closes at 3:45 pm so each day we always had to make sure we didn't miss the last ride. Otherwise we would need to take a bus, taxi, or a long walk back to our accommodation in Pinzolo. Thankfully, we always made it back on each day.

I took this picture back in the Pinzolo ski resort. This chair lift has a hood that can be used for protection when the weather is bad.

Second Day

I only skied for half a day on the Saturday as I wanted to spend some time in worship during the morning. Since I was taking it easier today, I bravely took my Fujifilm camera with me on the slopes. The views had been so amazing the previous day that I simple had to try and capture some of them on my good camera.

This is the view from the highest gondola at Pinzolo, looking down into the valley. I just loved the scale of the mountains, how there is such a huge difference between the valley floor and the mountain peaks. Pinzolo is at the very edge of the image on the right, going down the valley there are other towns and villages. Mountains like these really do impose such huge physical barriers; here you can see how the valley cuts through the mountains, providing a way through.

This image shows the gondola coming up out of the valley. There was a restaurant and rest area here at the top. Many of these rest areas on the ski slopes had deck chairs that were frequently used by people taking a break, soaking up the sun. I was able to go on the balcony of this building to get some fantastic views.

Here are some close up shots of the mountains. I really love these pictures as they highlight the pure majesty of the mountain peaks, and capture the incredible terrain.

This was the view from the building balcony looking towards the mountains. The red run, on the right, is where I would ski to go towards Madonna di Campiglio. This run was challenging at times but within my capability, and it was fun as for a large portion of it I had a fantastic view of those huge mountains pictured above.

Another two pictures taken from the building balcony. The views really were all around this point. In the first image is pictured the town of Madonna di Campiglio in the distance. The second image has an amazing view of the mountain range and a nice composition with the ski run in the foreground.

This is the view of the mountains at Madonna di Campiglio, taken from the same place I was yesterday, but this time with a better camera. This was such an amazing view and I am happy I could capture it again. With my proper camera, I tried to focus in on the different segments of the mountain range. There were two large rocky ranges, the first two images are of the peaks to the left, and the second two on the right. I especially love the third image that has such a great composition with the mountains, forests and ski slopes.

I stopped to take this image while skiing down the slope. I was often stopping to admire the view and take pictures. Honestly, I was loving every moment of being in these mountains, the scenery was just so beautiful and the skiing so fun. Its the same angle as the previous images, just, wider, lower down and more centrally focused. Every time I did runs on this side of the mountain, I would have these views.

There was a chairlift I repeated multiple times as I waited to meet up with my friend. It was a good chairlift because there were two blue runs, on either side and so I could swap between the two and get some variety each time I went down. Both of these runs were also great blue runs to practice on and both always had the amazing views pictured previously.

Going up the chairlift, I was able to capture this photo (on my phone), which I absolutely loved. It is looking out away from the ski slopes and so it has a much more natural look to it. The snow is mostly undisturbed with just a few trails cutting through the landscape, making me wonder who, or what, passed through this beautiful scene. I loved how the rocks made lumps in the snow, how the trees here are sparsely populated making the mountain feel more open. I had initially missed this picture but I found it looking back through my photos and I new I had to share it.

This image was taken as we were heading back to Pinzolo. It is at the top of the ski run (85) that I needed to take to get to the Madonna di Campiglio - Pinzolo link gondola. There is a faster red run to get there but I liked taking the blue run. It snakes its way down the mountain and is very peaceful, especially towards the end of the day.

Back at Pinzolo, I took this just before we returned down to the town centre. This was late in the afternoon and I loved how I could see the sunlight shining across the mountains. The gondola in the foreground is the one that goes back to Pinzolo.

Exploring Pinzolo

After finishing skiing for the day I went to spend some time walking around Pinzolo. At the end of each day we had to walk back to our accommodation on the other side of town. Thankfully Pinzolo is a small town, but walking with skis, poles, and boots is never easy. As soon as I arrived back today I quickly changed into some more comfortable clothes, grabbed my camera and went back out into Pinzolo. Exploring it while there was still a little daylight left.

Firstly, this is the building we were staying in. We had the unit on the top floor, which I absolutely loved as I am a big fan of rooms in the roof where the ceiling is sloped.

This is the main road going into Pinzolo, if you zoom in, you can see the sign for Pinzolo above the road. Our accommodation was right at the edge of town, but next to a super market, and still at most a five minute walk from the town centre.

This image also shows one of my favourite things about this place, the mountains soaring in the distance.

The buildings in Pinzolo are really pretty, they had these beautiful pastel colours.

The center of town had a couple of narrow, pedestrian only, streets. In this image the church bell tower lined up perfectly with the street.

Close up of the church. Because of how narrow the streets are, there wasn't a good angle to capture the church from, this was the best I could manage.

As I walked through the town, I tried to capture some pictures with the mountains in the background. I had mixed success as the streets with the prettier buildings were narrow and so blocked the view of the mountains. This street here was wider so I could see the mountains, but the buildings were not as pretty, though still nice enough.

Another view of the church, looking down a street.

This was one of the central squares. The sun was just setting and the festive lights were on.

The central square of Pinzolo. They still had a Christmas tree up and there was an opening where you could walk through the Christmas tree. This "Christmas tree tunnel" was covered in lights as well so it was like walking through the stars. We often walked in this square on our way to and from the gondola, or when going into town.

The main street of Pinzolo had been decorated with these stars, hanging above the road. Again, this was the street we walked on every day to get to the ski slopes.

The Third Day

This was our final day on the slopes, and there were a few areas left we wanted to explore. One section was in Madonna di Campiglio while for me the other was Folgarida, which was at the complete opposite end of the ski area from Pinzolo. The above panorama was captured already in Madonna di Campiglio. My friend and I tried to find a short cut to where we wanted to go but later I would learn that the shortcut didn't actually exist. The route we tried to take involved the red run 89, but further down this run was closed and instead I had to go on run 94, also a red run.

I took this picture from where I had stopped in front of a pole at the start of run 94. While its not very obvious in the picture, the slope was incredibly steep, steeper than almost any other slope I had been on. I did not think I could make it down and I desperately searched the map for an alternative option, there was none. I spent a good ten minutes then trying to gather my courage, before I set my focus and carefully went down the hill.

I made it to the bottom of this steep section and I was utterly amazed that I had made it. I took the above picture looking up the slope I had just conquered.

By the time I made it to the next gondola there was a huge line. My fiend had arrived only about fifteen minutes before me and there had been hardly any line, going to show just how quickly a line can form. We parted ways for most of the day, as I didn't want to hold him up.

This Panorama is nearly full circle. The left side shows the view in front of me, going down the ski run, while on the right I had a close up view of the dolomite peaks.

I was back on the west side of Madonna di Campiglio (where I was on day 1) and I explored these runs some more. There was a blue run here that was really nice, very wide and long, with beautiful scenery. That's actually something I found really good about the European ski resort compared to the Australian resorts. The runs are always really wide, so even when they are steep I still have plenty of room to maneuver down the hill. The runs are also much longer; because the mountains are steeper a blue run can wind down the mountain thereby extending its length relative to the length of the chair lift. Although, the ski resort also does have some really long gondolas, but that just increases how long I could enjoy the skiing part.

There was this chair lift in the area that had some amazing views. All three of these images I took on the chairlift looking to the left at different points along the ride. I always had a beautiful view of the mountain peaks and I just kept taking pictures, holding on to my phone very carefully.

A couple of images looking forward, on the same chairlift. You can see how high the chair lift is in places and there aren't many trees to block the scenery.

I took this Panorama over at Folgarida. This blue run was really nice as it went gently down the mountain going right next to the village. Some of these houses had doorways that opened up right onto the ski slope.

Folgarida is a ski resort connected to Madonna di Campiglio and is pretty much about as far away from Pinzolo as you can get by skiing. Part of what I love about skiing is the ability to explore alpine regions. I love mountains, especially the alpine regions above the tree line, and so I will take any opportunity to see more of them. It is honestly one of the main reasons I learnt to ski.

Another image I took from a chairlift in the Folgarida area. This scene is looking at the main mountain peaks I have often captured before (they were so pretty) but from much further north.

This panorama is funny as the software stitched the images to make the returning chair disappear, except for the hook. I particularly liked this view as it had a good angle of the dolomite range and I loved the snow covered hills in the mid ground.

I returned to Pinzolo where I attempted a red run again for my last run. I improved by 50%. The previous day, when I did this run, I stacked twice, this time I only stacked it once. I was incredibly glad to have been wearing a helmet as I slammed my head against the icy surface. I hit the helmet so hard it felt like the helmet should have broken. Thankfully I was completely fine and so was the helmet, just with a new scratch. Even before I had fully stood up again a gentleman stopped to make sure I was ok. After taking a moment to recover, I continued down the slope.

Overall my friend and I had an amazing time skiing. For me it was tough at times, there were a few challenging slopes and I did fall over, but I still would do it all again because it was absolutely fantastic.

Back to Trento

The next day I returned to Trento and this time I had a bit more time to explore the city and walk around.

Here are some of the pictures I took in Trento.

I took the opportunity to have a hot chocolate at a local cafe. On this trip I discovered how awesome hot chocolates in Italy are. They make them with proper chocolate and they are delicious. I averaged about two hot chocolates per day.

Thanks for reading – Edward

Written 20th of February 2024

Please comment below if you have any questions or thoughts on any pictures.