Skiing in Dolomites

The Dolomites hold a piece of skiing that exists nowhere else: a full lift-linked circuit around the Sella massif, skied as one continuous loop in either direction, anchoring the vast Dolomiti Superski network. You spend a whole day working your way around a mountain by lift and piste, ending where you began, with those pink limestone walls towering over every run.

The appeal is the combination of gentle skiing and outrageous scenery. The circuit suits a confident intermediate — it's about linking runs and reading the map, not steep terrain — and takes the best part of a day to complete, so it's an outing in itself rather than just another lift pass. Mountain huts along the way serve some of the best food in the ski world.

Start early to be sure of closing the loop before the last lifts, and pick your direction with the guidebook in hand. Few days on skis anywhere feel this much like a journey through a landscape.

A piece of skiing that exists nowhere else: the Sella Ronda, a full lift-linked circuit around the Sella massif skied as one continuous loop in either direction, anchoring the vast Dolomiti Superski network.

You spend a whole day working your way around a mountain by lift and piste, ending where you began, with those pink limestone walls towering over every run.

It suits a confident intermediate — it is about linking runs and reading the map, not steep terrain — and takes the best part of a day, so it is an outing in itself rather than just another lift session.

Mountain huts along the way serve some of the best food in the ski world.

Buy a Dolomiti Superski pass and follow the Sella Ronda signs from any of the four passes — orange for clockwise, green for counter-clockwise. Start early to be sure of closing the loop before the last lifts, and pick your direction with the guidebook or a piste map in hand.

The season runs December to April. You need no off-piste skills or touring gear — just confident intermediate piste skiing and the willingness to keep moving through the day. Break for lunch at one of the rifugi on the circuit.

If lifts close early on weather, know your bail-out points back to base.