 Poster: A snowHead
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An acclaimed ski resort set in the Italian Dolomites will become the country’s first to cap the number of visitors it receives this winter.
Madonna di Campiglio has announced it will curb the presence of skiers on the slopes by limiting daily passes purchased online to just 15,000.
While this marks a significant decrease from the 23,000 admissions that were sold in a single day last year, there are several exceptions to the rule.
The move comes after the mountain range struggled with overcrowding this summer as travellers looked for cooler climes amid soaring temperatures.
The cap will come into place from 28 December, 2025, to 5 January, 2026, as well as during Italy’s annual Carnival (15-22 February, 2026).
Madonna di Campiglio is also developing new “smart skipasses” to allow skiers to avoid crowded zones during the peak season by “dynamically distributing skier traffic across the 150km of slopes”.
However, the visitor cap will only apply to daily SkiArea passes sold online, meaning those with seasonal passholders, pay-per-use cards, multi-day passes, and passes within Pinzolo and Folgarida Marilleva remain unaffected.
Non-skiers will also be allowed to freely access pedestrian-enabled lifts.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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the most important thing here is this : Italy’s annual Carnival (15-22 February, 2026).
that means that this week, is for Trentino school holidays? or the expect from Germany, Holland etc
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@turms2, that's also Fasching week
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| luigi wrote: |
| turms2 wrote: |
the most important thing here is this : Italy’s annual Carnival (15-22 February, 2026).
that means that this week, is for Trentino school holidays? or the expect from Germany, Holland etc |
Quite a few Italian regions' schools have a few days off during Carnival week.
It seems Trentino has 16-18 Feb off for Carnevale in 2026...and for the Winter Olympics!! 
https://www.ufficiostampa.provincia.tn.it/Comunicati/Il-calendario-scolastico-2025-20262
According to this, it's gonna be busy in loads of places that week, probably best avoided! 
This chart excludes French skiers who don't ski in large numbers outside France. You can see the 3 busy weeks in the rest of the Alps this season...Christmas, New Year and Fasching/Carnival. |
Thank you for the graphic. I wonder how that looked in say 2018/19 for example. All of January after the first weekend used to have very quiet slopes in my experience across the Alps, as did the week before Xmas. Much changed since. Have chatted with Italians, Slovaks, Czechs etc who now take their kids out of school for the huge savings ... they say you only live once, **** the authorities.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Quote: |
| Madonna di Campiglio is also developing new “smart skipasses” to allow skiers to avoid crowded zones during the peak season by “dynamically distributing skier traffic across the 150km of slopes”. |
Does anyone know how this will work? I didn‘t find any explanation on Google, smart pass was only mentioned on the context of lift passes on your mobile phone, but not in relation to redistribution of skier traffic
Do you think they‘ll give live-updates of skier numbers / lift queues for the skiers to decide themselves where to go - but doesn‘t this already exist, e.g. current waiting time of lifts is available ?
Or do you think they‘ll block certain lifts if the maximum number in a certain area is reached? Maybe even for selected lift passes only?
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@turms2, Hardly any Dutch skiers in Madonna, and few Germans as well.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@Simony, the key word is "developing" ...
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@Alastair Pink, so they're all going to be at it? bloody Italians!
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| Quote: |
only apply to daily SkiArea passes sold online, meaning those with seasonal passholders, pay-per-use cards, multi-day passes, and passes within Pinzolo and Folgarida Marilleva remain unaffected
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Perhaps it's just not clear, but;
- the number of people buying a "daily" pass online seems like it would be a rather small minority of slope users?
- can't the people wanting a single day pass just get around this anyway by going to a desk and getting a pay per use card and loading a single day on?
In which case it all seems pretty pointless.
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Seceda (Val Gardena Valley) is all about Instagram. Visitors mostly from China, queue for hours to take the gondola then cable car to the insta spot. Get the shot to then return to the bottom of the mountain.
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You know it makes sense.
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We go to Madonna for a few days most years and it does seem to be getting busier with a changing demographic. One of the guys I know well there told me ( I’m using his words here) that they have a “problem” with “cheap skiers” this is similar to the cruise ship scenario where people arrive for a day and don’t spend much money in the destination. Slopes are busier but Rifugio’s etc aren’t.
(Note the tagline for this initiative is “quality before quantity”)
I don’t know the ins and outs of this but it seems to me that they may be trying to tackle this in various ways so,
1) they already have dynamic pricing for ski passes so maybe the multi day passes will be much more expensive during these peak weeks, a deterrent for some
2) pay you go isn’t a cheap way to ski so will deter some day trippers
3) note that Pinzolo and Folgarida passes seem to have different rules, as I understand it these are more popular with the “cheap skiers” who stay/park here and then ski over to the central MdC area.
4) they are opening the slopes earlier in the morning so maybe trying to spread the load and reduce queues at the start of the day.
Pure speculation on my part but my main point is that you can’t look at this one change in isolation. They seem to be trying a number of tweaks.
Ps, they are also carrying out an experiment and closing one of the shorter red slopes for an hour at lunch to re-prepare the piste.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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You have day trippers from Brescia/Verona and weekend locals from Milano as well.
As long as the 6 days ski passes will be sold as usual, it will still be very crowded in my opinion
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Poster: A snowHead
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Well if you're staying in either valley uploading from Pinzolo or Dimaro makes sense as you don't have to drive up a honking great alpine pass before you go skiing.
If MdC wants to be exclusive they probably need to opt out of the Skirama grouping for starters. And get off the Epic megapass.
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