 Poster: A snowHead
|
Dates: 17/1/2026 24/1/2026
Location: Hotel Grohmann, Campitello di Fassa
Tour operator: Crystal Ski
Price: £1030 per person H/B including lift passes and ski carriage per person
Flight: Birmingham – Verona
Group: Me 74, experienced skier; wife, experienced skier; son, very good and experienced none at all fit
Motivation
We normally ski for 20 or so days a year in France but try and get away for a trip somewhere different each year. Normally this is to Japan but this year we planned a trip to Georgia. Come November the pollical situation there was looking a bit unstable so we looked for somewhere else.
For the last 30 or so years we have spent a couple weeks climbing in the Dolomites so know the area very well but we’ve only skied there once. A second trip was on the cards. Besides the rock hard smooth pistes of the Dolomites would be about as different from the deep powder of Japan as you can get.
We chose Campitello for two reasons: it was a compact town and had good easy lift access to the main routes on the Sellaronda and we were within walking distance of a lift.
Tour operator
We don’t normally use a tour operator but this time their price looked very competitive. I have to say they were good. Everything ran as planned and the rep never tried to sell us any extra events.
Hotel
The hotel Grohmann was everything I expected it to be (I’ve stayed in lots of Dolomiti hotels). The food was good, showers hot, room fine. Even the décor looked familiar. Only a couple gripes: the wifi was terrible and like all Italian hotels no tea or coffee making facility in the room. You have to buy it from the bar.
Location
The hotel was about 500m from the massive Funivia Campitello - Col Rodella. We walked there and back. This lift whisked you upto Col Rodella and though there were queues up to 9:00 by the time we got there they had dissipated.
Pistes and skiing
It hadn’t snowed for weeks before we arrived and the pistes were to some extent ribbons of artificial snow but they were complete and had no stones showing through. When we came down Marmolada there were tiny bits of glacier ice showing through. The pistes had been bashed very smooth. We never saw a mogul all week. The soft dusting of snow that had even pushed up by piste basher overnight or from the snow making migrated down the slope as the day progressed so though the top of the slope needed very sharp edges there was usually some soft snow towards the bottom. This was often pushed into a ridge in the middle and that was fun to turn on as you made your way down. Away from the Sellaronda the pistes were fairly quiet.
In general because of the smooth slopes and perhaps the nature of Italian skiers many skiers skied very fast. I think I only saw a couple adult ski lessons all week.
While waiting for me at the side of the piste my wife was hit in the back by an out of control skier. Her back was so painful she missed 3 days of the trip. Of the 40+ guests Crystal had in the hotel, in addition to my wife there was also a broken arm and a broken ankle. I have never seen such an accident rate before.
Lifts
Connoisseurs of lift technology would love the Dolomites we travelled on almost every type of lift from drag lifts to 2 man fixed grip chairlifts to 8 man detachables, to 24 seat telecabines and 70 person telepheriques.
With the exception of Mamalada there were few queues more than 15 minutes and away from the Sellaronda non at all. The Saletei (Maria) on the Orange Sellaronda was particularly bad as the piste down to the Fodom telecabine was inexplicably closed. Going the other way up to lunch time the Sass Becè chair had queues but they moved fairly quickly.
Lunches
As everyone must be aware the Dolomites have dozens of refugios or huttes used extensively during the summer season (I’ve stayed in quite a few). We were able to get into every restaurant we tried. The food was invariable good. As I tend not to eat much at lunch time I was a bit surprised that a simple lunch would cost more than we would pay in France. In France a bowl of soup would cost, perhaps, 14€ but because we would have to pay a cover charge and pay for water it came out to 18 or 20€ in the Dolomites, more than I would pay for a plat du jour.
While my wife was injured she would join us at the end of the day bombidino at the large hutte at the top of the col di Rodello lift. And very nice it was too
Notable skis days
The first day was cloudy with poor visibility above 2000m. We had planned to ski around Langkofel but immediately went the wrong way and found ourselves above Arraba. So after a quick bite of lunch decided to follow the green Sellaronda. We paid particular attention to the hotel Cir on the Grodner Joch where we had stayed during the summer. I didn’t particularly like the descent into Wolkenstein in poor visibility.
The next day we did go around Langkofel and skied the area above S.Cristina. These slopes were delightfully quiet and we discovered that the black pistes such as Alpha were noticeably quieter than the red and tended to have better snow. This seemed to be the case wherever we went.
Two days later with my wife on her sick bed my son and I decided to do the orange Sellaronda circuit. We chose the alternative (there was minimal queue for the two man chairlift) and the Arancione black into Wolkenstein was a delight and I much preferred it to entering the down from the other side.
Our trip up Mamalada had its own interest. Due to lift queues it took some time to get across to the base of the telepherique and as the queue there seemed massive we decided to stop for lunch and catch the bus back up the Fedia pass. While sitting there we noticed the queue had dropped considerably so we went and joined it. The view from the top, of course is amazing. I’ve been up Marmalada twice before the first time by the via ferrata to the true summit and once on skis to this subsidiary summit. What I hadn’t noticed before was the altitude and the subsequent lack of oxygen. I panted the whole of the first 1000m and was very slow. There was no one else coming down behind us and I was later informed that the had shut the bottom lift shortly after we came up it.
From the Padon lift it became a bit of a rush to get home. We made the Lezuo lift with 5 minutes to spare at 16:25 and decided that we wouldn’t make the lifts back to col Rodello before they closed. Much to the mocking of the Dutch group we met up with I decided not to ski into Canazei but take the lift down. There was a bus waiting at the bottom to drop us off at the front of our hotel. I was exhausted and my knees ached.
The last day we took the bus down the valley to Pozza (30 minutes) and went back via the Buffaure-Ciampac area. This area was very quiet and offered some delightful skiing. The two blacks, especially Vulcano and the long one back to Alba were very good and I would recommend them.
On the Saturday when we were leaving it was snowing.
Nightlife
We mainly drank in the hotel bar after dinner, but on one night they were having karaoke so we went out to the Rampeèr Birrificio Osteri bar. They sell locally produced craft beers and have 10 on their menu. We ordered a sampling platter and they all tasted good. Reccommended
Conclusion
A very enjoyable holiday and we would definitely be heading back to the Dolomites to ski in the near future. I would recommend a trip.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
Thanks for all of this
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
Thanks @luigi, She's recovering now over a week later. People have been killed in this type of accident in the past.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
Sorry to hear about Mrs E and thanks for the report.
I wondered, how bad were the queues for the new lift in the morning , 10 mins, 30mins? Campitello is a good budget option but in our one trip to that area the old lift queues were terrible so we’ve avoided the area for that reason.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
The week of the 12th January the queues were longer to come down at 4PM than they were to come up around 9:30 - but a couple of minutes at worst!
The main problem seems to be just getting that many people into the cars and sat down.
HUGE improvement from the old cable car.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@richb67, Queues up by the time we got there around 9-9:30 were almost non existant. They'd be taking down the cattle pens so we would walk straight to the escalator then walk slowly behind the others to get on the lift. Quite often there were empty seats. It was the same coming down just before 5. The downloading area felt a little cramped compared to the uploading.
Walking around the old telepherique station those cars looked as if they would only carry about 50 people each so no wonder there were queues.
On my other ski trip to the Dolomites we stayed in Canazai at almost the end of the season and the queue for the telecabine there was much much worse than that for the one in Campitello. I would say that Campitello gives better access to the skiing than Canazai.
Incidently I initially cursed the building of this new lift. There is a nice via ferrata up to the top hut of Col Rodello but the footpath was closed due to the building work for the top station. It was an unpleasant diversion to get around the works when we did the ferrata in the summer.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Love a good trip report
Thank you
If only people would do more of them
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
| johnE wrote: |
| While waiting for me at the side of the piste my wife was hit in the back by an out of control skier. Her back was so painful she missed 3 days of the trip. |
Sorry to hear this John, send her my best wishes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thanks Rob, I'll pass your wishes on. She is making improvement now and is off the pain relieve.
Are you in Les Arcs at the end of March? We are coming out with son, neice and nephew. Not sure exactly for how long but probably not the rest of the season. I am now eligible for my free lift pass 
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
|
@johnE, I'm in Les Arcs in the final week of March, but I'll be skiing with a friend and her 4-year old little boy, so I think I'll have my hands full that week. I'm also out for the first two weeks of the month in case you change your travel plans.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
@johnE, thanks for the great report and sorry to hear about Mrs E. Hope she continues to make a good recovery. Quick question: how did you find the reds below Col Rodella? I've been through some of them on the SR but wasn't thinking about them as a place to stay. Mrs.tsgsh is a competent but cautious intermediate and usually prefers blues to reds. There are a lot of blues above Plan di Gralba that are not far from Col Rodella. We decided against Canazei for next year on the basis that it has too many reds away from Plan di Gralba or Colfosco and went for Selva/Wolkenstein instead (bus to Plan di Gralba, she's fine with red from the top of Dantecierpes towards Colfosco).
Year after that, though, we may look at Campitello.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| tsgsh wrote: |
@johnE, thanks for the great report and sorry to hear about Mrs E. Hope she continues to make a good recovery. Quick question: how did you find the reds below Col Rodella? I've been through some of them on the SR but wasn't thinking about them as a place to stay. Mrs.tsgsh is a competent but cautious intermediate and usually prefers blues to reds. There are a lot of blues above Plan di Gralba that are not far from Col Rodella. We decided against Canazei for next year on the basis that it has too many reds away from Plan di Gralba or Colfosco and went for Selva/Wolkenstein instead (bus to Plan di Gralba, she's fine with red from the top of Dantecierpes towards Colfosco).
Year after that, though, we may look at Campitello. |
They aren't too bad, nothing worse than the first pitch of Dantercepies, you go down to the left when you hit Rifugio des Alpes which takes most of the gradient out of it, then one chair up and you're on the long blue past Passo Sella and down to Plan de Gralba
This is looking up at Col Rodella, the Rodella chair on the left goes up to Rifugio des Alpes and the top arrival station of the new Campitello gondola (not visible). You drop along that shoulder, viewer right, and down the wide red, no steep pitch really, but slightly steeper than a flat blue where you don't need to put in any turns.
Ski down to Cinque Dita chair, then the red pitch off there is similar again, but soon flattens out past Passo Sella.
Another view of the shoulder off Col Rodella...
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
@tsgsh, The 200m or so from the col Rodella was a bit unpleasant first thing in the morning with hundreds of skiers trying to get down it, many of whom were struggling. We followed one border down and it looked as if it was his first time on a board. He was still alive at the bottom. After that the bulk of skiers dispersed going different ways. I think the bulk of the pistes in the area may be graded as red but they varied in difficulty. One day my son used the dolomiti superski app on his phone and it recorded 64km of travel, 6000m of height change of which 80% was on red pistes. That suprised me, but then many of the reds had a short steep bit and miles of gentle slope.
https://openskimap.org/?obj=4f86d551c26123ebc380cf8082b5d5d26d7ebf97#14.31/46.480550/11.791091 gives the top of the Sass Becè piste (where my wife was hhit) as 30 degrees which is quite steep for a red but it is only a short section.
Of course a lot depends on the conditions. The pistes were rock hard when we were there; softer snow would make it a lot easier for example.
The other point in Campotello's favour is that you can jump on a ski bus and start elsewhere such as Pera where there are lots of blue runs
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
|
Thanks both. @luigi, the pictures are very handy. As an aside, it looks to me that the snow making in that area is a bit less comprehensive than other places on the SR (Corvara for example). Is that true or an absurd inference to make from pictures of one ski run? I was thinking of @johnE's comment that "the pistes were rock hard when we were there": we were in Corvara 3 weeks earlier and the pistes were rock hard wherever the artificial snow had been cleared off the surface but they were lovely in the mornings.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
@johnE, great report thanks very much, I was in Alba from the 15th to 21st, I may be another who crossed paths.
I’ll try and get time to do a report over the weekend.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
