Marmolada-Malga Ciapela

There is one ski run in the Dolomites that everyone with a season in their legs talks about, and it is this one. The Marmolada is the highest peak of the range at 3,343 m, the only one that still carries a glacier, and the cable car system from Malga Ciapela climbs in three pitches from 1,450 m to Punta Rocca at 3,270 m. What you do from there is the Bellunese, a 7 km descent of more than 1,800 m of vertical that drops you straight back to base. The top section runs across the glacier with the Sella, the Sassolungo and the Tofane all turning around you, then breaks into a long bowl of red and blue piste before the final cruise through the larches to Malga Ciapela. It is snow-sure into late April thanks to the altitude and the glacier, which is why Marmolada is one of the most reliable Dolomites resorts at the shoulders of the season. The Dolomiti Superski pass works here, and a short connection over the Fedaia pass and onto the lifts at Arabba puts you onto the Sellaronda circuit. The resort is not Cortina, not Arabba, not a place where you stroll boutiques at the bottom of the lifts; Malga Ciapela is essentially the cable car base, a handful of hotels and ski hire, and the historical area is at Sottoguda below in the canyon. People come here to ski one of the great descents of the Alps and then go home, and that is exactly the point.