Solda is high, very high. The hamlet sits at 1,900 m at the head of its glacial valley inside the Stelvio National Park, and it looks straight up at the Ortler at 3,905 m, the highest peak of the entire eastern Alps. The skiing climbs onto the Madritsch, Schöntauf and Rosim sector with a top station at 3,250 m, north-facing all day, which is why the resort still holds its snow when half of the Dolomites have closed for the season. Forty-four km of piste is enough variety, and the layout suits strong intermediates: long fast reds across the high carving terrain, a few short genuine blacks like the Marlet, plenty of easy blues at altitude, and gentle home runs to the village. Off the piste the freeride lines under the Madritsch and the Schöntauf are seriously good, and ski touring up into the Ortler group is one of the great spring projects of the Alps. Culturally Solda is South Tyrol: German is the first language, Italian comes second, the architecture is Tyrolean wood and white plaster, and the menus run to schlutzkrapfen, kaiserschmarrn and apfelstrudel rather than pasta. Reinhold Messner grew up in Funes nearby and one of his MMM Mountain Museums sits just down the road in Sulden, with a viewing platform on the Ortler. Quiet during the week, snow-sure on the dates when most other resorts gamble, and Italian only by passport.