Area: | Belvedere |
Base: | 850m |
Summit: | 2280m |
Skiable vertical: | 1430m |
Lifts: | 10 |
Total lift vert: | unknown |
Slope orientation: | mainly northwest- and southeast-facing |
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Belvedere - Col Rodella is part of the Val di Fassa ski area, in the middle of the Dolomites in northern Italy, not far from the Austrian border. It's also part of the famous Sella Ronda circuit, which allows a circumnavigation of the entire Sella massiv through several connecting resorts.
You can however just concentrate on a single resort and get a ticket for just the Belvedere - Col Rodella area, which is obviously cheaper than a whole "Dolomiti Superski" pass. This ticket covers two main areas on either side of Pian Frataces, with Belvedere (2423m) on one side and Col Rodella (2485m) on the other. Both areas offer spectacular scenery, with the sheer rocky faces of the Dolomites protruding above the snowy ridges. The Belvedere side gets more sunshine, especially in the afternoon.
For a zoomable, scrollable map of the areas, see this online map using Openstreetmap or Opencyclemap.
The main resort base is the town of Canazei, which is easily reached by car. Other possible access points could be Campitello a little further down-valley, or Passo Pordoi. Car parking is also available at the base of the drag lift numbered 123 on the map.
A day ticket for the Belvedere - Col Rodella area costs EUR 29 and a half-day pass (from 12:30) EUR 24. The drag lift number 123 costs an extra EUR 1 before you can buy the proper ticket at the base of 105 or 106.
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showing the runs and lifts |
The runs are practically entirely marked as red, and are wide enough and steep enough for enjoyable boarding. Navigation is easy as both Belvedere and Col Rodella provide easy-to-recognise landmarks. The runs aren't named or numbered but it's quite tricky to get lost.
The lifts are excellent, with interconnections and no real bottlenecks. The Kristiania lift is popular but queues were never severe.
At the connection of the two sides of the resort at Pian Frataces, there's a bit of flatness to cope with, but at the time of writing you could easily get from one side to the other. Apart from that it's all open pistes with no ugly traversing to worry about.
There are also no drag lifts to worry about, apart from number 123 which you only need if you're parking there. Otherwise it's all chairlifts and spacious gondolas.
Christmas 2006 - everything's open with natural snow, and the sunshine was fantastic. No off-piste or jump parks, but surprisingly good conditions considering the early season. There has since been fresh snowfall so it should be even better now.
The official home page of the Val di Fassa ski area has an extraordinarily clumsy piste map, and at dolomitesworld.com there's an overview of the Sella Ronda ski circuit, with Passo Pordoi at the bottom of the picture. There's also some info at skiclub.co.uk about the Canazei resort.
