My first reminiscence of snowboarding is of winding my approach down a delicate slope in Cortina d’Ampezzo – what I now know to be one among the finest ski resorts in the Dolomites. I used to be barely a teen, oblivious to the incontrovertible fact that my initiation into ski boots and salopettes was unfolding in one among Europe’s most glamorous resorts. At that age, vogue and après-ski handed me by; it was the adrenaline of the mountains that left its mark.
Years later, I’ve returned to Italy’s Dolomites in each season, watching the excessive plateaus shift from carpets of wildflowers to winter-white landscapes I’d beforehand encountered solely in the pages of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The Dolomites are my Narnia; every go to seems like a crossing into one other realm, the place steep-rising spires inform tales of historical legends. It is the drama of vertical rock faces and serrated ridges that units the Dolomites other than the remainder of the Alps, whose mountains typically seem extra rounded in form. Here, the peaks rise all of a sudden and sharply, and scattered amongst the surrounding valleys are 12 various resorts, stitched collectively into the huge Dolomiti Superski circuit by a community of pistes.
Whether you’re in search of technically demanding runs or a spa resort with sweeping views of the mountain-scapes, right here’s a round-up of the finest ski resorts in the Dolomites.