Our Dolomites ski touring week explores the most scenic mountain range in the Italian Alps, on a day touring week based in San Vito di Cadore, near Cortina. Amazing scenery and top class skiing make this a perfect region for touring, with a huge variety of options within easy reach of our hotel. 

Trip Info

This is a more relaxed paced tour with a wide variety of terrain, making it suitable as a first full week of day touring or for anyone looking for a steady ski touring holiday.  The Dolomites are unique mountains in Europe, if not the world – vertical walls overlook beautiful valleys, summits and bowls that are perfect for ski touring.  The range offers a huge choice of itineraries, and fantastic hospitality; with typical local dishes and great classics of Italian cuisine always accompanied by excellent wine. We will make use of a group minibus (and the local uplift) giving us total flexibility to reach the best touring venues each day, to suit the current weather, conditions and group aspirations.

Suitability

This is a relaxed/introductory level trip. To take part you should be at Fitness Level 2/3 and Tech Level 2/3 (see our Fitness/Experience guidelines below). You need previous ski touring experience in order to join this tour – eg a few days worth of touring is enough.  For reference, Ski Club of GB High Silver/Purple off piste ski standard is required for this trip.  The week includes 5-7 hour days with 700-1200m of climb a day, so you can expect to be skinning for 3-4 hours a day.  Type of ascent: depending on the exact tours selected during the week, there is some uplift potential, as well as some days of 100% skinning, all at mid altitude.

Guiding ratio

One IFMGA guide skiing with 6 clients, or occasionally 2:7, with one Aspirant guide joining the team too.

Included in price

• 6 days of guiding
• All guides expenses
• 7 nights accommodation in San Vito di Cadore, including breakfast and evening meals
• Local travel (in a minibus/group vehicle) during the trip to complete the itineraries

Excluded from price (see factsheet for extra cost estimates)

• Uplift
• Lunches and drinks
• Flights and transfers to San Vito di Cadore
• Insurance
• Ski equipment hire

Accommodation

Our base for the week is the amazing, family run 3* Fiori Dolomites Experience Hotel in San Vito di Cadore, 10km south of Cortina D’Ampezzo. The hotel offers an excellent buffet breakfast, an afternoon snack buffet, comfortable rooms, and a wellness area with a sauna and steam bath etc. Rooms are provided on a twin sharing basis, but if you wish to book a single room please let us know and we will confirm availability.  We will dine in a different local restaurant each evening. The restaurant choices have been curated by our local guide, Andrea, and offer a great variety of modern and local traditional cuisine. Hotel details can be found on our Accommodation page.

ABTOT Protected

This trip is protected by ABTOT – Alpine Guides Ltd, Membership Number 5394.  For further information, please visit our Financial Protection page.

Subject to weather and snow conditions, the plan is as follows. Please note that this is a sample itinerary only – on trips like this, itineraries are always subject to change as the current snow, weather and avalanche conditions need to be taken into account. This is an essential part of safety planning for all backcountry skiing, so please be ready for changes as part of your trip.

Saturday

You should arrange outward travel to Venice Marco Polo Airport to arrive mid afternoon latest in order to catch a transfer bus to San Vito di Cadore.  PM Evening Briefing. Your guide will run through kit checks and safety routines, as well as hand out any rental equipment, before going on to discuss the current weather and mountain conditions and how these affect our plans. We’ll have maps and guidebooks of the area to show you, so if you’ve any further questions or last minute requests, then this is the ideal time to bring them up.

Sunday

Warm Up and Monte Nuvolau

In the morning we’ll take the lifts from Cortina, in order to reach the 5 Torri, a famous ski area near to the Falzarego Pass.   Here we’ll do some warm up skiing, before skinning up Monte Nuvolau for our first tour.  This gives an amazing view, before skiing back down and returning to Cortina.

Monday to Friday

Classic day tours in the Cortina and surrounding area, including:

MONTE MONDEVAL

800 m of ascent. This classic and stunning itinerary close to Cortina. Every section has different views of the impressive Tofana group, Pelmo and Croda da Lago. The tour is divided in 2 sections: First we have to climb the Forcella Giau and then onto Monte Mondeval. There are many options for the way down depending on the snow conditions. This tour is a “must do” of the area!

VAL POPENA E CORNO D’ANGOLO

900 m of ascent. A medium difficulty ski tour which climbs up the Val Popena, beneath Monte Cristallo. This is a classic outing with great views of Sorapis and lake Misurina.

FORCELLA COLFIEDO TRAVERSE

1200 m of ascent. A journey through the wonderful landscape of the Croda Rossa d’Ampezzo mountain group, starting via the beautiful Val di Gotres.

ROCCHETTA DI PRENDERA 

1300m of ascent. The tour of Rocchetta di Prendera is a wonderful and remote feeling trip. The tour first runs in the middle of an age-old forest and then climbs the beautiful slopes to the very panoramic top. There are several options for descending the summit slopes, always in sight of the spectacular Croda da Lago.

The area is full of possibilities, including these other great classic day tours:

Forca del Cristallo, Forcella della Neve, Lavinores, Forcella Granda, Lastoi di Formin, Pico Setsass, Vallon di Tofana, Forcella Cristallino Traverse

Saturday

AM, early start to catch the bus back to Venice Airport and flights home.

Your meeting point and base for the week is San Vito di Cadore in the Italian Dolomites. The most convenient way to reach San Vito is to fly to Venice Marco Polo Airport, then take the Cortina transfer bus which stops in San Vito, just 10km south of Cortina. Return travel should be arranged on the day after your final nights accommodation.

Flights and transfers

• Fly to Venice Marco Polo Airport. Suitable flights are available from the UK with Easyjet from Gatwick and there are also indirect flights from various other locations.
• There are approx 8 transfer buses to San Vito di Cadore each day (and also returning to Venice at the end of the trip), leaving throughout the day.  Book tickets on the Cortina Express website – https://www.cortinaexpress.it/en/

Alternatively, hire a car from any airport – driving times to San Vito are 2hrs from Venice Marco Polo and Treviso airports and 3hrs from Trieste and Verona airports.  NB you must hire a car with winter tyres or snow chains – as you will be crossing high mountain passes in winter, where special equipment is compulsory.

Further information and travel links can be found on our Travel Planning page.

To enjoy this trip you should be comfortable operating at Fitness Level 2/3, and Ski Tech Level 2/3:

Fitness Level 2
You do 2-3 hours cv training/sport per week. At this level you should be happy doing either a 3-4 hr hillwalk, cycling 30-40 miles or mountain biking 2-3 hours without being exhausted. On foot: you should be able to walk from Ogwen Cottage in North Wales up Glyder Fach – Glyder Fawr – Y Garn – Ogwen in ~5hrs. Or in the Lake District Langdale – Bowfell – Esk Pike – Angle Tarn – Langdale in ~ 6hrs. On skis: you are capable of off piste skiing all day or doing a couple of hours skinning with out finishing up exhausted – ie you can do this for a number of days without taking a rest day.

Fitness Level 3
You do 3-4 hours cv training/sport per week. At this level you are happy doing a 5-6 hr hillwalk, 40-50ml cycle or 3-4hr mountain bike ride without being totally exhausted. If you are into challenges – then the thought of doing a road sportive, or training to do a 1/2 (or maybe even a full) marathon, wouldn’t seem too ridiculous. On foot: you should be able to do the full Langdale Horseshoe: Langdale – Pike of Stickle – Angle Tarn – Bow Fell – Crinkle Crags – Pike of Blisco – Langdale in a day without finishing up exhausted. On skis: you can skin uphill at 300-400m/hr for 3-4 hrs a day (ie 8-1200m of ascent each day)

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Tech Level 2
Improving Off Piste Skier. You enjoy black runs and the kind of tracked out off piste terrain found around many big resorts, but you haven’t skied too much in properly deep snow without a base to it yet. *Equivalent to Ski Club of GB Off Piste Level: Silver – Intermediate*
Likely to say: ‘I’d like to ski well in powder/link lots of short radius turns/go ski touring’
Our Advice: An Off Piste Skiing Course is highly recommended. If you’d like to try ski touring, then do either an intro ski touring course or an intro level ski tour.

Tech Level 3
Confirmed Off Piste Skier. You can put down a reasonable set of tracks in powder, but difficult snow types – eg heavy wet snow, crusts, poor visibility or 40dg slopes – can all cause problems (though you can cope with them safely, if not elegantly!) *Equivalent to Ski Club of GB Off Piste Level: Purple – Advanced*
Likely to say: ‘I’d like to handle difficult snow/steep slopes more confidently in better style’
Our Advice: Off piste coaching still useful. Intermediate off piste weeks are at your level too. If you want to get into ski touring, try a touring course or intro level ski tour. If you’re an established ski mountaineer, then intermediate level tours are generally suitable.

To view all of our Ski Fitness Levels and Off Piste Technical Levels, please visit our Ski Ability page.

If you need to top up your fitness for this trip, please see our Ski Touring Training Advice page.

Off Piste Ski Ability Levels

To join this trip, you need to be skiing at Tech Level 2/3 or higher on our 5 point scale. Use the descriptions above and the following video to help work out your current off piste ski ability level.

Day Touring Equipment List

Just remember, every extra kilo on your back knocks 10% off your enjoyment on the descents – so try and keep the weight down!

Technical Clothing

• Waterproof Jacket – preferably lightweight and breathable
• Overtrousers/ski pants – preferably with side zips
• Fleece mid layer or equivalent
• Spare fleece or lightweight insulated duvet jacket
• Socks – specialist ski socks or a warm loop lined pair of mountain socks
• Wicking thermal top – not cotton please…
• Thermal leggings or ski pants
• Thin inner gloves
• Warm ski gloves or mittens, if you suffer from cold hands
• Warm hat

Personal Items

• Water container – at least 1 litre
• Personal medications and blister kit – regular meds, zinc oxide tape, compeed and painkillers etc
• Ski goggles
• Sun glasses – CE rated 3 or 4 with side protection
• Sun and lip cream – factor 30+
• Wallet, passport and insurance docs

Technical Equipment

• Rucsac 25/35l – try and avoid ones covered in too many features, just ski and ice axe attachments required
• Ski mountaineering boots
• Skis with touring bindings – lightweight pin binding setup required. Heavy freeride setups not suitable. Older style bar/rail bindings (Fritschi Freeride, Marker Duke etc) not allowed – please update your kit!
• Ski strap – to keep skis together on your rucksack if we need to carry them
• Ski poles – with good size 5cm+ baskets (telescopic poles are not needed)
• Climbing skins – they come with the skis if you hire your kit
• Harscheisen (ski crampons) – they come with the skis if you hire your kit
• Metal snow shovel – must be a full metal shovel (plastic blades don’t work in real avalanche debris!)
• Avalanche probe
• Avalanche transceiver – must be a modern digital model (older analogue models are now obsolete)
• Harness, with 120cm sling and locking karabiner
• Crampons – bring them if you have them
• Ice Axe – bring if you have one
• Ski Helmet – lightweight ski touring or backcountry model preferred.  Wearing a helmet is compulsory on descents and may be needed on other parts of the route depending on conditions

Your guide will have all other safety kit, first aid and survival equipment.

Recommendations and Advice
Visit the Knowledge Base section of our website, where we publish an annual review of the years best new skis, boots and touring equipment, plus a range of other interesting tips and recommendations. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, please get in touch!

Purchasing Equipment
Backcountry UK in Otley offer an excellent ski touring boot fitting service, one of the best ranges of ski mountaineering equipment in the UK and top notch advice.

Hiring Equipment
Please visit our Equipment Hire page for recommended hire shops in your resort, and Alpine Guides hire equipment price list.

For this trip you must have specialist travel insurance providing medical, emergency search/rescue and repatriation cover for off piste skiing and ski touring, as outlined in the trip itinerary. We also strongly recommend that you purchase cancellation cover, in case you’re unable to attend your trip due to personal circumstances or injury. Please arrange your insurance as soon as your trip is confirmed to run.

Further details can be found on our insurance info page.