Arabba - Marmolada

Area Profile

One of the most famous resorts on the Sella Ronda circuit and indeed in Italian skiing, Arabba has some of the country's most challenging terrain. It's a traditional old mountain village that has grown up on a hillside in a relatively compact formation with buildings in the Tyrolean chalet style, making it rather picturesque beneath its white spired church. Arabba is also one of the few resorts in the area that attracts serious skiers and 'boarders as well as families, because it has some steep and exciting terrain, as well as the kilometres of intermediate cruising.

The Sella Ronda is a huge mountain massif and it is possible to ski around it in a day via Corvara and Canazei. The largest inter-linked area on the huge Dolomiti Superski lift pass, it also provides lift-linked access into the valleys of Alta Badia (Corvara, Colfosco, La Villa and San Cassiano); famous Val Gardena with Selva, St Christina and St Ulrich and the upper section of the Val di Fassa (Canazei and Campitello). Another skiing benefit is that Arabba is close to the lifts up to the Marmolada glacier which gives more excellent high-altitude skiing. A final benefit is the glorious vista all around, with the pink rock of the Dolomites formed into towering cliffs and spires to create some spectacular scenery.

Arabba itself is located at the extreme end of the Alto Agordino area, in the territory of Livinallongo del Col di Lana with pistes leading right back to the village. Settlement here goes back many generations, and on Livinallongo meadows there are the thousand year old ruins of Andraz Castle, a rock transformed into a fortification. Abandoned two centuries, ago it is currently being restored by the Italian State government - now open for visitors in the summer season.

At 1602m it is one of the highest resorts in the region, and one of the highest traditional resorts in Italy, and its largely north facing slopes have some of the best natural snow conditions in the entire Dolomites. An Avalanches Experimental Centre, which carries out research into ways in which to minimise the dangers of avalanches, as well as warning about current dangers, is based here.