Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy

Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy

Traveling to and skiing in Italy is fun – the ambiance, the skiing the food and the people all make it unforgettable.  Today we are going to the Dolomite region of Italy- two hours north of Venice.  The most celebrated ski town in the Dolomites is Cortina d’Ampezzo – Cortina is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with great on and off-piste skiing in some of Europe's most spectacular mountain scenery. Cortina will also be the host resort of the 2026 Winter Olympics.

From my time in the region, Cortina is no different just add in visions of huge rock formations, beautiful ski runs, ski tours and amazing food.  However, Cortina is just the tip of the iceberg here - the entirety of the Dolomites is a huge ski region that gives a skier the ability to ski from town to town.  This is the Dolomiti SuperSki with 15 resorts from Cortina to Alta Badia to Val Gardena and others that comprise some of the most celebrated mountains in Europe.

Cortina – on its own it has four ski areas with skiing for all levels of skier.  With 120 km of runs in Cortina and fabulous hotels, restaurants and other activities in town, this is a great place to start or base yourself.

Contact Info for our guest: Enrico Geremia, Guida Alpina e Maestro di Alpinismo  geremia.enrico@gmail.com

Episode Transcript

Welcome to Where to Ski with me, your host, John Morgan. Traveling to and skiing in Italy is fun. The ambiance, the skiing, the food, and the people all make it unforgettable.

Today we're going to the Dolomite region of Italy, two hours north of Venice. The most celebrated ski town of the Dolomites is Cortina d'Ampezzo. Cortina is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with great on and off-piste skiing and some of Europe's most spectacular mountain scenery.

Cortina will also be the host resort at the 2026 Winter Olympics. From my time in the region, Cortina is no different. Just add in visions of huge rock formations, beautiful ski runs, ski tours, and amazing food.

However, Cortina is just the tip of the iceberg here. The entirety of the Dolomites is a huge ski region that gives skier the ability to ski from town to town. This is the Dolomite Super Ski, with 15 resorts from Cortina to Alta Badia to Val Gardena and others that comprise some of the most celebrated mountains in Europe.

Back to Cortina. On its own, it has four ski areas with skiing for all levels of skier, 120 kilometers of runs, fabulous hotels, restaurants, and other activities like bobsledding, ice skating, and a number of other things. This is a great place to start or base yourself.

My guest today is Enrico Geremia. Enrico started his career as an aerospace engineer, then in 2013 became a full-time IFMGA mountain guide. Based in the Dolomites, where he's developed a deep technical knowledge of mountaineering, including rock climbing, ice climbing, and skiing, he's climbed and skied down most surrounding mountains, discovers new mountains every day with amazing views and scenery.

As a guide and now as an instructor to new guides, he enjoys sharing his knowledge and his passion about the mountains and its activities to his clients and to the new guides. Couple all that with the attention to detail of an aerospace engineer, and you have Enrico. Enrico, welcome to Where to Ski.

I'm excited to talk about the Dolomites today, but first, the life of an aerospace engineer is a long way from that of a mountain guide, or is it? Both very technical jobs. What made you leave the structure of engineering and choose guiding as a profession? I think, well, my passion was for sure starting when I was younger, studying aerospace engineer, like discovering the physics and the math I like very much. I like always to discover something I don't know.

And so as well, like the math and the physics and then like mountain guiding and like a mountaineering man, I think it's better to say, discovering a new place, a new environment, a new view. It's always something that pushed me to increase my technique, increase my ability to travel here and there. And, you know, my holiday is always focused on skiing or climbing or something like that, to discover new places, new culture, new inhabitants, but as well a new mountain, everything about that.

So I think it's not so far away, you know, the two aspects of aerospace and mountaineering man. It's a unique segue in life. It's hard.

It's different. It's different. So Cortina and the Dolomites are very different than most of the rest of the Alps.

They have a special feeling. It's sort of a combination of Northern Italy, which is a really fun environment and some incredible scenery. And it's spread out over a pretty long distance.

What's so special about that area that make people want to come back again and again? As you say, I think for sure the scenery, because I never seen something like that. I travel a lot. And as well, I've been like in Yosemite, was super great view.

But something like the Dolomites is difficult to find, like the view what is possible to see. On the other hand, for skiing, I think the best goal of skiing in the Dolomites is that you have many ski resorts, really one close to the other. About one hour driving, you can choose one and move to another one.

There are many ski resorts connected one each other. So you can have a lot of variety skiing all the Dolomites by the north to the south, east to the west. And for sure the food is really good.

That is not bad. Let's talk about Cortina for a minute. It's got four small areas in it.

Not that small, but you know, it's got four areas at Cortina. Yes, I would like to say mainly there are one area that is Falloria, that is not connected to other parts of Cortina. That is very nice.

It's not too small. I think there are like seven lifts and 10-15 ski runs, ski slopes. And that is very nice, especially for the late season, because it's the north side and so it keeps very good snow.

The other ski resort, one of the most important for sure, you said before, is Tofana with the lower part, Socrepes. That now is connected with the other area, the other ski resort of Cinque Torri and Lagazuoli. There is a new lift they built up just one year ago.

And so you can move easily by Tofana ski resort with this lift, about 15 minutes of lift without moving the car. And so it's nice. All these ski resorts have a different aspect.

It depends what you prefer to ski, if you are with the family or not, if you're an expert or not. And so only you move to one or the other. So for an expert, let's start there.

For an expert in town in Cortina, maybe a Tofana, what are the two or three runs that would be the best for an expert? Um, well, Tofana is divided in two main parts. So one upper part, the name is the area of Ravalles and the lower part that is Socrepes. I think in the upper part, one of the best is Forcella Rossa.

That is an advanced run we call, um, we have three kinds of ski slopes, blue, red and black. The black is the advanced one. And that one is one of the steepest ski runs.

So it's very nice, really good to enjoy the view because you are really high, almost at the top of the Tofana. And on the other side, on the area of Pomete, that is on the upper part of Socrepes, there are many good advanced runs. I want to say like Stratofana Olimpica, that is a World Cup final run.

That's the one that goes between the two, between the two rock formations. Exactly, exactly. And it's only for a short part, but it's very challenging because it's steep as well, only for a small section, but it's very long as well.

So it's cool because, and on the side of that run, you have another couple of advanced runs and intermediate as well. So it's possible to as well enjoy, for example, for not so expert skier or the area, I mean, you can enjoy without doing the black run. So the advanced one.

Yeah, there's a lot of blue and red runs there too for intermediates and beginners in Cortina. Yes, especially in Socrepes that I told you is the lower part of Tofana, the ski resort of Tofana. Over there, you have many lifts with a really wide and open ski slope.

And so there are many ski teachers and many families that run over there because it's easy. You cannot lose yourself. You can easily look for the babies.

You can enjoy it very well. Sometimes some mountains ski well during a day so that you progress from one area to another during the day to keep in the sun or keep in the good snow. Does Cortina ski the same way? Yes, generally, yes.

But I think that we don't have a really big problem until, I think, the beginning of March. So generally, you don't have any problem about the sun because it's pretty cold. So you don't need to do this valuation about the snow.

When it's late season, for sure, it's better to do because it's better to ski on the south face in the early morning and then in the north side when it's afternoon because otherwise it's very slushy in the snow. You can as well enjoy, but it's better to make this calculation about where to ski on the lines. I just forget another good run that is, I think, more or less in the area of Cortina, but it's very nice, is the Armentarola one that is from Lagazuoi.

That is more for sightseeing. It's a very, very long run. You run in this valley that many clients from the U.S. come and they rename it like the Ice Valley because you can see the ice fall on the ski run.

And so they call it like this. So that's almost like a tour, that one is. Yes, it's more like a tour because as well, you take this lift and then you enjoy the run.

Bottom there is a fancy like a horse ride to join the other ski slope. Yeah, it's nice. It's a new experience for sure.

I've never done the horse rides between skiing. That sounds a little touristy, but that's okay. People enjoy that.

Let's talk a little bit about some of the tours you do. What are some of the good ones that people might be interested in? I've heard of Sella Ronda. I don't know if that's good or not, but maybe you could give us an idea what a tour looks like and what the skiing is like.

Yes, for sure about skiing on piste is one of the best because try to imagine this huge massive of the name is Sella. This is a huge mountain surrounded by four passes for the car as well. And there are lifts all around this big mountain.

And you can enjoy the view 360 all around the Dolomite that is in the main center. And so you can enjoy the view and the ski runs. As well, you can do in different many kinds of ways.

So if you are an expert, you can enjoy the most difficult one or there are on the side some easier one. And so I think more or less everybody can do like not really beginner, but the intermediate can enjoy very well. I think it's very good experience.

Try to imagine to do this loop more or less. It takes like three, four hours if you are really good skier. So it can be like a full day for normal people.

Now you do multi-day tours, too, where you go from area to area. How does that work? Yes. Now we are doing a lot of this kind of tour.

The name is Ski Safari. We call it like that, Ski Safari, because on the side of the ski slope, there are many huts and hotels, like mostly huts. So try to imagine like a hotel with the smaller services, but really nice to stay and good food and just on the side of the ski slope.

So you reach the hut, the refugio, take off the ski and just enter the hut and you can enjoy your upper ski or dinner. And you can stay in a valley and then move only with the lift to another valley because from the Sella Ronda, it's all direction of east, west, north and south. And so you can enjoy all the ski resorts every day, different ones, and you spend like a day in ski all the runs.

In terms of doing that, how many days would you recommend for most people if they were coming over? Would they stay in Cortina or someplace for a couple of days and then go on a tour for three or four days? Generally, it's like that. I think one day in Cortina or two, one maybe because it's not so... I think two days is the maximum to enjoy the ski slope and you can do everything over there and then just move and do a ski safari like that. It's very nice.

And if you like to ski in off-piste as well, it's possible to do a combination of on-piste, off-piste at the same time. So enjoying with some off-piste and using... I just want to tell you that in the Dolomites, in the ski resorts in the Dolomites, all the ski runs are groomed. All the ski, all the piste are groomed.

And when you want to go off-piste, you just choose your itinerary and you go and you maybe join another ski resort and with the daily ski pass, you can move everywhere. An example, for example, is the off-piste of the Sella Ronda group of this big mountain. There are many, many couloirs from the top.

You can reach all the different ski resorts of the Dolomites in a very beautiful off-piste run. Oh, that sounds awesome. That sounds awesome.

And when it snows deep over there, when it snows heavily, how's the avalanche control? What can you do about skiing if you get a dump? Well, the control is only on the piste. So they check with a kind of a weapon or something like that. I don't know the name, gas exit, something like that, only for the safety of the skier on the ski slope.

When you go in off-piste, you need to have the knowledge where to go and you always carry a safety avalanche kit rescue, you know, like the beeper, shovel and probe. And you have to pay attention where to pass because there can be some problem about it. That is the reason why it's really important to have a guide to do this kind of tour, for sure.

For anything off-piste in the Dolomites, you really should have a guide because it's just too dangerous not to. It's not only the dangerous part, but as well, it's difficult to understand where to go. It's not easy at that point, the line, where to go, where to ski, the couloir.

It's not so easy. There are many different kinds. The entrance of a couloir, if you make a mistake, can be really dangerous.

How long did you have to train yourself to be a guide? I started when you are a kid, I think the best. I think the best is to be a mountaineer before to be a guide. And then when you have the right experience to move everywhere in the Dolomites, everywhere in the mountains in general, not only in the Dolomites, so about rock climbing, about ice climbing, about skiing, then you can attend a mountain guide course of five years.

And then you have to do the exams about all the aspects, ski mountaineering, off-piste skiing, safety, and managing of the rope, knots, everything you need to take care of the clients and guide him in the best way. But not only, as well, teaching is an important part. So teaching the technical, so the technique of rock climbing, the technique of ice climbing, and so on.

That's a lot of work to get to be able to be a guide, a ton of work. Yeah, yeah. There are some people that here in Italy want to, and I completely agree, to see this way to become a guide, like a university of the mountain.

They try to think to move this course in a kind of university. It's very long, it's like a university. At the university, it was in aerospace, five years.

The same for mountain guide, so more or less. So what's the best time of year, or the best month, say, to go to the Dolomites for skiing? Yeah, for skiing. I think it's difficult to predict now because, you know, with the weather changing, and I feel very much all over the Alps, that the weather is changing a lot.

But not only for the weather that is hot and warm, and so the glaciers are disappearing, but as well because one week is very cold, the other one is super hot, and so it changes the condition really suddenly. And you have to manage the safety, and with that very strange, you know, modification of the weather. And so it's difficult to say, but in my opinion, the best is February, January, and beginning of March.

I want to say that about people, if you want to come for skiing with the ski resort, the line is not huge for sure, but the main period of Italian is the Christmas holiday. And February, total February, is because of the carnival. So if you avoid that period, it's much better because you find really few people.

For example, I just finished some tour or ski safari at the end of March, there was no one on the ski slope. So it was a really great time. You try to imagine that you just, you don't have any line, and so it's cool.

And you ski alone on the ski slope. That's my favorite. Just you and the mountain, it's awesome when it's like that.

At the end of March, on the other hand, for sure you have probably a bit warmer weather, so you have to manage a bit more with the ski run, south or north, because of the sun, you know. So let's talk a little bit about Cortina as a town. You know, some people travel just to be able to find the fancy towns, and Cortina is a pretty fancy town.

Oh yes, it's a pretty fancy town. Here by here, a little less, I think. But it's for sure one of and it's the best town in the Dolomites.

It's the biggest. So you have many shops, you have many restaurants, you have many really nice hotels as well, because I think it's the biggest. And it's fancy for sure, because in the past it was the most known town.

And I think it's still the best, probably, town and village. In Alta Badia, for example, it's growing a lot of new small villages with a lot of good services as well. They are improving this part.

So question, when you get to go off and ski without guests, where do you go? Just for yourself. Without guests, just for fun. I like very much to do mountaineering, you know, like a skinning up, you know.

And like I told you, I like to look for new places. So because we are speaking now only of the area of the Dolomites on the north side, you know, but the south side that is without lift and so on is very wild and I love it. It's very cool to have, you know, when you see new parts of the Dolomites.

Maybe where I go or I went only hiking and it's good to see in the winter time, you know. So you'll spend time in the summer hiking and climbing and finding the places you want to ski in the winter. As well, why not? Yeah, why not? It could be a possibility.

Sometimes it happens. And then I like to move, like I went in Val Senales, like I told you just one week ago, and it's very nice because I did only one part of the tour and I completed this tour looking for a new place. My sister and my brother are good skiers as well.

So now I see some lines I have to go with her and with my brother. It's good to see with the clients and new lines, well, you know, new activity. That's fun skiing with family too because you know what everyone can do.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure. So Enrico, how do our listeners find you if they want to find out more or spend some time with you skiing the Dolomites? Well, I have an Instagram and Facebook, like social media, and I work a lot with Facebook because it's very nice and you can use it really easily. So mainly like that, I usually have my clients like that and then a lot of people want to ski with me because a friend of others that find themselves very good.

So I manage like that. Okay, we'll point them at you that way. Well, thank you, Enrico, so much for taking the time to share your passion for the Dolomites.

For our listeners, when you go, you might see Enrico hanging from an ice fall or with skis on his backpack heading into another climb. If you like our podcasts, please share them and listen to perspectives on other areas like St. Anton, Palisades Tahoe, Jackson Hole, Sugarbush, Portillo, and others. Thanks for joining us.