The Valtellina Valley is part of Lombardy in northern Italy and is known for a variety of fine wines made primarily from the Nebbiolo grape as well as its tasty Bitto cheese.
Good eating and drinking is always a good starting point in Italy, but the Valtellina Valley offers more than just these pleasures for the palate –including four very interesting ski resorts that make up the Alta Valtellina ski pass.
The separate resorts of Bormio, Santa Caterina Valfurva, Valdidentro and Livigno joined forces some years back to form this ski conglomerate, which today consists of more than 60 lifts and about 225km of pistes. It is an unlikely marriage, as the four resorts are not at all lift-linked, and they are quite far from one another. In fact, it is more than 50km of winding mountain roads that separate them, and even in a car it takes about 75 minutes to drive from Santa Caterina, at one end of the system, to Livigno at the opposite end. The local buses will certainly take longer, and most Brits head to either Bormio or Livigno, not both.
Strange bedfellows, however, are not necessarily bad partners, and these four areas complement each other rather well. Bormio has the height, Livigno gives breadth and lift capacity, and little Santa Caterina and Valdidentro add solitude and authenticity. Believe me, in this day and age of over-marketed and over-populated summer and winter resorts, there is some true value in solitude.
The sign on the Bormio 2000 lift station says “Peak to Creek”. That is more than a mouthful – it is a ski-full. The cable car drops you off at an elevation of 3012m atop Cima Bianca, and the Frodolfo River passes through the village at an elevation of 1225m. That is one long run. In fact, the Pista Stelvio, the 1010-vertical-metre men’s downhill that is second only to the Lauberhorn in Wengen on the World Cup circuit, pales by comparison to a potential off-piste descent of close to 1800 vertical metres.
Perhaps it was fortunate that we didn’t have to test our endurance on such a mammoth plunge. There was well over a metre of new snow and thick fog atop the Cima Bianca when my friend Klaus Arpia and I arrived on the peak. It was much too dangerous to attempt anything peak to creek. It was also completely unnecessary as the powder was waist-deep directly adjacent to the piste.
A full day of deep powder left us with a few muscle aches and pains. Klaus and I found the antidote at the Bagni Vecchi – one of three major mineral baths in and around Bormio. This one is situated high on the mountainside above town and dates all the way back to Roman times. It is also said to have been enjoyed by Leonardo da Vinci back in his day.
The next day, we explored the vast northeast-facing “freeride zone” of the Cima Bianca before heading over to explore Santa Caterina and Valdidentro, which were so quiet we had felt like we owned the whole mountain. In fact in Valdidentro, the surreal feeling of being alone on a distant planet in some far away galaxy came over us.
Valdidentro is a completely unknown little resort with ancient lifts but 1200 vertical metres of mountain which translates to longer runs than anything in Kitzbühel, Lech, Gstaad, Aspen, or Vail.
The website for Valdidentro describes it as “a real oasis for those who love calm and stillness even during very crowded times.” They are not kidding. We saw a few tracks, but not a human soul. It was like walking on the moon and seeing Armstrong’s footprints. We knew somebody had been there before us, but there really was no sign of life.
It was quite eerie. I do enjoy the solitude of having the powder to myself, but this was a bit over the top. I think Klaus and I were both glad to drive out of the “twilight zone” and back into Bormio.
For the final two days, we would ski Livigno, a resort perhaps more famous as a tax-free haven than as a ski resort. This was a perfect last stop on our trip, since we could fill the car’s petrol tank for about a Euro per litre and stock up on cheap booze.
Livigno is by far the largest ski area in the region, with 30 lifts and 115 km of pistes. The weather had turned bluebird, and I expected everybody in town to be out pumping powder. Not so. Klaus and I spent two days in Livigno, and almost never crossed a track. The pistes were busy, but in typical Italian fashion, the powder remained relatively untouched all day long. Like Bormio, Livignio has begun to shed the normal antipathy to off-piste skiing, long frowned upon by the authorities in Italy. They, too, had opened various freeride zones, complete with avalanche transceiver test stations. We spent much of our time exploring various routes down the back side of Monte Della Neve (2785m) – 800 vertical metres of pure heaven that spat us out on the road, a short taxi ride back to the Trepalle Lift. We were heli-skiing for our cab fare.
All day long, we had been picking up the taxi next to a tax-free shop, but we never wanted to take the time to go in. Now, it was après-ski time, and Klaus and I entered the shop. There was a table full of various schnapps available for free sampling.
We began with a Williams pear schnapps. “Prost, Klaus!”
That was followed by some sort of grappa. “Cin cin, Jimmy!”
Two shots of vodka. “Na zdorovie!”
Then we sampled the Himbeergeist. “Kippis!” said Klaus in his native Finnish as he hugged me.
“We haven’t tried this other grappa yet,” I observed as I filled two more plastic shot glasses. “Salud!”
Klaus didn’t wish to be outdone. After all, he is a Finn, and alcohol is a part of their cultural heritage. He filled the same two plastic glasses with Bombardino. “No point to waste these cups,” he chimed. “Ski heil!”
About this time, we noticed that the woman at the cash register was eyeing our drinking spree, and we both felt a bit guilty. We were, however, already a bit too giddy to feel very guilty. To be exact, we felt just guilty enough to feel that we ought to at least make a purchase. We carefully scrutinised the prices of various beers and each took a bottle of Tuborg beer to the cash register. That set us back a half Euro apiece. If there is a special heaven for ski bums, we certainly found it in Livigno.
