Well that was disappointing! I don’t know why, but I expected a lot more from Pinzolo. However its location & elevation already niggled in the back of my head as being problematic for decent snow and off-piste terrain. Turns out the niggle was correct.

In a warming world, a base elevation of 800m and upper altitude of 2,100m south of the Alps just doesn’t cut it anymore. The skiing is effectively on the upper 500m elevation, which would be fine if the terrain was more interesting (and if the snow was dry and deep). A layer of fresh snow during my visit in early March 2024 was more like gluggy porridge (at best), icy breakable crust at worst. Already in a region with decreasing winter snowfalls, it is difficult to recommend coming here for an extended period of time if seeking fresh, luscious snow.

So what is good. The groomed pistes up high are fun for a bit, particularly if you are an intermediate rider or want to rip some superfast turns at Mach 3. The best of them was the winding, rolling #107 piste. Didn’t get to ski the valley trail down to Tulot as I had cased it out from the bottom the day before and it looked like shite (due to lack of snow, and even though people were still skiing it, I have standards and like my skis!). If it was full snow cover from top to bottom, I reckon it would be a supremely fun rollicking ride from summit to base, but I do wonder how often the snow at the bottom would be good enough to complete the journey with any real satisfaction. Less and less often as the years go on, I suspect. The base altitude of Tulot is at 800m (ish), which is extremely low for Italy.

The lift system does the job well considering the terrain. A couple of chairlifts are quite slow, and none of the gondolas really cater for fat skis, but such is life. An adequate novice zone with two separate zones & long surface conveyors are located ‘above the snowline’, mid-mountain at Pra Rodont. The connection by gondola to Madonna di Campiglio is a seamless 16 to 17-minute journey that is quite pleasant, but one wonders whether it is worth it. The gondola seems devoid of humans (not sure how they afford to run it), so use your imagination and go wild in that cabin for the duration. Note that the two intermediate stations will have full view of whatever you get up to!).

Off-piste, there are a few options in the trees & off the summit area, but they are all short and one wonders how often they would be rideable given the dearth of deep, quality fresh snow. It is simply not an off-piste destination, which is a shame. Often these small mountains have great freeride potential. Pinzolo, unfortunately, is not one of them.

Looking at the mountain from both up close and from a distance, the best off-piste terrain appears to be on the steeper, sparsely treed south side of Doss del Sabion. A few hundred metres vertical of freeriding would be possible before a long traverse to get back to Pra Rodont. Whether this is the done thing is unknown to me, and I will likely never do it personally because I doubt very much that I will return. But looking at the mountain I was considering how to make it interesting for freeriders, and this was one thing I came up with. If the snow is good all the way to Pinzolo, it is possible to ski all the way down via the forest and summer road network. I believe there used to be a valley trail here in the good old days….

Thankfully I didn’t pay for a lift pass courtesy of having a Vail Resorts Epic Pass variety that is valid for 7 consecutive days in the Skirama Dolomiti region (which includes Pinzolo). It was an easy process to present ones Epic Pass and photo id at the cash desk and get given a full 7-day lift pass for the region. Costs a princely sum of €5 for the card, which is refundable.

A new upper mountain gondola connects the feeder gondola from town with the summit. Clearly unfinished, it has some great design features and some not so great but is certainly an improvement on what would have gone before. The new upper mountain bar/restaurant (named DOSS … presumably because it is on the summit called Doss del Sabion) was awful. Clearly unfinished & not ready for serious business, it also seems poorly designed to cater for winter visitors. They bemusingly state the following on an info board as one enters, ‘A new summit of style & taste. In the heart of the Dolomites, an experience that redefines the quintessence of a mountain refuge.’ It certainly redefines things, but not in a good way. It absolutely fails to make any connection to all that is good about an Italian mountain refuge and appears to be just another soulless concrete monolith propped on a mountain top catering to a high-end dining clientele that, from my observations, doesn’t really exist on this particular hill. Maybe the whole complex will improve when its ‘finished’, but I won’t be coming back to find out...

Away from DOSS, there are only two other options for on-mountain dining. Both are chaotic at lunchtime and difficult for the uninitiated to negotiate. The Malga Cioca in particular was a confusion of ‘self-service’, bar, and full service restaurant but with no real way to work out how to order anything. Turns out a gruff man behind a ‘desk’ across from the bar was the key to it all, but by then I had lost interest. The indoor space is too small to be so badly managed and was far from enjoyable. Shame, because it looked to have some potential. Perhaps on a quiet day it would be more approachable. The outside deck was an option, but I’d moved on by then.

At Pra Rodont, the restaurant had an outdoor grill which was both affordable and easy to negotiate, plus an indoor ‘self-service’, but also a bar that wasn’t …… ‘self-service’ that is. It was chaos as well, with too many people for available tables. And whilst that often happens on mountains during weekends, a roped-off section of ten tables remained closed to everyone, even after several patrons pointed out how ridiculous this was when no other tables were available. Food was passable but uninspired and served with such a lack of interest that one dined on the meal wondering if something was wrong with it. It was as unpleasant a place to have lunch as I have experienced anywhere in the world. Not a great advertisement for the ski hill, but then again, perhaps it was perfectly in tune with what the ‘resort’ was presenting on this day.

The town of Pinzolo is quite sizeable and includes an incredible number of hotels & guesthouses. It lacks any real vibrance though, with little of interest beyond the accommodation, plus no true après scene or stand out bars & restaurants. At the bottom of the gondola in town, one of the main reasons for its down-trodden feel is likely the lack of snow in the town. At around 770m altitude, snow in the village will be increasingly rare. Without snow on the ground, it is just another town. The shoddy, unpaved, potholed main car park opposite the gondola doesn’t help either.

I stayed in the next town down the valley, the very quiet Caderzone, at the Hotel Rio. Well priced, great food included (half-board), nice room, and easy to get to. Shame about the shitty Wi-Fi (its ok in the lobby), otherwise it comes highly recommended. There are loads of good hotels around the gondola base too. And all the bars make exceptional negroni, spritzers etc for reasonable prices.

Pinzolo is an ordinary ski area that is only worth visiting if you have a free pass option (Epic!), are already in Madonna di Campiglio, or simply enjoy easy groomers at the top of a low elevation mountain with some decent views of the adjacent Brenta Dolomites. Despite a reasonable lift system, it has ordinary piste terrain that best suits intermediates, and less than ordinary on-mountain food, off-piste terrain & natural snow. It would be best for groups that can make their own fun, because there isn’t much of that going on in the town.

See our thoughts on the pros & cons of the ski resort via the Pinzolo overview page.