Santa Caterina - Sforzellina cable car

Anyone who knows the Lombardy Alps well knows that a few kilometres from glamorous Bormio, with its ancient thermal baths, luxury hotels and the echo of World Cup downhills ringing round its medieval streets, lies a ski resort of a very different kind.

Santa Caterina Valfurva is a village of fewer than two hundred winter residents, and it holds one of the most authentic and least commercial ski areas in the upper Valtellina. The Sforzellina cable car, built in 1985 and renewed in 2010, is the technical heart of the resort: the backbone that gives access to the slopes at the foot of the Ortler-Cevedale glaciers.

Under the Ortler

The Ortler, at 3,905 metres the highest peak in South Tyrol (Alto Adige) and, leaving Monte Rosa aside, the second highest in the Eastern Alps after the Gran Paradiso, dominates the Valfurva skyline in a way you cannot ignore. From Santa Caterina you see the whole bulk of the mountain, with the Forni glacier running down its eastern flanks and its north-west face rising almost two thousand metres.

The Sforzellina cable car climbs into this grand alpine setting, taking you from 1,740 to 2,760 metres in a few minutes, with ever wider views of the surrounding massif on the way up.

From the top station the panorama takes in the Ortler, Monte Cevedale, the Gran Zebrù and the peaks around the Gavia Pass. It is a cluster of alpine giants, some close to 4,000 metres, others above 3,000, that you rarely see all at once so clearly.

A racing resort without the crowds

Santa Caterina Valfurva’s standing as a top international ski venue is not always fully appreciated. Most people link racing in this corner of the Alps with the Stelvio run in Bormio.

Yet Santa Caterina hosted major women’s World Cup races for years, and top athletes have trained on its slopes for the quality of the snow and the variety of the terrain.

Being slightly off the main tourist routes is, oddly, one of the resort’s strengths. The slopes are less crowded, the lifts are rarely at capacity, and the ski pass is noticeably better value than in nearby Bormio.

Inside the Stelvio National Park

The Stelvio National Park frames the ski area and adds a natural beauty few other Italian resorts can claim. Founded in 1935, it is one of the largest parks in Italy, with more than 130,000 hectares of protected land.

That keeps the setting unspoilt: no sprawl, no industrial sheds on the horizon, none of the damage that often comes with ski resort development. Roe deer, chamois, ibex and golden eagles are part of everyday life here, and you may well spot them early in the morning or at dusk on the quieter slopes.

Summer skiing and the Stelvio Pass

The Stelvio Pass, about an hour’s drive from Santa Caterina in summer, is one of the most iconic roads in Europe. Its 48 hairpin bends climb to the border with the Autonomous Province of Bolzano at 2,757 metres.

In summer the Sforzellina cable car helps give access to the summer ski area on the Stelvio Pass itself, one of very few places in Italy where you can ski in the warm months on natural snow, with no need for snowmaking. National teams from every continent come to these glaciers in June and July for their summer training camps, and the sporting and human warmth of those sessions stays with anyone lucky enough to be there.

Bormio’s thermal baths are half an hour away by car, so a day on the slopes can end with a soak in the hot springs. It is a combination that makes the Valfurva and Bormio area a complete and restorative trip.

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Opened in 1985, renewed in 2010. The ski area lies within the Stelvio National Park. Summer skiing on the Stelvio Pass from June to August.