Passo Tonale - review

Had a week in Passo Tonale at the end of January/early February. IT had not snowed for a while but pistes were in good condition - hard packed for nice fast cruising.

On the first day, we pretty much skied all the runs in Passo Tonale itself. This is a high bowl with mainly nice wide reds but one nice black. Red 20 is a lovely long red but, be warned, there is a short steep narrow bit near the end that can catch out the more timid.

On day 2 we headed down to the linked Ponte de Legna area. Its a long road run down to the area. We skied to an old 2-man chair which brings you up the mountain but from there the only option is a (not too difficult) black. There are other options to get you to the main area, e.g. take the gondola down from the top or mid-station. This is a lovely area with a nice variety of mainly red and black tree-lined runs. The views are beautiful. It was also very quiet any time we were there - I am guessing that its lack of blues makes it unattractive for beginners.

The village in Passo Tonale is not terribly interesting. There are a few loud disco bars and little else outside of the hotels. We did find one lovely little bar - Cafe Monticello - which became our base for apres-ski weissbiers most days.

Crystal organised a day trip to Madonna di Campiglio. It was about an hours drive but was well worth doing. Its a much larger area and we found loads of vert nice skiing over there.

Overall, Passo is not the biggest area and you will have to be happy repeating runs. It is also quite exposed so wind can be a problem slowing down or even closing some of the higher lifts. The resort also seemed to allocate a significant amount of the mountain to ski clubs for race training. However, it does have a nice mix of runs which are a pleasure for high speed cruising for intermediates. Not a lot of challenging runs.