Skirama Dolomiti or Dolomiti Superski? Two ski passes people keep mixing up

From Madonna di Campiglio to Canazei in Val di Fassa it is about 130 km and two and a half hours' drive. Between one pass and the other lies a difference of 820 km of pistes and two different geological worlds. Even so, every season I get messages from viewers who are planning a week in Campiglio and ask whether they can also fit in the Sellaronda on the same pass. They cannot. Not because they will run out of time, but because these are two separate consortia, two separate ski passes and two separate ticket offices.

This mistake has a cost. Not in money wasted on the wrong pass, because the ticket offices make sure that does not happen. The cost comes in trip planning: someone books accommodation in Andalo, counting on a day out to Val Gardena, and only on arrival discovers that they face about a hundred kilometres and a good two hours' drive each way, and at the end of it still have to buy a second pass.

Below I break it all down. What is what, where it is, how much it costs and who it suits.

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Where does the confusion come from?

The answer is simple, which is exactly why it is hard to root out: both names contain the word “Dolomiti”, both contain the element “ski”, both sound like the brand of a regional ski pass, and travel agencies use them interchangeably in their offer descriptions.

Then there is the administrative geography. Trentino is an autonomous Italian province with its capital in Trento, the southern part of the Trentino-Alto Adige region, and it stretches across both sides of the Adige valley. This two-sidedness causes half the misunderstandings. When people hear “Trentino”, they automatically think of Madonna di Campiglio, because it is the province's best-known resort. Yet Dolomiti Superski also has four areas in Trentino: Val di Fassa, Val di Fiemme, San Martino di Castrozza and Alpe Lusia with Passo San Pellegrino. All of them lie on the eastern side of the Adige valley, while Campiglio is on the western side.

The third layer of confusion is Skirama itself. The consortium is called Skirama Dolomiti Adamello Brenta, and the pass it issues is called Superskirama. Websites mix the two up, add the “Superski” from the other consortium, and the result is a terminological mess that nobody can make sense of.

What does Dolomiti Superski cover?

It is the oldest and largest scheme of its kind in the Alps. The consortium started in the 1974/75 season with six valleys, 250 lifts and 740 km of pistes. The idea of a shared pass is credited to Erich Kostner, and the first president was Gianni Marzola, who ran Dolomiti Superski for 26 years.

Today it has 12 areas, about 1,200 km of pistes and 450 lifts. Snowmaking covers roughly 1,160 km, or about 96%, served by 6,500 snow cannons with a combined output of 120 MW. The highest lift station is Punta Rocca on the Marmolada, at 3,265 m; the summit of Punta Rocca itself is 3,309 m, and the highest peak of the Marmolada, Punta Penia, is 3,343 m. Interestingly, the Marmolada only joined the consortium in 2000, the last area to do so.

The official twelve areas are:

1. Cortina d’Ampezzo
2. Kronplatz (Plan de Corones)
3. Alta Badia
4. Val Gardena / Alpe di Siusi
5. Val di Fassa / Carezza
6. Arabba / Marmolada
7. 3 Cime Dolomiti (3 Zinnen)
8. Val di Fiemme / Obereggen
9. San Martino di Castrozza / Passo Rolle
10. Rio Pusteria-Bressanone (Gitschberg Jochtal / Brixen)
11. Alpe Lusia / San Pellegrino
12. Civetta

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I am not sorting this list by province, although that would be easier, because two of the areas straddle the boundary themselves: Val di Fassa is in Trentino, but Carezza is in the province of Bolzano, and the same goes for Val di Fiemme with Obereggen. Broadly speaking, Dolomiti Superski spreads across South Tyrol, eastern Trentino and the province of Belluno.

The key feature of Dolomiti Superski is not sheer size but a coherent core. The Sellaronda links Val Gardena, Alta Badia, Arabba and Val di Fassa: about 40 km of lifts and pistes around the Sella massif, including 26 km of downhill runs. Four passes (Campolongo, Pordoi, Sella and Gardena) and five to six hours for the full loop.

But one thing that gets lost in the brochures needs saying straight away: the 1,200 km of Dolomiti Superski is not 1,200 km linked on skis. The compact part is mainly the area around the Sella and the neighbouring valleys. Cortina, Val di Fiemme, Kronplatz, Civetta and San Martino are separate areas you have to drive to. Even within single areas you sometimes need a ski bus, as between Alpe Lusia and San Pellegrino. The pass is shared; the terrain is not always connected.

What does Skirama Dolomiti cover?

Skirama was founded in 1993 as an association of lift operators, an agreement between companies from Madonna di Campiglio, Pinzolo, Folgarida-Marilleva, Peio, Tonale-Ponte di Legno and Monte Bondone. It has only existed as a consortium in the legal sense since 2017. Either way, that is a generation later than its rival in the east.

Official figures give 380 km of pistes and 150 lifts, with snowmaking covering about 340 km. The German website Skiresort, which measures pistes by its own method, gives higher numbers: 436 km and 157 lifts.

The eight resorts that make up Skirama Dolomiti:

• Madonna di Campiglio
• Pinzolo
• Folgarida-Marilleva
• Pontedilegno-Tonale (with the Presena glacier, about 100 km, up to 3,000 m)
• Pejo 3000 (about 20 km, within the Stelvio National Park)
• Paganella Ski (Andalo and Fai della Paganella, about 37 km)
• Monte Bondone (about 19 km, right above Trento)
• Alpe Cimbra: Folgaria-Lavarone (more than 100 km on the Cimbrian plateaus)

Be careful when adding up. The figures published by the individual resorts do not add up neatly to the consortium's official 380 km: resorts count piste variants in their own way, and the data overlap in places. Stick to the consortium's figure and do not worry about the rest when planning.

And here we come to a difference that is invisible in tables but decides everything in practice. The first three entries on this list, Madonna di Campiglio, Pinzolo and Folgarida-Marilleva, together form the ski-linked Skiarea Campiglio Dolomiti di Brenta: more than 150 km of pistes and about 60 lifts. It is the largest ski area in Trentino and the real main course of this pass. The other five areas are separate from this core: Tonale is about 40 minutes' drive away, Paganella and Monte Bondone are in a completely different part of the province, and Alpe Cimbra is a different range altogether, south-east of Trento.

So Skirama Dolomiti is not one big resort but a collection of several independent ski areas under a shared pass. Dolomiti Superski has the same issue, only on a larger scale and with a stronger core.

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Is Skirama Dolomiti in the Dolomites at all?

Partly. And that “partly” is the most interesting thread of the whole story.

The Brenta group very much belongs to the Dolomites, and in the most official sense possible. The Brenta Dolomites (Dolomiti di Brenta) are on the UNESCO list as system no. 9 of the nine parts of the property “The Dolomites”, inscribed in 2009 under number 1237. All nine components form a single inscription; number nine does not mean “added later”. The system covers 11,135 hectares, about 40 km from north to south and 12 km from east to west, entirely within the Adamello Brenta Nature Park.

The Brenta also has a unique status: it is the only Dolomite group that rises west of the Adige. The other eight UNESCO systems lie on the eastern side of the valley. The Brenta is a Dolomite island, cut off from the rest of the carbonate platform.

The Adamello massif, on the other hand, which stands beside the Brenta in the consortium's name, and the neighbouring Presanella are not Dolomites in any way. This is the Adamello batholith, a huge magmatic intrusion: tonalite and granodiorite, plutonic rocks, the exact opposite of dolomite. Along the way comes a fact that always impresses: the rock name “tonalite” comes from Passo del Tonale (Gerhard vom Rath gave it in 1864 to rocks found south of the pass). We ski across a pass that gave its name to a rock type in geology textbooks.

The Folgaria and Lavarone plateaus, in turn, belong to the Vicentine Prealps, the Altipiani group. Administratively Trentino, geologically something else entirely: they are closer to Asiago than to the Marmolada.

So the most direct and indisputable justification for the word “Dolomiti” in Skirama's name is the Brenta Dolomites. The rest of the consortium's terrain lies in other mountains.

The boundary is tangible, too. Madonna di Campiglio lies in a valley that separates two worlds: to the east stand the dolomite towers of the Brenta, to the west begins the granite massif of the Presanella and Adamello. That is why the views from the pistes on either side of the valley look as if they came from two different ranges, because geologically they do.

Does the Adige really divide the two passes?

Almost. It is the simplest way to get your head round the whole thing, and for seven resorts out of eight it works perfectly: Skirama sits west of the Adige, Dolomiti Superski east of it.

But to be accurate, there is one exception, and not a small one. Alpe Cimbra, that is Folgaria and Lavarone, lies on the eastern side of the Adige valley, on the plateaus above the Vallagarina, on the same side as Dolomiti Superski. There, Skirama jumps to the other bank.

So the Adige is an excellent key for remembering where the Brenta lies in relation to the rest of the Dolomites. That is a hard geological fact. As a boundary between the areas of the two passes, it works only as a simplification.

That does not change the most important point. Dolomiti Superski does not include a single resort in western Trentino, and Skirama Dolomiti not one in the eastern Dolomites. Skirama mainly brings together Skiarea Campiglio in Val Rendena and Val di Sole, plus Pejo, Pontedilegno-Tonale, Paganella, Monte Bondone and Alpe Cimbra, with Ponte di Legno itself already in Lombardy. The Dolomiti Superski pass does not work in Madonna di Campiglio. Superskirama does not work in Val Gardena.

Does either pass work in the other area?

Day and multi-day passes: no. Separate systems, separate ticket offices, separate apps.

With season passes, though, there is a bridge, and it works both ways. The season Superskirama pass includes five days of skiing in Dolomiti Superski, to be used in any of the twelve areas, plus three days at Grandvalira in Andorra and 50% off a day pass at Vail Resorts ski areas.

The mechanism also works the other way, and few people know about it. The Dolomiti Superski general terms and conditions for the 2025/26 season state plainly that the consortium's season passes include five days of validity at Skirama Dolomiti Adamello Brenta resorts. Only the Superski Family and Superdays products are excluded. So the arrangement is symmetrical: five days one way and five the other.

The terms for the 2026/27 season have not been published yet, so before buying a season pass check whether this clause has been kept.

Skirama has one more card up its sleeve: an agreement with Epic Pass. Holders of the Epic Pass season pass get seven free days at Skirama. For Americans planning a winter in Europe that is a real argument.

How much does each pass cost?

Both consortia already have price lists for the 2026/27 season, so they can be compared without any estimates. All prices below are for adults.

The one-day row is not a mistake: Superskirama does not offer a one-day pass. The consortium's price list starts at two days, because for a single day you buy the local pass of a particular resort, which is also the more sensible choice for two or three days spent in one place.

Now look at the table again, because it holds the strongest fact of the whole comparison. Six days in high season cost €453 with Dolomiti Superski and €452 with Skirama. A difference of one euro. And that is with 820 kilometres of pistes and 300 lifts more on the Dolomiti Superski side.

The other rows look the same. Three days: €257 versus €254. Season pass in presale: €990 versus €995. In low season Skirama is slightly cheaper for six days, by eleven euros, but that is still less than three per cent of the price.

This is neither chance nor a pricing oversight. Skirama does not position itself as a cheaper alternative to Dolomiti Superski, but as a product priced on a par with it, and it has done so consistently for years. In the 2025/26 season both season passes cost exactly €970 each, to the euro.

Things get more interesting when you look at how prices have risen. Dolomiti Superski raised the six-day pass from €436 to €453, or 3.9%, and the season pass from €970 to €990, or 2.1%. Skirama went up more gently on holiday passes (six days from €439 to €452, 3%) but more steeply on the season pass, from €970 to €995, or 2.6%. The eastern consortium puts more of the increase on a week's skiing, while the western one leans harder on the full-season pass.

Before anyone concludes that Skirama is very expensive for what it covers, two points that put this right.

First, for a short stay a local pass is usually better value. Last season Skiarea Campiglio cost €74 a day in low season and €85 in high season, Folgarida-Marilleva on its own €62 and €74, and Pejo or Monte Bondone under €60. The consortium pass only makes sense if you plan to visit several resorts.

Second, Dolomiti Superski gives discounts for buying online, but smaller ones than people say. The standard discount is 5%, provided you buy a day or multi-day pass at least two days before it starts and use the My Dolomiti card; if you already have a card and do not use it, the discount drops to 3%. Separately there is the Dolomiti SkiMyWay system, in which the card itself serves as the ski pass and a 10% discount applies from the seventh day of skiing, but this discount cannot be combined with the five per cent online discount.

And a detail on the Skirama side that surprises people at the ticket office: a three- to six-day pass that includes a Sunday costs €10 more for an adult, €7 more for a youth and €5 more for a child without an accompanying adult. It is worth planning your trip so that the Sunday falls outside the pass.

Three things in the Dolomiti Superski price list that few people know

The “5 in 6” option is cheaper than six days. Five days of skiing within a six-day window cost €436 in high season instead of €453. If you are planning a day off anyway for weather, tiredness or a trip to Bolzano, you save €17 and lose nothing.

Superdays: ten days to use at any time in the season for €675. That is €67.50 a day, less than a day pass even in low season. An option for someone who goes to the Dolomites twice a winter, for example a week in January and a long weekend in March.

Dolomiti Superpremière 4 = 3. From 28 November to 19 December 2026 the fourth day is free if you stay at a participating property. The last possible purchase date is 16 December. With six days in November the difference becomes real, and it is the best time to ski without the crowds anyway.

Children born from 2019 to 2023 ski free when a full-paying adult buys a pass of the same type at the same time, one child per adult. This does not apply to season passes, Superdays or points cards: there, a child's free season pass requires a combined purchase with a parent.

Which area should you choose?

Choose Dolomiti Superski if:

• you want to ski long distances rather than lap one slope;
• you care about travelling between valleys: the Sellaronda, the Hidden Valley, the ski safari from Val di Fassa to Arabba;
• you really plan to change areas, because only then does the pass pay its way; for three days in one valley a local pass will be cheaper;
• you want pistes with history: the Saslong in Val Gardena, the Gran Risa in Alta Badia, the Olympia delle Tofane in Cortina, where all the women's Alpine skiing events of the Games were held in February 2026.

Choose Skirama Dolomiti if:

• your trip is based on Skiarea Campiglio, because that is the real main course here and the rest of the pass is a side dish;
• you are hoping to ski very early or very late in the season: the Presena glacier above Tonale allows high pistes to open when there is not yet, or no longer, any snow lower down;
• your family has mixed ability levels, because Alpe Cimbra and Paganella are gentler and usually have cheaper local passes than the biggest Dolomiti Superski areas;
• you want to see the 3Tre night slalom on the Canalone Miramonti, one of the most atmospheric events of the season.

And one more thing, plainly: anyone going to the Dolomites for the first time in their life with a week to spend should go for Dolomiti Superski. Skirama is very good, but it is a different product: a strong core around Campiglio plus several independent areas nearby, not a system of linked valleys.

Things you will not find in the brochures

Canalone Miramonti in Madonna di Campiglio. The 3Tre race piste is 470 m long with a vertical drop of 180 m, giving an average gradient of 38% and a maximum of 60%. A run takes about 45 seconds. The piste was designed in 1940 by Bruno Detassis, a mountain guide and the first director of the local ski school. The 3Tre has been on the World Cup calendar since the inaugural 1967 season, and the race itself goes back to the 1940s. The record holder is Ingemar Stenmark, who won here eight times: five times in slalom and three in giant slalom. Alberto Tomba won three times.

Cima Tosa and the measurement that upended the Brenta's hierarchy. Modern surveys gave 3,136 m instead of the more than 3,170 m shown on older maps, so Cima Tosa is no longer the highest peak of the Brenta Dolomites; Cima Brenta, at 3,151 m, has overtaken it. It is tempting to put this down to the shrinking ice cap on the summit, and it has indeed shrunk, but glaciologist Christian Casarotto of Muse in Trento tempers that conclusion: melting alone does not explain such a difference. Much old map data comes from theodolite surveys and different reference systems, and we take it as accurate even though it is not.

La Bellunese on the Marmolada. Dolomiti Superski gives it a length of 12 km and a vertical drop of 1,810 m and calls it the longest run in the whole consortium. GPS measurements suggest more like 9 to 10 km, so the 12 is the consortium's figure, not a reading from a watch. The vertical drop, however, does check out, and it is impressive: from Punta Rocca at 3,265 m to Malga Ciapela at 1,450 m.

Skirama did not host a single event of the Milano-Cortina 2026 Games. The Alpine races took place between 7 and 18 February: all five men's events on the Stelvio in Bormio, which is in Lombardy but outside Skirama, and all five women's events on the Olympia delle Tofane in Cortina. Predazzo and Tesero, where the ski jumping and cross-country skiing were held, are in Val di Fiemme, one of the Dolomiti Superski areas.

Names that confuse even more

Since we are tidying up, let us close the subject with a full list:

• Superskirama is the name of the pass itself, issued by the Skirama consortium. The consortium is Skirama; the product is Superskirama.
• Skiarea Campiglio Dolomiti di Brenta is not a pass but a ski area: the link between Madonna di Campiglio, Pinzolo and Folgarida-Marilleva. It has its own, cheaper local pass.
• Dolomiti Paganella is the brand of a tourist destination (Andalo, Molveno, Fai, Cavedago, Spormaggiore). The ski area is called Paganella Ski and belongs to Skirama.
• Val di Sole is a valley, not a pass. It is home to Folgarida-Marilleva, Pejo and the eastern side of Tonale. Not to be confused with Val di Non, where Skirama does not have a single resort.
• Alpe Cimbra is the brand of the Folgaria, Lavarone and Luserna plateau. It has its own local pass and is not in the Dolomites.
• Bormio and Stelvio are neither Skirama nor Dolomiti Superski. This is Alta Valtellina in Lombardy, a separate system. After the Games, this mix-up will only become more common.

Summary

Dolomiti Superski is the pass for the eastern Dolomites: South Tyrol, eastern Trentino and the province of Belluno, twelve areas, about 1,200 km of pistes, a consortium operating since 1974. Skirama Dolomiti is eight resorts, mainly in western Trentino, with a sliver of Lombardy at Ponte di Legno, 380 km of pistes, founded in 1993. No shared day or multi-day ticket links them; the only bridge is the season passes, which on both sides give five days of skiing at the neighbour.

If you remember just one sentence, make it the simplest possible one: the Dolomiti Superski pass does not work in Madonna di Campiglio. That one sentence clears up ninety per cent of the mistakes I see in your questions.