Learning to Ski in the Alps (Dolomites and Zermatt)
In December 2022, my husband Jason and I planned a trip to Europe to ski and snowboard using Ikon Passes we’d received earlier that year. I had done some work with Ikon Pass and was lucky enough to get complimentary passes for the 2022/2023 season. Despite this, I wouldn’t call either of us seasoned skiers. Jason had only just started learning to ski the previous spring, and as for my snowboarding, I was only finally starting to learn how to correctly connect my turns. My childhood ski lessons felt like a distant memory.
I brought my snowboard with me to Europe but quickly discovered that the Alps can be unforgiving for boarders. The slopes—pardon me, pistes—are packed with skiers, and many have long, flat sections that are a nightmare on a snowboard. This, combined with the general disdain for snowboarding I picked up on, pushed me to dust off my ski legs. It wasn’t pretty, but by the end of the trip, I had clumsily made my way down some of the most iconic ski runs in the world.
Photos shot primarily on film, with a few iphone and drone shots in the mix
ITALIAN DOLOMITES
Film and digital photos taken in the Dolomites, December 2022
A film photo I had taken at Seceda in Summer 2019
We flew into Milan, rented a car, and made the three-hour drive to Ortisei, a charming little town in the Val Gardena region of the Dolomites. It’s the perfect home base for exploring the Dolomiti Superski area—a vast network of lifts connecting multiple towns and valleys. Unlike the single-resort setup of North American ski mountains, here you can ride a lift up, ski down to the next town, and repeat all day without retracing your tracks.
Our first lift was the Seceda cable car, which took us to the Instagram-famous Seceda mountain. Its jagged peaks are a summer hiking favorite, but seeing them in winter, dusted with snow, and minus all the selfie crowds was next-level stunning.
The pièce de résistance of Seceda is “La Longia,” a 10.5km run that’s one of the longest in the world. I spent the day snowboarding down blue and red pistes, though the European grading system threw me for a loop. What they call “blue” (easy) didn’t quite align with what we call “green” back home, and “red” (intermediate) often had me questioning my life choices. By the time I hit La Longia for my final run, my legs were already screaming. It was a never-ending rollercoaster of tight turns, steep drops, and hard-packed snow.
And the vibe? Very European. Narrow, twisting trails with sheer drop-offs, all lined with cozy mountain cafes where skiers lounged outside sipping bombardinos, skis and poles casually strewn across the piste.
A Magical Run: The Armentarola Piste
Lagazuoi cable car and Rifugio Lagazuoi on film
The Armentarola piste in the Dolomites is one of the most iconic runs in the Alps. Starting at the Lagazuoi cable car station, perched at 9114 feet/2778 meters, the 8.5 km long piste begins just below the stunning Lagazuoi rifugio (alpine hut) with breathtaking views of the surrounding Dolomite peaks. The long, scenic descent is like a rollercoaster through dramatic alpine landscapes; including rugged cliffs, frozen waterfalls, and quiet forests. The final stretch is especially unique: skiers are pulled along by horse-drawn ropes across a flat, snow-covered path back to the main road—a ridiculously fun way to complete what may be the most unique ski run in the world.
Jason and I skied and snowboarded down the Armentarola piste at sunset
NEW YEARS 2023 IN BRESSANONE
We had been staying in Ortisei, but an unfortunate situation at our hotel (hello, bedbugs) forced us to leave. The nearest accommodation we could find on short notice, within a moderate price range, was an hour away in the town of Bressanone (Brixen in German). That’s where we ended up spending New Year’s Eve.
We stayed at Haller Suites & Restaurant, where we enjoyed a lovely five-course dinner of Tyrolean cuisine made from locally sourced ingredients, followed by a low-key evening. At midnight, we headed to the hotel’s rooftop to watch the fireworks—a nice way to ring in the New Year despite the unexpected detour.
Bressanone is a larger, more industrial town outside of the main ski region of the Dolomites, so it was neither as charming or as convenient for skiing as Ortisei. Still, we made the best of our three-night stay. We explored the Christmas market in the town square and spent a day skiing at Plose, a nearby resort within the Dolomiti Superski network. While Bressanone wasn’t my first choice of where I had wanted to stay in Dolomites, it turned out to be a memorable part of the trip. People were friendlier, and we got a slightly more down-to-earth local cultural experience.
After spending a couple of days on skis (in Alpe di Suisi and Plose), I really wanted to go back to The Armentarola piste and do that magical run a second time on skis. It was a trek getting back to Laguzuoi from Bressanone (thankfully we had a rental car), but it was a ski run well worth repeating.
New Year’s dinner and fireworks at Haller Suites, Bottom: Christmas market in Bressanone, and me skiing at Plose.
LAKE COMO
The journey from the Dolomites to Zermatt was less scenic adventure and more endurance test. Northern Italy in winter was shrouded in a thick layer of smog-fog, particularly around Milan, making the long stretches of highway feel even longer. To break up the monotony of the six-hour drive, we decided to spend the night in Lake Como.
This time of year, Como was quiet, cold, and almost eerily sleepy. On the upside, we managed to snag a lakefront guesthouse at a great price. Arriving after dark and leaving the next morning, we didn’t have much time to explore. We took a short walk to the only open restaurant we could find during the New Year holiday week and quickly learned that Italy takes its holidays seriously—think “shut the doors, stay home, and don’t expect to find much open” serious. The restaurant was a tiny deli with a very limited menu, so our dinner ended up being slices of aged beef (bresaola) and a plate of mâche greens. As someone who was just easing back into eating meat after years as a pescetarian, let’s just say the bresaola was… meaty.
Lights reflected on Lake Como at night, and a drone photo of our guesthouse (waterfront middle yellow building) in the foggy, smoggy morning.
After leaving Como, the scenery finally started to improve, though the smog lingered until we climbed higher into the mountains. Crossing into Switzerland, the vibe shifted instantly. Narrow mountain roads were lined with crumbling alpine buildings that looked straight out of an abandoned Disney attraction—equal parts eerie and magical.
Zermatt itself is car-free, which only adds to its charm. To reach the town, you park your car in Täsch, load up your luggage and skis on a cart, and hop on a quick 12-minute train ride that delivers you directly to the base of the Matterhorn. It’s an experience that feels uniquely and delightfully Swiss.
ZERMATT, SWITZERLAND
Ah, Zermatt—so charming, so quintessentially Swiss. It doesn’t even feel like a real place. I read somewhere that Walt Disney was inspired by Switzerland when designing the original Disneyland (clue: the Matterhorn ride). Maybe that’s why, as a Californian, I find Zermatt so irresistibly appealing—it feels like stepping into the real-life version of my childhood Disney dreams.
Arriving in Zermatt only reinforced that impression. The town is dotted with high-end fashion boutiques, sporting goods stores, and après-ski bars with lively outdoor patios, the smell of crepes and sausages wafting through the air. It’s wonderfully walkable, though navigating its streets with luggage and skis for two over packers made the short walk to our apartment more of an adventure (we could have taken a taxi-cart, but since it’s Switzerland, it’s cost more than we thought it worth paying).
Thankfully, I’d scored us a fantastic apartment at Chalet Annelis, complete with a picture-perfect view of the Matterhorn through a large window—all for $1,058 for a five-night stay. The location was ideal, just a short stroll from the shops, restaurants, and easy access to the Matterhorn Zermatt ski lifts and trains. It was the perfect base to explore, ski, and remote work in the evenings.
Zermatt Matterhorn is on the Ikon Pass, which includes up to 7 days of lift access to three different ski areas: Matterhorn Glacier Paradise, Sunnegga-Rothorn, and Stockhorn-Gornergrat. Each area is easily reachable from Zermatt, either by walking or taking a quick bus ride from downtown.
I started the week with a solo snowboarding day while Jason stayed back at the apartment with a cold. My first stop was the Sunnegga funicular, which provides access to the Sunnegga-Rothorn ski area. The funicular is a steep, 45-degree train that zips you through a tunnel and up the mountain—it felt like something out of a Wes Anderson movie.
First impressions of Zermatt’s slopes? The views are absolutely stunning. Many of the runs offer panoramic vistas of the Matterhorn and the surrounding snow-covered peaks. Zermatt itself sits at 5,300 feet, but the lifts and trains take you well above treeline, with elevations reaching 10,000 feet and higher. That said, the slopes weren’t exactly snowboard-friendly. There were a lot of flat, narrow sections, and skiers flew past me way too close for comfort while I struggled to stay on my edges. After two days of getting stuck and falling on icy cat tracks—I finally gave in and switched to skis.
The top of Zermatt: Matterhorn Glacier Paradise cable car station
By day three, Jason was feeling better, so we hit the slopes together. Skiing felt like a game-changer—it was so much easier to enjoy the views while facing forward, and I didn’t have to worry about getting stuck in the middle of flat runs. The route from Sunnegga all the way back to town, which had been a nightmare on a snowboard, was much more manageable on skis, even though it narrows to what feels like a single-lane trail.
We stopped for lunch that day at Chez Vrony, a highly recommended slope-side restaurant that can only be accessed by skiing in. The setting was straight out of a postcard, with rustic alpine decor and an outdoor deck complete with blankets and sheepskin throws. Despite the freezing temperatures, we sat outside, warming up with hot chocolate and sharing a burger. It was such a quintessentially European skiing experience—cozy, scenic, and so much more than the bowling-alley-esque ski lodge vibe in the U.S.
On day four, we took the lifts up to the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise, the highest skiable point in Zermatt at 12,740 feet. Reaching the top required a series of long lifts, and we rode an elevator to a packed viewing platform. Seeing the Matterhorn from that height was surreal—it felt like standing in front of the Toblerone logo come to life. Skiing down from the glacier was incredible, with wide-open runs perfect for picking up speed. We stopped at a lively alpine hut perched on the ridge that marks the border between Switzerland and Italy. If we’d had the right ski passes, we could have skied straight down into Cervinia, Italy.
On our final day, we rode the Gornergrat Railway, a charming cogwheel train that winds its way up to the Gornergrat ski area. The ride itself takes about 30 minutes and offers some of the most picturesque views of the week—it’s not often that the trip up the mountain is just as memorable as the skiing down. It was the perfect way to wrap up our time in Zermatt, taking in the scenery one last time and appreciating how uniquely beautiful this place is.
Left: Sights and tastes around Zermatt, Right: Drone images from the top of Matterhorn Glacier Paradise
Two years later, I can confidently say the Dolomites are some of my favorite mountains—both for skiing and hiking. I loved Zermatt as well, but now that I’m a much better skier, I’m itching to return to the Dolomites and tackle the full Sellaronda ski circuit. One of the most charming aspects of skiing in the Dolomites is the mountain hut system. The rustic alpine chalets, which host hikers in the summer, transform into cozy ski lodges in the winter. At the top of every major lift, you’ll find warm Tyrolean meals and boozy beverages served in a setting straight out of a snow globe.
The ski culture in Europe is just different from what we have in the U.S.—it’s cozier, more scenic, and definitely more fashionable (sometimes comically so). While I’m not entirely on board with the aprés scene, I have to admit, sipping a hot drink on a sunny deck while gazing up at the Matterhorn is hard to beat.