Worldwide Ski Resorts • Italy • Santa Cristina
Overview
The small resort village of Santa Cristina is situated in the enormous Italian Sella Ronda ski domain in the Dolomites. The village is now effectively linked to its immediate larger neighbour, Selva and shares many of the facilities. It is an attractive friendly community of traditionally styled architecture and a laid back atmosphere. It is generally fairly down market without being a haven for lager louts; indeed it is a very family focussed resort and reflects this in its ‘value for money’ policy. There is an excellent number of restaurant, bars and shops within the village and accommodation is plentiful, offering a choice of catered chalets, all grades of hotels from four star to ‘comfort’ and plenty of apartments.
Profile
Selva/Santa Cristina stands at 1565m and provides direct access to the entire 395 km of pistes served by a system of 186 lifts, of the Sella Ronda ski circuit. The snow record for the region is good and as one would expect in such a popular place, snow making facilities cover the majority of the pistes. It is not the best region for advanced skiers, who may find the terrain a bit tame, although there are a number of truly testing black runs and plenty of marked, unpisted tracks to keep the interest alive.
Real unpisted country is somewhat limited due to the treacherous sheer drops that seem to appear from nowhere, but anyone wishing to hire a local guide will be shown some fine deep snow, safe off piste country. The region prides itself on the variety of runs all over the mountains that will suit every level of intermediate and it also is home to 98 km of cross country trails that meander through some beautiful countryside. For snowboarders, the region has a number of terrain parks as well as some decent half pipes. Novice skiers have a good choice of well groomed nursery slopes, but some of the progression runs are widely separated from the schooling grounds. The ski schools have a generally good reputation.
Mountain Information
The Sella Ronda is effectively a ski circuit that follows the line of the natural Gruppa Sella massif, taking skiers on a circuitous route that passes through the other resort villages of the region and through consistently breathtaking scenery. From the village, a gondola provides a direct access to Clampinol at 2255m from where one can either take one of the several runs back to the village or ski down to Plan de Gralba and join the anti-clockwise route around the Sella Ronda via Canazel. Experts need to travel to the far side of the circuit to Aabba where the more difficult runs are located. The less confident intermediates will find the most suitable pistes are at Dantercepies which is also where the more confident will find the long piste that goes down to Selva a worthy challenge. Intermediates will also enjoy the long cruising runs over at the Alta Badia sector. There are an impressive number of fabulous mountain restaurants in the Sella Ronda. They seem to compete with one another to provide the best welcome and the tastiest food.
Apres Ski
The après ski scene in Santa Cristina itself is fairly limited, due to the size of the place. However over at Selva, things are a lot livelier with the Luislkeller and the Laurinkeller providing good old sing songs and live bands. The Stella Disco and the Bula also come highly recommended.
Italian Resort Guide
Resort Information • Santa Cristina
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Resort Height | 1737m |
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Top Station | 2725m |
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Bottom Station | 1737m |
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Vertical Descent | 988m |
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Drag Lifts | 7 |
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Chair Lifts | 1 |
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High Capacity | 0 |
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Opening Dates | Dec - April |
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Rating Expert | 5 |
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Rating Intermediate | 6 |
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Rating Beginner | 7 |
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Apres Ski Rating | 5 |
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Snow Reliability | 7 |
