Alta Badia or Val Gardena: two valleys on one circuit, so pick your base

Size: Val Gardena has more at home, the circuit is shared

Both valleys reach the same big network. From a base on the Sella Ronda, around 500 kilometres is reachable by lift without a bus. That figure is our own sum of measured kilometres across the linked areas, not one Dolomiti Superski publishes, so treat it as approximate. The 1,200 kilometres on the pass is not a ski area: it covers twelve areas, and only four of them are joined by lift.

The difference is at home. Val Gardena's own sector is 175 kilometres against Alta Badia's 130, a gap of 45. Our own measure of the graded piste around each valley tells the same story more modestly: 145 kilometres at Val Gardena, the second most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover, against 124.5 at Alta Badia, about 21 more. The longest run we measure in Val Gardena is a 3.9 kilometre red with 395 metres of vertical. Alta Badia's is a 2.2 kilometre blue.

For a strong group out on the circuit most days, this barely matters. For a group that stays near home, it matters a little: Val Gardena has more piste, and Alta Badia has more of it marked blue.

Altitude: level at the door, a little higher in Val Gardena

At the village there is nothing in it: 1,568 metres in Alta Badia, 1,563 in Val Gardena. Higher up, Val Gardena's top of the skiing is 2,731 metres, but that is the top of a lift. The highest piste we measure there starts at 2,480 metres, 29 metres under Alta Badia's 2,509. On piste, the two top out at the same height, near enough.

Val Gardena has more of its piste up high, though: 39 percent above 2,000 metres, against 22 percent in Alta Badia. Its lowest piste reaches further down too, to 1,218 metres against 1,340.

Both count as snow sure on our measure, which asks for more than half the piste at or above 1,800 metres and skiing that reaches 2,500. In Alta Badia, 65 percent of the piste we measure is above 1,800 metres, up to 2,509 metres. In Val Gardena it is 66 percent, up to the 2,731 metre lift top; the highest piste we measure there, at 2,480 metres, stops just short of 2,500. Nobody can promise snow, and on this line the two are level.

The skiing: Alta Badia has the blue, Val Gardena the red and the black

On the piste map, Alta Badia is the easy one by a distance. It has 76 kilometres of blue and easier piste, 61 percent of what we measure and the most of the 10 Italian resorts we cover. Val Gardena has 42, or 29 percent, which is 34 kilometres fewer. Most of Val Gardena is red: 86.5 kilometres of it, 60 percent of the piste. Both grade the Italian way, so those shares compare fairly.

Who each one actually suits

Alta Badia suits families, couples, food lovers and groups where the abilities are mixed. The blue goes on for days, and lunch is a highlight: Ladin cooking in the huts and a gourmet ski safari that moves from one mountain restaurant to the next. Each village has its own character. Corvara is the biggest, with the most bars; Colfosco is quieter and well placed for the circuit; La Villa is small and suits families; San Cassiano is the smart one, known for its food. Evenings are relaxed, built around dinner rather than late nights.

Val Gardena is scenic and traditional, a classic Dolomite valley on the Sella Ronda, and it suits people who come for the circuit and the scenery. It is known for woodcarving, too. On the measured terrain it suits intermediates who want a lot of red that is kinder than it looks, and a strong skier who wants more black at home than Alta Badia has.

The bit nobody tells you

Val Gardena looks like the harder valley, and on our measurements it is the gentler one. Its blues average a gradient of 12.8 percent against Alta Badia's 14.4. Its reds average 17.3 percent against 21.7, and only two of the 55 resorts we cover have gentler reds. Its blacks, at 26.1, are the gentlest of the 10 Italian resorts we cover; Alta Badia's average 28.5. And just 13 percent of Val Gardena's piste is steeper than one in four. Only one of the 55 resorts we cover has a smaller share.

These are averages per run segment, and a run's grade is set by its steepest pitch, so take them as the feel of a week rather than a promise about any one run. But the pattern holds at every grade. Alta Badia's gentleness is in how much of its piste is marked blue. Val Gardena's is in the slope itself, whatever colour it is marked.

For an improver about to move up to red, that makes Val Gardena a very good place to do it, with 86.5 kilometres to practise on. For a nervous skier who will stay on blue all week, Alta Badia still has the most of it.