Val Gardena Off-Piste

The Val Mezdi route has some excellent off-piste descents but involves a little bit of effort to get to.

Val Mezdi
This route cuts through the centre of the Gruppo Sella, beginning from the airy Sass Pordoi cable car station (2950m) and heading north, first skating, then climbing on foot and traversing to reach the (closed in winter) Boe hut (2873m) and the entrance to the Val Mezdi (‘midday valley’, so-called because that’s the only time the sun reaches into it). The lack of sun combined with the steep north facing aspect mean that snow is abundant in this huge, vertical-sided rocky slot and it’s big enough beyond the relatively narrow entry section that there are multiple routes down and a chance to find fresh snow long after the last fall. Other more serious descents are also possible from the same starting point, with the great advantage of solitude (not generally a feature of the main route) and a sense of the wildness of this massif, high above the neatly organised villages that lie in the valleys below.