A different way to use a ski week
Not every day of a winter week has to be spent on a lift. Snowshoeing gets you into the same valley from underneath: forest tracks above Ortisei, meadows below the Sella group, and huts that serve the same food to a quarter as many people. It is also the obvious answer for a non-skier in an otherwise skiing group, and for the day after somebody’s legs have gone.
Val Gardena runs an organised snowshoe programme through its three village tourism offices, including night and torch-lit hikes, led with the local alpine guide bureau. The bureaus themselves — Catores in Ortisei and GardenaGuides in Selva — cover snowshoe work alongside ski touring, via ferrata and ice.
Who leads it, and why that is a licensing question
Guiding on non-technical snowshoe and hiking terrain is a qualified profession in South Tyrol: the accompagnatore di media montagna, or Wanderleiter, requires provincial training, an exam and entry in a special register held at the provincial chamber of mountain and ski guides. Where rope, crampons or via ferrata are involved it must be a certified mountain guide instead. Steeper winter terrain with avalanche exposure falls squarely on the mountain-guide side of that line, under separate Italian law.
Every tour we arrange is delivered by those qualified local professionals. We plan it with you and confirm it directly with the bureau; the route choice, the pace and the decision to turn back belong to the person leading.
Difficulty, and being honest about it
Snowshoeing looks gentle and is not, particularly uphill in fresh snow. A reasonable level of walking fitness is enough for the standard routes, but altitude, cold and deep snow make the same distance considerably more demanding than a summer path. Routes range from short valley loops to long climbs, and the guides will match the route to the group — provided you tell us honestly what the group can do. Evening tours are longer than people expect because they usually end with dinner at a hut.
Price
Val Gardena Active does not publish tour prices, so we get a real quote for your dates instead of inventing a range. Expect the guide fee and snowshoe rental to be quoted together, with hut food separate. No lift pass is needed for most routes, which makes this one of the cheaper days in an expensive week — the regional day pass alone was €77 to €86 by band last season.
Season and weather
The snowshoe season follows the snow rather than the lifts, running through the winter months — last season the resorts opened from 29 November and closed officially on 6 April, with a similar shape expected next winter. These are relatively dry, sunny winters by Alpine standards, but heavy snowfall, wind or avalanche risk will change the route or cancel the day outright, and that call belongs to the guide. Weather cancellations are normally rebooked or refunded according to the bureau’s own terms, which reach you in writing before you commit.
Around it
Skiing days are ski lessons in Val Gardena, the family variant, the Sellaronda ski guide and the Dolomites ski safari. The summer equivalent of this page is the hiking guide in the Dolomites, and the technical version is the via ferrata guide. Dinner afterwards can be a chalet chef; arrival is the Innsbruck Airport transfer. The region is on the Dolomites destination page, other activities on outdoor activities.
Request availability with your dates, group size, ages and whether you want the daytime or the torch-lit version — we come back with guides who are free and a real price.