Campo Felice

Campo Felice is the ski area on the Altopiano delle Rocche (Rocca di Cambio, L’Aquila) that riders from Rome and L’Aquila know best, thanks to Swup Snow Park, probably the most complete park in the Apennines. The official site lists more than 40 km, 24 runs, and 15 lifts, starting from 1,411 m.

Why Go Snowboarding

The park is the main reason: real jumps, a long jib line, and its own drag lift, a rare combination in the Apennines. Outside the park the terrain suits intermediates best: 44% intermediate runs, 28% easy, and 28% difficult. All runs come together on the flat valley floor, so it’s hard to get lost and you can ride even in fog; the flip side is that every run ends on the flat, so on a board keep your speed up.

Terrain & Slopes

The 24 runs range from the 450 m Campo Scuola Cerchiare to the 2,400 m Falco, the longest. Nine of the 15 lifts are chairlifts: good news if you don’t like drag lifts on a board. Snowmaking relies on 380 snow guns over more than 35 km of runs. It’s still a mid-altitude resort: when it hasn’t snowed for a while, you ride mostly on machine-made snow.

Snowpark

Swup Snow Park, run by Swup the Park A.S.D., has an Easy area with two lines (three easy jumps and four boxes); a Slope Style line with an 8 m Big Pyramid, a 4 m bombolone, a 10 m jump, a 6 m roll-over, and a 4 m wall ride; and a Jibbing line with a 9 m box, a 9 m street rail, and an 8 m double plug kink. The dedicated drag lift is short and makes for quick laps; the park has snowmaking and the features are reshaped every day. Helmets are compulsory.

Tips

Since it’s close to Rome, it fills up on weekends: go midweek if you can, or get there early. There are two parking lots, one per access point, with over 3,000 car spaces and 70 bus spaces. The Brecciara side, at Rocca di Cambio, is the handiest from L’Aquila. The Skipass dei Parchi season pass also covers Campo Imperatore (Gran Sasso) and Ovindoli (Magnola).

Getting There

From Rome, take the A24 toward L’Aquila to the Tornimparte exit, then about 16 km of access road to the lifts. From L’Aquila it’s about 20 km toward Rocca di Cambio to the Brecciara chairlift, or take the SS584 toward Lucoli. On winter weekends private operators run day trips by bus from Rome (BusForFun, departing from Eur Magliana and Tiburtina): check dates and times on the operator’s site.