Val Senales - Ghiacciaio

The Val Senales (Schnalstal) glacier above Maso Corto/Kurzras is one of the few Italian ski areas open from September to May, with its base station above 2,000 m and lifts up to 3,212 m (Grawand). It’s a classic spot for the start and the end of the season.

Why Go Snowboarding

You come here to stretch the season. In the fall it’s the place to get your board back under your feet, find your feel again, and test your gear before winter; in spring you can keep riding when many resorts have already closed. The terrain is high and varied, and about a third of the kilometers are graded difficult. The catch for snowboarders is clear: the official pages don’t list an active snowpark, so you come for the runs, not for freestyle.

Terrain & Slopes

There are 21 runs (7 easy, 9 intermediate, and 5 difficult), starting on the Hochjochferner glacier and heading down toward Maso Corto. You go up on the glacier cable car and then ride the Grawand, Gletschersee, Hintereis, Roter Kofel, and Teufelsegg chairlifts. The Teufelsegg runs look out over the Ötztal peaks, and numbers 2 and 3 are blacks. The other blacks are the Leo Gurschler, used for slalom training, and the Steilhang and Transhumanz on the run down to the valley. The longest run on the official list is the T1 valley run, an intermediate, at 3.4 km. If you’re a beginner, you’ll find ski-school areas at Lazaun, which also has its own gondola and a family run, and at the Glocken lift.

Tips

On a board the easiest lifts are the cable car and the chairlifts; Finail and Glocken are drag lifts, so take them slowly if you’re new to them. Above 3,000 m it’s cold even in the fall, the wind bites, and in flat light you lose all definition in the snow: bring goggles with a low-light lens, warm gloves, and sunscreen. The operator warns that hours and openings can change at short notice because of the weather, so check runs and lifts on the website the same morning.

Getting There

The Val Senales road is paved and open all year up to Maso Corto: from the SS38 at Naturno (Merano), drive up the valley. The base station has an underground garage and, 100 m away, a paid outdoor parking lot. By train, go to Merano and take line 261 Merano–Maso Corto, which runs every hour.