Marmolada Site Features

The south face

Nearly a kilometre of vertical limestone, and one of the most serious rock walls in the Alps. Best seen from the road below or from Passo Giau.

The glacier

The last significant glacier in the Dolomites, on the northern slope -- and shrinking measurably from year to year.

Punta Rocca terrace

The cable car's top station at 3,265 metres, with a viewing terrace and a small chapel, looking across most of the eastern Alps.

The war museum at Serauta

Europe's highest, at about 2,950 metres, on ground that was the front line -- with tunnels, positions and material recovered from the ice.

The massif stands on the boundary between Veneto and Trentino, above Rocca Pietore in the province of Belluno, at the western edge of the Dolomite groups that surround Cortina.

Its structure is a single tilted slab. The south face drops in one sweep to the Ombretta valley; the north side falls more gently and holds the glacier and the ski slopes.

Below to the north lies the Fedaia pass and its reservoir; to the south, the Val Pettorina running down to Rocca Pietore and Malga Ciapela.

Because it stands higher and more isolated than the surrounding groups, the summit view takes in most of the Dolomites at once -- and on clear days a long stretch of the main alpine chain beyond them.