eaf

To close the Hidden Valley subject, here are some pics from it. Basically, it's a long, 11km return trail that undoes both the winding climb of the bus and the Lagazuoi lift. It goes and goes surrounded by peaks on both sides. At some point it passes a waterfall area. Difficulty ranges from blue to red, but overall it's a sightseeing track. It brings the skiers almost back to the point where he boarded the bus, but is about 1km short. This final km can be conquered by taxi, cross-country skiing or a horse tow, like in the pics above.

They're heavy on polenta, lasagna and goulash. If you get to the German country then inevitably simple things like sausages and fries pop up. I had a deer yesterday. It was like beef, structure wise, just some special taste, which I'm not even sure wasn't due to spices. Yeah, I did some off piste in Alta Badia yesterday, the snow is great this year, but if you want to get far, like today, speed and groomers is all that matters. What I can't place yet is grappa. Finished one blueberry bottle, it was like a sweet liquor. Today got one with Erbe Alpine, and it's smelly, yet bitter, brrr.

Today was all about a trip to Hidden Valley and the adjacent Cinque Torri area. It's far, three valleys by ski, then a ski bus, then a few more lifts to get to the farthest point of the day - the Five Towers. Honestly, the trails aren't any better than in the valleys much closer, quality-wise. They're much longer though, emptier, and since there's so much snow in the mountains this year (sorry, Venice), sometimes it feels like skiing in the plains. Yeah, there's a groomer, but if you want you can just go sideways and get lost. So, I took the first lift up from the hotel, and was so rushing to get to the destination that had to spin wheels on local slopes for some time because the next connecting lift wasn't running yet. Followed the Sella Ronda circle counterclockwise till I reached Alta Badia - the final area before the bus hop, took me 90 minutes to get there, then boarded the bus, and after following winding roads for 15mi or so got to the bottom of Lagazuoi lift. A picture from the top of it is in the previous post, but I didn't take the lift yet. The lift would take me to the 11km Hidden Valley trail back, and I didn't get to my towers yet. So I passed the lift line, crossed the road and entered the Cinque Torri skiing area. Like I said, piste-wise it's hardly anything special, but views were different, and that's all that matters here. Alas, after some time skiing the same place you get used to it, and so like a junkie, you seek for something new, something different, something far, doesn't matter if it's any better, you just want to take in more and more... The only limiting factor is that you must get back to your home area by 4:30pm, for everything gets closed for grooming at 5, and lifts are starting to shut down before then. You can miss the last lift by a few, and land in a different town of the same valley, that's fine, just take a ski bus to get home. But if you miss by far, then IDK what can possibly help. If passes are closed, look for a place to stay overnight. Anyway, somewhere below is a pic with the Five Towers. Luckily (with all bussing, exploring, trying all the trails in the way, etc) I got there by noon.

Then I would be able to go higher than this.

Damn, I wish I had one of these on the trip!

I found the best ski tow ever. The only problem is that my daughter will kill me if she sees this. So IDK, perhaps I should just cancel my return flight and ride this back and forth, back and forth...

I'm beyond tired... All's well, the weather is awesome, snow is terrific, so firm and supporting, yet no ice, and they do their nightly grooming for A+. The plan for this trip was to visit two new isolated areas where I've never been to before. One is Hidden Value, which everyone says is the prettiest place in Dolomites, and the other - Kronplatz, which is just an area that I've heard of a lot but never got to visit. It may be a good base for an approach from Austria, plus there's a ski train going to yet another area... But anyway, for today I just wanted to take it slow, refresh the map in my mind and remember the connecting lifts. It went well. I even came across a leaf zone that I didn't get a chance to see before, and it turned out to be a great place to spend a couple of hours at. A collection of blue, red and black trails, discovered a restaurant on top, right around lunch time, not too many people and snow holding well throughout the day. My biggest gripe is the stupid navigation app that they've "upgraded" since last year. Now the 3D map is a joke, and even though there's a way to browse trails and lifts offline, it can't build point A to point B routes without service as before. On top of it, it lies and made me walk sloped streets of Canazei for half a kilometer in ski boots and with skis on the shoulder. Right when I was in a hurry to get back to home area before the closing time.

That was Verona. A small old town about half way from Milan to the mountains. There's more to see in the streets, but I've already been there and was in a hurry. Today's gonna be the first skiing day. People are saying that besides the big December storm that dumped 6' of snow there was little since then except half a foot this Sat.

Somebody took all the snow away! I even climbed a bridge, and then a hill, and then a whole mountain, to see if perhaps there would be a glimpse of whiteness in the distance... It was all in vain.

Lol, I think I mixed up my flight somehow...

Holy cow, another trip to the Skiers Paradise! A place with endless groomers and highest number of sunny days in Alps. A rough start with crazy outbound weather with snow peaking right around the departure time. When it hit, it hit hard, and I even started looking at rail options, but then miraculously the snow took a break, and I zipped to EWR in no time at all. Stupid United flight this time. Far from the luxury of Emirates, longer en route, but timely departure and free booze in the United Club. The only thing left before departure is deicing. Whoo-hoo, looking at the webcams and forecast, it's gonna be truly epic. Lots of sunny days has its unfortunate side effect on snow quality or even availability, plus this time I'm flying earlier than ideal, but the storm that drowned Venice in December dumped enough in the mountains to last till now.

What I like about your reports is how spot on they sometimes are, and how they just convey the general mood on the mountain. They don't just mention casually about that trail being ROTD, they get into things like guns roaring, kids piling up from buses, DW being scraped, Paradise spitting out an occasional flock of cautious beginners down the DW or that lift capacity exceeding the amount of open terrain. I kept of thinking the same thing: wow, no lines anywhere, and yet such a crowded feeling on the slopes. I can only add that if you looped the quad you'd see groomers in action and as somebody said on the lift that night: "damn, I wish I had one of those".

NVM

Yeah right. Last Saturday was a blast. That's what I'm talking about! Tomorrow's gonna be winter, weekend's gonna be pure, distilled misery.

Didn't know you were a fan of water sports. Tomorrow is the way to go! Everybody who's planning on coming this weekend instead of tomorrow just can't think of a good excuse to skip work.

Well, first - nice to see you here again. Second - WTH?? Drive all the way to BM and not ski at all? You didn't get injured by any chance?

Have mercy. Thanks to me GSS skied full 91 minutes today vs his usual 90.

Btw, what did ya all do to salty so that he withdrew himself from the site?

Who's Daria??

IDK why everybody is so in love with NW/DW. Sure, it was nice, but also thin and narrow. Paradise had better quality snow (really the best today) and was wide, smooth and thick. Also for some reason the troopers are not enforcing speed limits yet, so it really is a blast to ski. Lazy was trash from the start. Second time in a row for me.

Last Sunday the very left gate of the quad was buzzing and saying "Wrong Lift" every time I tried passing through. Regular tickets worked fine there. Other gates weren't a problem for me either. Go figure...

GSS, what are your friends on the weather forum predicting for Sunday? Seems to be some PM rain, but when?

Wow, you really were getting a Royal treatment today! Personal Vista tour, Shawnee ticketing advice, even mirrors retracted. You didn't by any chance first overdose everybody by fruit by the foot this time?

You rock Salty!! And kudos to GSS for checking up on you on the Vista slope. In conditions like this I'll bow to anybody venturing beyond kiddie slopes. So white and slippery... How did you pull it off? 50 minutes!! That R in PASR makes so much sense now. Rrriiide in, and rrrrriiide out. Well may be Park in between.