Dolomiti Superski 2019

[eaf]

The trip is just around the corner... to the largest and most beautiful skiing area in the... I won't say the "World", but certainly the largest skiing area I've ever seen. GSS would probably call it the largest Jerry skiing area, but like I care.

Located south-west of Austria, and is accessible by direct flights to Milan, Munich or Zurich, all involving about 4 hours of driving after the flight. If I was flying from Russia I'd probably be able to land right in Verona via some dirt-cheap charter thereby cutting driving time in half. Even now I could still definitely make a connection and go to Venice, that would mean less driving, but more flying, so in the end nothing to gain.

The area is insanely large. The map shows 12 zones, and each zone is like a separate ski resort with a map similar to e.g. the last picture - would require a high-res PDF to actually see anything. Most are connected through the Sellaronda ski circuit (second pic) comprised of 26km of piste and 13km of lifts. You just pick a direction (left or right), leave the gates in the morning and come back to the same spot only by the end of the day. Doing this is like following a crowd of lemmings: all boarding next lift, going down the next slope, boarding yet another lift with occasional stops at the restaurants and posted maps in case if one gets lost. It's best NOT to get lost because once the slopes are closed, your only hope is the bus, and you'd better live near bus stop as well.

Sellaronda is nice to do once, but in general that's not how one would want to spend most of the days in Dolomiti. The best places to ski are actually leaf zones (see how they branch off the Sellaronda loop on third pic) as well as the highest peak on the south-east of the circuit - Marmolada, only 5900ft vertical drop. Takes three lifts to get to the top, and the views on the way down are beyond awesome. The leaf zones are much quieter and slower-paced than Sellaronda, no lines, no crowds, no insane determination to finish the loop in one day, just endless snow and views in peace.

Last time we've been there we rented an apartment in Arabba - cheaper both to stay and eat, this time due to smaller numbers we picked a hotel in Alba with half board in walking distance from two lifts. One lift goes straight to Sellaronda, so it's easy to take a make a circular day trip, if so inclined, or just "connect" to nearby places of interests like Arabba or Marmolada. One can't ski down from Sellaronda back to Alba - the same lift has to be taken. On the other side of the road by the hotel is a lift going to one of the leaf zones - Ciampac with terrain ranging from 4300' to 7900'. The red cluster of trails going to another place Pozza Di Fassa don't feel like red at all. If my memory doesn't fail me, they're all pretty blue with the emphasis on pretty. To get back to Alba one would need to ski down from 6900' to 4500' under the lift on a black trail, and my memories of that exercise in the afternoon are far from fond.

So here we stand, with passes paid for, skis reserved, hotel awaiting, ready to leave on the most ski-hostile airline ever, Emirates. While they do allow checking in multiple bags for free, for some reason they don't recognize that skis can sometimes be longer than 150cm. But nothing to complain about for $450 RT. And thanks to them I'll be on Stockli Laser AX for days to come.

[saltyant]

I didnt even read this yet but I already wish there was a Love x 10 button. Way to get after it!

[toast21602]

Have fun abs be safe! Don’t be a jerry... post some stoke-worthy pictures! 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

1 hour ago, saltyant said:

I didnt even read this yet but I already wish there was a Love x 10 button. Way to get after it!

Salty not too late to cancel Colorado and tag along.  There’s so many Jerry’s there they might not even notice you.  

[eaf]

58 minutes ago, toast21602 said:

Have fun abs be safe! Don’t be a jerry... post some stoke-worthy pictures! 

Thanks for the wishes. Partly having seen some evacs in the past, partly due to smaller group numbers, this time I'm leaving with some extra medical trip insurance.

Btw, another extra that's needed on the road is this.

Edited February 1, 2019 by eaf

[NMSKI]

Very cool Eaf! I’m gonna need to re-read a couple times so I can digest those maps. Lots going on there.

I do cycling trainer workouts climbing Passo pordoi and Campolongo and it some beautiful scenery around there.

Post a lot of pics!

[Shadows]

Awesome dude. Scope of this looks wild

[eaf]

It took a flight in a 30% full two-story A380 (awesome dinner, btw), 40mins of wait in line at passport control, 4 hours of driving on autostradas with incredibly "straightforward" in-between navigation, to finally get to where snow is. It was rapidly getting dark, but I think it's quite clear that there was some serious snowfall lately.

[toast21602]

Reminds me of Jim Thorpe. 

[theprogram4]

Eaf that looks amazing.  I need to set aside an hour of my time just to study those trail maps 

[eaf]

People are saying about a foot fell yesterday...

[eaf]

Yeah, there's tons of new snow everywhere. Last time I've been here, off piste snow was only in select high elevation areas. Now it's basically all white, no matter where you are.

Sunny all day. People on the lifts in the morning were talking about yesterday snowfall horrors with moguls THIS big. Well, today the groomers lasted until about noon, right when I got to Marmolada area. They still couldn't open the very top segment, but snowfall and clear skies attracted way too many people to that area. They trashed the soft groomers, and made lines unbearable. I guess, this is understandable given that often there is either fog, snow or wind on top, and today it was beautiful. Everywhere else where I went lines were non existent.

Tons of off piste skiing opportunities today. Tons of avalanche warning signs as well, and personally I thing people were often skiing borderline crazy, esp in that Marmolada area.

8:20 to 4, I'm totally beat today. I'll need to stick to peripheral zones tomorrow. They're much less trafficked, and snow stays good all day long.

[eaf]

[Shadows]

Pics are dope. Glad your posting them 

[Barb]

Great pictures. 

[RidgeRacer]

Agreed. Pics are amazing dude

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Nice were the Stocklis wide enough for the untracked powder??

[Shadows]

26 minutes ago, Shadows said:

Pics are dope. Glad your posting them 

Yooooor

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

32 minutes ago, Shadows said:

Yooooor

He’s in yurp

[phillycore]

Wow.

This is pretty sick...



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

I like the picture of Heidi. 

[toast21602]

Awesome pictures! Get some action shots take that pow to shred city! 

[Schif]

Absolutely nuts pictures. Amazing. Jealous to the Nth degree

[eaf]

21 hours ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

Nice were the Stocklis wide enough for the untracked powder??

No, Stocklies sucked. At least in the Marmolada area. They're only 78mm, and once I went out, it was very difficult to make them float. Got to the knees in one place and bailed out. Could be my first skills too. Today was better, for I generally stayed lower, and the snow compacted a little. Still very powdery with no crust on top.

Stocklies were really nice on the groomers though. I like them because they can easily do all I need: carve when it's carvable and do the bumps on busy reds in the evening. A perfect balance one would say, but being universal they don't do any given thing perfectly. E.g. there is little pop when carving. My Monsters costing 3 times less than Stocklies are much more energetic. They almost propel you from turn to turn. I hate them in rough snow however. Stocklies carve nicely, hold the edge, support the weight in turns, are stable, but somehow do not deliver the excitement. Still a nicely balanced groomer.

[eaf]

So, today was fun...

Having seen how rough the trails can get on the main loop, I figured I would get to another leaf zone, Alta-Badia while the groomers were still good, ski it to death and then would suffer a little on the way back. Alta-Badia is like on the opposite side of Sellaronda, a little closer if you do the circle counterclockwise, the map shows 17km of combined trails and lifts if you don't sidetrack.

I have no idea how long it would take to get there straight, as fast as possible, and I simply couldn't make myself do it because all areas on the way there were very decent this morning, groomed, wide, fast, and I was just making too many detours including stops at slope cafes...

SoI got to the edge of Alta-Badia only around 11 or so, quickly went in a couple of times to feel things up, but generally stayed on the circular route and even had lunch in a familiar place there. Too bad my memory failed me, and lunch actually wasn't a bargain at all.

Bottom line is that at 13:30 I was ready to go in and do some discovering. I've never been to Alta-Badia, so didn't quite know what to expect.

The first blue trail after the ridge ran and ran, I thought it would never end. Probably 5-7km one way. Once I stopped at the fork and didn't like what I saw at all. One of the branches had signs for rope lifts and busses. And making bus connections wasn't in my plans at all.

So I took the other side, finally got to the bottom and noticed a single gondola lift. Yay. Problem was that it was not going to where I came from but instead was somewhere to the side. Like 90 degrees to the side.

And it wasn't just one problem. The second one was that signs at the lift weren't familiar at all. And generally one can ski around here by just consulting the signs, they typically mention one or two adjacent towns along Sellaronda or even just point directly where to go to ski it clockwise or counterclockwise. Here not a single name was familiar, and I've crossed the entire Alta-Badia apparently.

So I took that only available lift up, and tried reading the actual map. The entire area looked like an enormous basin with trails and lifts scattered around with no system, like a giant mesh. The problem was that in order to find your way through the mesh one would need to know not only how things are connected here, but also relative altitudes, for you cannot take a trail up, and a lift down. Altitudes were marked, but still understanding the layout was a real pain.

So I took what I thought was the right trail, 28, and half way down realized that I'm somehow on 11, and it's taking me back to the bottom of that gondola lift, the farthest side from Sellaronda. Time was around 2:45, and I started to get nervous, for the closure time for my home lift was 5, and some less significant lifts on the way I knew were closing at 4:30-45.

Luckily, the entire Dolomites area is covered by an app, and I even took time at home to download offline maps into my phone. I've never used the routing feature before, and it took some time getting used to it. I plotted a path to Arabba, approximately half way home, the app showed scary 11km of distance to cover, but at least all the guesswork was eliminated.

Some time after I got back to Sellaronda with its bumpy reds, then to Arabba area, and the time was already like 4. I desperately needed to get out Arabba and cross the ridge so that even if my home lift closed by the time I got there (there is no skiing down to Alba), I would at least go down to Canazei and take a bus from there.

In short, I was rushing. I was flying those moguls like I've never done before. Crowds were receding, and it was helpful. Also because I spent most of the day today avoiding crowdy and rough areas, I was still not too tired, and it was helping a lot.

I've got to the last lift 20 mins prior to closing. Phew.

Funny thing is that in the end I don't know what to think about Alta-Badia. Snow there was definitely awesome, very easy skiing, but unfortunately predominantly easy terrain. A nice place to escape to, ideal when you're with kids,but skiing it all day would be boring, I'm afraid.