Drove down in the snow Friday night, collecting Talltone from Munich Airport, and then onwards to Innsbruck where we stayed over until Saturday morning. The other guys were arriving at Innsbruck from Gatwick and Manchester, although the Manchester flight was diverted to Munich after an aborted landing due to weather. They all eventually arrived a few hours after us.
Sunday was an easy day, to get the legs working, and to check out a new pair of Salomon GS Race skis. So a few of us headed over towards Corvara and San Cassiano to play around on some mostly blue runs.
Monday was a day to push the skis a bit more, so another group of us did the 40km anti-clockwise Sella Ronda circuit.
Tuesday was the first day to ski over to Malga Ciapella and take the 3 end-to-end cable cars up to Marmolada, just over 1 mile higher. The view up there is amazing, and seriously recommended.
On Wednesday a group started the Sella Ronda clockwise circuit early, but I decided to have a late start. Eventually, 2 of us decided that as we were both on GS race skis, we could chase them down and catch them up by late morning coffee break. It turned out that we actually beat them to the coffee bar by 5 minutes, even though we were doing the same route! Then all of us took a diversion from the circuit to visit Santa Christina, which involves a snazzy funicular, a gondola and then a chairlift. The area is brilliant, and the 1st pizzeria from the top of the mountain was the best pizza I've had outside of Rome/Frascati. After that, we finished the circuit at rifugio Plan Boè, where the entire group met for dinner, followed by a torch-lit night ski back down in to town.
Thursday was another easy morning, but then 3 of us decided to squeeze in another trip up to the top of Marmolada. This was the fastest descent I've made from there, which is extremely tiring due to the lower oxygen levels at altitude.
Friday was the last day, so a few of us just headed back over to Corvara to play around in the powder snow that had fallen overnight. Visibility was a bit poor, but the snow was superb.
Can't wait to go back to the Dolomites again next year!
Pictures are here...
http://picasaweb.google.com/andysrockets/SHBB2010Arabba
