Drove down to Innsbruck on the Friday, and met up with the others who'd arrived by car from NL, by plane from UK, and by train from Switzerland. Dined at the Stiftskeller, which was very good food for reasonable prices. Then it was off to Arabba first thing in the morning for a good half day skiing (which was very very cold).
Day 2 was off to the Hidden Valley and Cinque Torri. Needed a bus between the 2 since the usual ski run was closed. Shame it was a bit cloudy, since it hid the views.
Day 3 was an easy day out in the blue runs between Campolongo and San Cassiano.
Day 4 was a powder day, so we did a Sella Ronda orange/clockwise loop. Fantastic day out!
Day 5 was a bumpy mogulled bluebird day out to Selva and Ortisei, taking in the Val Gardena World Cup DH run.
Day 6 was the Marmolada day. Apparently it had been carnage the day before, but today, we just skied straight to Malga Ciapela, and got straight on the 1st cable car (of 3) without any queues. That was a first! The run down was excellent, grippy snow, and hardly any people :)
In the afternoon, it was time to play about on some Big Foot "skis" and snowblades. They certainly cannot be taken seriously, but are a laugh for a couple of hours one afternoon.
Day 7 Was a trip out to La Villa, taking in the Alta Badia World Cup GS run. At the top of Piz la Ila were some impressive ice sculptures.
Eventually went to Santa Croce for lunch. That's a 200m walk just beyond the end of the last lift on the piste map, but well worth it for the views.
Day 8 was snowing a bit again, and the last day, so we just went up and down the Portovescovo black runs a few times, then back to the Corvara side for some nice easy blues down through the trees, before heading back to Innsbruck.
Final Stats for the week were a bit down on last year, but the powder day, the blades and late starts didn't really help there:
130 lifts, 46336m vertical, 245km estimated slope length
The other pictures can be found here.
