Skiing in Kronplatz

For a change, instead of my usual trip to Arabba for the Snowheads Birthday Bash, I decided to go on the pre-Birthday Bash the week before, in Kronplatz. That was an area I'd been meaning to try for some time, and this year that wish came true. It's an interesting area, also on the same Dolomiti Superski pass as the main Sella Ronda, and also with a bus link from just outside the hotel (well 2 min walk) up to Alta Badia. So we made use of that bus and some cars to ski some Sella Ronda parts, plus spend more time up at Cinque Torre and the Hidden Valley than we would normally do from Arabba. The main Kronplatz area is very deceptive, with the top to bottom runs much longer than you would expect from the piste map.

Some nice ice sculptures in the Kronplatz area...

My first trip to Marmolada for a while. It's quite an ascent to get up there, with 3 end to end cable cars, and about 1 mile vertical.

But stunning views down on to the Sella massif...

Chris, Amily, Jamie, Graham, Ronald, and the 3rd of 3 consecutive cable cars in the background...

For once, the hidden valley was not hidden. Last time I skied it, it was all murk and no views. Lovely run down though, with a couple of ace rifugios for lunch near the bottom, and a horse+sleigh tow back to Armentarola.

Arabba - Too Much Snow!!!

My 6th time to the Dolomites skiing, again for the annual snowHeads Birthday Bash pilgrimage, but this time for the 10th birthday! Time flies.

This time was complete carnage. Too much snow, on top of already big snow falls meant that the pass in to and out of Arabba was officially closed. Needed to use snow chains for the first time in several years. And approximately 80% of the people didn't even arrive in Arabba, so had to be put up in hotels in Alleghe and Caprile. Some made it through later in the week, but most didn't.

The first day was no skiing, so basically walking around the village taking photos of snow. Lots of it.

Day 2: No lifts running in Arabba, but they were elsewhere. Arabba really did get much more snow than other villages in the area. So those of us in Arabba made use of available cars, hotel minibus etc. and drove up to Passo Campolongo, where we could ski from. Was a relatively easy day over to San Cassiano and back, with lunch in Ütia Las Vegas. Knowing that we might get stuck on the wrong side of the pass, we had all packed overnight bags. We didn't expect we'd need them, but with avalanche level 5, at night, with that much snow that the sides of the road were collapsing in, there was no way the carabinieri would let us back to Arabba. Fortunately we'd arranged apartments right by the roadblock, that were owned by the hotel we were supposed to be staying in.

Day 3: Since we were at Passo Campolongo, we just skied out from there. Then after 2 pistes, got the call that there was to be a couple of escorted convoys thru the pass. We raced back, but missed the convoy. Alpine security let us and a couple of cars through, and a convoy came the other way, but the carabinieri at the bottom road block were not happy! Sod 'em. We were thru the pass, and they were hardly going to send us back!

Day 4: Finally, 1 lifts and 1 piste opened, but still not linked to Passo Campolongo. Only one thing for it... loop the Burz chairlift and piste back to Arabba all day. I managed 17 laps, but some managed more. Made good use of the new Burz rifugio, and a load of us trekked up the piste to Plan Boè for apres drinks.

Day 5: They finally managed to open enough lifts and pistes to link Arabba to the Sella Ronda, at least in the Corvara direction, although still closed in the Marmolada and Canazei directions. So 3 of us did half a Sella Ronda loop to Selva / Val Gardena, and returned the same way with a diversion in to the Edelweiss valley. It was there, just after getting off the gondola, that we witnessed an avalanche in real time. It was on the other side of the valley, but no danger to us although it looked like it was heading for a drag lift down in the valley we were about to ski in to.

Day 6: Last day. They finally managed to open the links in the Canazei direction. Marmolada still closed, and most of that shut for the season, after an avalanche took out 1 chairlift and 1 draglift. So we did a Sella Ronda clockwise, using the traditional easier route. The run down thru the trees to Selva / Val Gardena from Campitello side are actually pretty good.

All the photos can be found here.

Skiing in the Dolomites (again)

Once more it was off to Arabba for the annual snowHeads Birthday Bash pilgrimage to the Dolomites. My 5th time there, and similar to previous years, I drove down and stayed in Innsbruck, before driving the last 2 hours on arrival day and managing to get in a few hours on the slopes before most of the others turned up.

Day 1 was just a few lifts and runs over to Corvara on arrival day.

Day 2 was the first of 3 trips over to Santa Croce. Went down the Red to La Villa, instead of the Alta Badia Gran Risa WC GS course this time. As usual, the scenery was stunning.

Day 3 was the first of a few long hard days. Skied with Ronald et al mostly on Race Slalom skis over to Pozza di Fassa. Every time I'd been the Alba, the link over to Pozza had been closed due to weather, so this was new Dolomites territory for me. GPS stats said about 97km all in (52km skied) - would have been nice to hit the 100km.

See the route on endomondo.

Day 4 was a nice easy relaxed Sella Ronda orange (clockwise) loop.

Day 5 again ended up as a nice easy relaxed day out to Santa Croce again.

Day 6 was another long fast day with the guys on Race Slalom skis again, also venturing in to new territory for me. This time was rush round the Sella Ronda orange, down the Saslong Val Gardena WC DH in to Santa Cristina, then up to Seceda, speed down the long (10km?) run to Ortisei. There we grabbed a quick taxi ride across town to the Seiseralm lifts, then did the Seiseralm / Alpe di Siusi loop before grabbing the bus to Monte Pana. This then links back in to the Sella Ronda. A couple of black runs on Portovescovo before being chased off the mountain by piste patrol finished the day off nicely. Oh and checked off the 100km in a day too :) (just over 60km skied, total GPS distance of 106km, and 29 lifts).

See the route on endomondo.

Day 7 skied mostly with Ronald, basically playing in the Edelweiss Valley practising 1 foot skiing on the wrong (ie little toe) edge of the skis, then headed over to Selva to play on the Val Gardena WC DH run again.

Day 8 was the last day, again with Ronald and Degage we headed over to Santa Croce one last time before heading back to Innsbruck in the afternoon.

All the photos can be found here.

Skiing Tignes (2nd try)

About the same time last year, I visited Tignes for the first time, as part of the snowHeads Pre-Season Bash. Back then the place was basically grass everywhere, except for the glacier, and the "Double-M" red run down to the Valley, and that was largely man-made and icy snow-cannon snow.

Originally I had thought about visiting Meribel for a ski clinic, but decided to return to Tignes, again on the snowHeads PSB. This time it paid off. It basically snowed all week, and significant numbers of runs were open, although some lifts closed from time to time due to wind etc.

I put my name down for a handful of lessons too, since I'd not been on any for a few years. 1 Moguls/Bumps clinic, and 3 group lessons for mainly piste performance. Glad I did - lots of things to practice on the next bash in February (and a private weekend in January).

Eventually (ie Thursday), the Sun did start to make a brief appearance. The powder was rather epic, and it was time to make best use of the visibility.

And then it became nearly a bluebird day.

There'd better be a PSB next year! I'm going back!

All skiing pics for 2012-2013 are here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/104347553800437592244/SHSkiing20122013

Ski Amade

So it's the end of October, Graham says he has 2 days of leave to use up, then Nicky says "ditto", and then well so do I.  Thought that would be the end of it, but within a few days we'd booked a trip to Radstadt in Austria to sneak in a quick warm-up ski trip before the snowHeads Pre-Season Bash, with Pete, Jamie and another Graham along for good measure.

I sussed out that there's a train direct from Darmstadt to Radstadt, once per day, so booked that on bahn.de there and then.  Rather convenient being able to get to a ski resort with no changes, no airport carriage charges and no autobahn jams.

We stayed at Haus Susanne run by even more snowHeads, where some of the others had stayed previously, in winter and summer. From there the best option, given that it was still November, was to drive 15 minutes up to Obertauern for the skiing.

The rental car, brand new, blacked out windows, 7speed automatic, full screen satnav:

The crew - Graham, Jamie, Pete, Nicky, who's hiding behind Angela, and Graham:

And proof that Austria is not too low to snow:

All skiing pics for 2012-2013 are here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/104347553800437592244/SHSkiing20122013

Skiing in the Dolomites (again)

I had said I wanted to do something different this year, instead of the Dolomites, but ended up in Tignes for a pre-season bash. This meant I could go somewhere new *and* have a trip to the Dolomites on the usual snowHeads bash :)

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.

Skiing Tignes

I've never been to Tignes before, believe it or not. So it was good to be able to get there as part of another snowHeads bash. There had been a bit of a snow drought pre-season across most of Europe, but somehow the pisteurs had managed to keep the Grande Motte glacier in perfect order and had somehow conjured up a perfectly usable "Double M" piste back down to Val Claret.

Most of the week was blue skies and no clouds, but the final day was a bit snowy. Was good to lay a few fresh tracks before heading home.

The journey back was fun. The bus was late, then the bus turned up in a carpark up the hill, so we all traipsed up there with skis, bags, etc. Then it turned up at the airport less than 1hour before my plane was taking off! No idea how a coachload of people got checked in, bags dropped and thru to the gate in time, but afaik, we all did.

So just a few more weeks until the 2nd trip of the season...

Skiing in the Dolomites (again)

After a week in Campitello in 2009, and a week in Arabba in 2010, it was time for another week in Arabba in 2011, with the same snowHeads bunch. Of the attendees in 2009, all but one was on the 2010 trip, and again all but one on the 2011 trip, but now with many many more additional attendees, such is it's popularity!

On Friday, drove down to Innsbruck after work to meet up with Talltone, Masque, Degage and HarrisontheRabbit, who'd driven from the UK! Then we all drove on to Arabba in the morning. Talltone and I were on the piste by lunchtime for a good half day skiing.

This was the first proper test of my new K2 Rictor skis, although I'd skied them for 2 days in Austria a few weeks prior. Nice skis. They may be "All Mountain", but they still go quickly on piste, and edge to edge is pretty impressive too.

Sun
The first day was an easy ski out to San Cassiano and La Villa with a group of about 10 (mostly) 1st time birthday bashers. So it was basically me that did the guiding.

Mon
After an easy first day or so, it was time to get a bit more adventurous. So I joined SteveM, BFG and JK on a trip up to Marmolada to do the 1 mile vertical triple cable car ride followed by 1 mile vertical red run back down. It definitely is a lot better if you go reasonably early. Less queue, less crowds and less cut-up piste. Then we headed back and did a complete Sella Ronda orange (clockwise) circuit.

Tues
Another long-ish day with SteveM and BFG, but this time we headed out to Santa Cristina and did the long 10km run down in to Ortisei. Brilliant run.

Wed
A slow day playing around between Arabba, Corvara and Selva. Followed by dinner on the mountain, and skiing back down to Arabba with LED lights.

Thu
Went for another Sella Ronda green (anti-clockwise) circuit with Surfski, Lynn, et al. Stopped off in Colfosco to find a geocache with Surfski. Bumped in to a German guy just afterwards, who was also looking for the cache.

Sella Ronda (anticlockwise) at EveryTrail

Fri
Last day with most of the snowHeads. Went caching with Surfski again to find 2 caches in Corvara. Found 1 OK, but the other was MIA. Then we headed over to La Villa and then Santa Croce to meet up with another group for lunch, and then skied back.

Sat
Since we knew there'd be massive traffic on the road out of the Sella Ronda down to the Autostrada, and there was no real rush back, the 5 of us that drove down (plus Mike Rainman) decided to get a crafty bonus half day on the piste. So we skiied over to Canazei, caught the bus 5 minutes along the valley to Alba to play around on empty pistes for a few hours, then skied back. After that it was the loooooong drive home with a stop-over at Bregenz.

Can't wait to go back again!

Stats for the week were (after adjusting for final run of the day to Arabba):

• 148 lifts
• 49334 vertical metres
• 277km slope length estimation

Pictures can be seen here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/andysrockets/SHBB2011Arabba

Skiing in the Dolomites (again)

After last year's Snowheads bash in the Dolomites, there was no way I was going to miss the opportunity to return. The scenery is stunning, and the snow fantastic. Last year we stayed in Campitello di Fassa, but this year we stayed 1 pass further east in Arabba.

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

Skiing in Sölden

First skiing trip of the season was an intermediate/advanced coaching clinic courtesy of Scott and Rob from Inside Out Skiing. Sölden (Austria) was chosen because of it's reasonably high altitude and 2 glaciers to ski on in the very early part of the ski season.

The plan was for this to be a Piste Performance clinic, but since it dumped it with snow after 1 day, it morphed into an off-piste clinic too. So we managed to do a little bit of everything from GS carving to Powder to Crud within the week.

It was a fantastic week, fantastic snow, and a great bunch of people to ski with. Can't wait for the next ski trip (Snowheads bash in the Dolomites again, hopefully), and maybe a return to Sölden for another coaching clinic next year!

Pics can be seen here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/andysrockets/SHTrainingBashSolden

Skiing in the Dolomites

Wow - what a week! The Dolomites are simply stunning scenery!
Stayed in Campitello on the snowHeads 5th Birthday Bash, but the Sella Ronda area is so well linked and signposted that we easily managed to ski Campitello, Canazei, Arabba, Corvara, Selva, Ortisei as well as Alba, Malga Ciapella / Marmalada all within the week and all on one (very pricy) lift pass.

On 4th Feb, we (Talltone, Whitenoise and The Duke) skied the Sella Ronda (green/anticlockwise) loop, which is where the above pic was taken (near Colfosco I think).
On 5th Feb, a whole load of us skied via Arabba, over to Malga Ciapella, and did the 1 mile vertical in 3 end-to-end cable cars.
Anyway, final stats for the week according to the nifty online liftpass checker thing were:

• Nr of Lifts: 104
• Height difference:33,792m
• Slopes length estimation: 177 Km
• Nr of wipeouts: approx 3
• Nr of beers: many
• Nr of Bombardinos: just the 1

Can't wait to go back...

Skiing in Wengen

Would you go on holiday with a group of ski geeks from the internet that you've never met? I did, and it was probably the best ski holiday I've ever had!

The snowHeads Mid Season Bash was in Wengen, Switzerland again in March. The snow was not bad, although it did rain mid-week, so a bunch of us decided to walk down to Lauterbrunnen, along the valley, and then up to Mürren and back by train/cablecar.
The highlight of the week was the slalom race on the top section of the famous Lauberhorn world cup circuit. I didn't crash on either run, but did come close on the 2nd run! My final times were right in the middle of about 40 people, which was not bad for a rookie.

Back of the Lauberhorn Start Hut before the race

After an excellent week, and meeting a great bunch of fellow skiers, I cannot wait for the next bash!

Skiing in Zillertal Arena

My first ski holiday of the year was a weekend in Zell am Ziller, in Austria, in January. Snowed all day on the Saturday, and was glorious sunshine all day on the Sunday. What I cannot wait for is my main ski vacation in Wengen, Switzerland in March.

Next trip is the snowHeads MSB 2008 :)