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.

Photo Every Week 2011

Didn't manage to complete the 2011 Photo-a-Day challenge after the 2010 success, so fell back to just one photo every week. Here are my 12 favourites for each month.

Jan: Innsbruck

Feb: Dolomites

Mar: Perigee Moon

Apr: Blackbird

May: Sunset

Jun: Bike and Logs

Jul: Rocks

Aug: Loch Morlich

Sep: Forest Art

Oct: Sunset

Nov: U-Boat

Dec: Purple

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...

MTB Odenwald

Thought I'd explore a bit further than my usual loop up to Burg Frankenstein. So went down the other side of the hill and up to the castle on the next hill over. Nice rooty single track on the way, which ends at an 8-way junction.

Tannenburg is more ruins than a real castle, and it seems there's many ways to get up there.

Nice view of the next hill too, which is the highest in the area.

Then on the way back, scaled the climb up to Burg Frankenstein again. So all in all a little hillier than I normally ride, but I really ought to be riding more hills to keep fit.

IRW 2011

Once again, it was already time for the annual rocketry pilgrimage to Scotland for the International Rocket Week. This time the basecamp had moved again to a Scout Camp just outside Paisley. Of all the places we've been, I think this was probably the best. A hut with 4 walls and heating, camping at acceptable rates, although the drive to Fairlie Moor was a bit longer.

As a bonus, this year we had a couple of the guys from the Register visit so that we could thrash out some ideas for the LOHAN project. They kindly wrote an article about the IRW too :)

The first day was no flying, just a few aquajet water rockets on the Scout Camp. Day 2 saw us arrive at Fairlie Moor *in* the clouds, but eventually the clouds went and left us in sunshine. Flew the Qubit on a D12, since I'd prepped it for the day before, but the dog trainers at the scoutcamp weren't so happy with the pyro flights. Then it was to Nardini's in Largs for Pizza :)

Day 3 saw us launch from near the picnic site, since there was still a beehive near the usual HPR site. Lobbed a VB Extreme rather quickly on an E30, and the Art Applewhite Saucer on a D12.

Day 4 saw us back at the usual HPR pad location, since the beehive had been moved.

Day 5 I lobbed both the Qubit and Saucer on D12's. The main spectacle of the day was Jonathan Rhodes' L3 cert which kicked its motor out mid-flight, and Sean o'Niell's M hybrid, which also suffered a major failure mid-flight. Oh and the Turkish guy's L2 flight which lost all 4 of its fins during boost.

Day 6 was no flying, since the wind was too high. A few people did fly some kites though.

More Pics Here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/104347553800437592244/IRW2011