Corvara (Dolomites) Trip Report - March 14-21st 2015

A snowHead

Corvara March 14-21st Trip Report

Travel Details:

Flew from London to Innsbruck on a Friday and stayed overnight. In morning caught train to Brenner and then changed for train to Fortezza. Changed again for train to San Lorezno and then caught a local bus (right outside the station) to Corvara. Very easy and cheap way to do the transfer, though I didn’t have any skis to carry which made it easier. Return from Corvara was via coach with Cortina express and took us all the way to Venice airport. Nice straightforward transfer with a spectacular drive through the winter wonderland which was the Falzarego and Valparola passes

Hotel:

Stayed in the La Plaza hotel which is a decent 3 star hotel in the main street near to the junction for the road to Colfosco and Gardena pass. A 5 to 10 minute walk takes you up a hill to the top part of the village to the supermarket and the Col Alto gondola. You can cut through the side and back of the hotel to a road that will take you to the Borest and Boe gondolas. Again this takes between 5 and 10 minutes. Otherwise the ski bus stop is nearby outside the Hotel Italia. Ski bus pass was given to us for free by the hotel. From the Col Alto gondola you could ski back to the Villa Eden hotel and then cross the road back to the La Plaza hotel.

Village Amenities:

First of all the ski bus; this bus does a loop round the village and essentially goes up the main road thro the village with bus stops at the Hotel Italia and at the supermarket and Kostner sport shop from where you alight to walk to the Col Alto gondola. The bus then continues to stop at the Boe/Borest gondolas. When returning be aware the bus first of all goes up to the Sassongher hotel, then waits a few minutes and then returns back to the main street and so on. Thus your return journey will be longer for sure. Much quicker to walk or ski back if you are staying anywhere around the Col Alto, Italia, L’Table, La Plaza, Villa Eden hotels or any other place in the main street. Already mentioned there is a decent size supermarket. Also several ski hire shops and a couple of chemists. All the bars we drank at in the evening were hotel based. Favourites were the lobby bar and ice bar at the Col Alto hotel and the café bar in the L’Table hotel. Didn’t eat anything at any village café or restaurant (apart from our hotel) so can’t comment on good food places. The ski school and lift pass office were both at and next to the Boe gondola.

Promotion week:

Just to point out we took advantage of staying in the spring sun promotion period where you get a free nights accommodation, free day on your lift pass and five hours private lessons for the price of four. Excellent deal though for next year this promotion starts a week later (shame)

Lifts:

Col alto gondola goes up to the ski area above and between the villages of San Cassiano, La Villa and Corvara. Borest gondola takes you to the local slopes of Colfosco and then via a chair and gondola to the Gardena pass (this is the anti clockwise Sella Ronda route). The Boe gondola takes you on the clockwise Sella Ronda route towards Arraba. Didn’t come across any queues for any gondola though the Boe one was the busiest but only first thing in the morning.

Crowds:

Very quiet on the local Colfosco slopes and the area above Corvara shared with La Villa/San Cassiano. Only slightly busy slope was the blue thro Colfosco coming from the Gardena pass (which is part of the Sella Ronda route). But overall I found it very quiet.

Slopes:

Well the local Colfosco slopes including the blue 40 and 40A from the mid way Plans Gondola station are nice and easy and absolutely perfect for beginners or anyone wanting to practice on easy blue runs. There were very few people on these slopes apart from the thro traffic on the Sella ronda route but most were taking the blue 40 run. You could instead use the blue 40A which was quieter.

In the other ski area above Corvara (shared with La Villa/San Cassiano) the slopes were mostly blue in gradient with a few reds dotted about. Now I will say that the blues in this area are mostly easy but some of them do have quite steep sections which can be daunting to some beginners and nervous second/third time skiers. These sections are not only quite steep but were also pretty cut up with piles of snow all over the place. I saw quite a few people struggle and fall on these sections. The worst ones were blue 8 just past the La baita hut and blue 14 below L Tabla hut. Blue 8 from Pralongia to La baita also has two steeper sections, though the second one just before La baita itself is fairly short. The cut through blue 8A to slope 8 is also a steep cut up section. Blue 5 from Arlara restaurant has several quite steep sections as well though the snow wasn’t as cut up on this route and the route is quieter than blue 8. Both blue 8 and blue 5 are your two ways back to Corvara from this ski area. You can not take the Col Alto gondola down again once you have skied into the main ski area from the top gondola station.

My favourite runs in this ski area were the blue 6 from la brancia to La baita (though some polling was involved), blue 7 from Bioch to La Baita and blue 5B. Didn’t get to do any of the runs to San Cassiano which I’m saving to do next year.

Lifts:

Mostly good lifts in the area. They could do with getting rid of the long Capanna nera, Pralongia I and Incisa drags though. These are too long for a drag lift in my opinion. Otherwise the lifts were fine

Mountain huts:

Lots of lovely mountain huts dotted about. I particularly liked La baita (friendly service and apre’s from 03:30), L table (Friendly service), Bioch (for the views) and La Para (for the location and quietness of it). Cappana Nera hut was always packed at the end of the day. Prices in all the huts were similar to each other and were on average 4.80 Euro for a large beer or 5.00 Euro for large weissbeer. Didn’t have any food in any hut as I just wasn’t hungry daytime.

Scenery:

Nothing but spectacular wherever you looked. Particularly loved the views from Jimmy hut just above the Gardena pass and from Pralongia and Bioch huts. The scenery in the ski area itself was just magical especially after the snowfall on the Monday.

Weather:

Cloudy day on Saturday when we arrived with light snow overnight. Cloudy again on Sunday and then light snow all day on Monday, Hazy on Tuesday and then the sun came out for the last three days. Had about 10 cm of fresh snow in the main ski area on the Monday which made it all look magical. Snow didn’t settle for long in the village itself though

Piste conditions:

Well overall I found the pistes in good shape especially after the snowfall on Monday. Only icy section I saw was on one side of the blue run below the Sodlisia chair in Colfosco and that was only on the last day when the temperatures began to warm up. Have already mentioned some of the sections where the snow was pretty cut up and piled all over the place. The initial section below the Plans gondola mid station was pretty bad a lot of the time but the rest of the Colfosco slopes were absolutely fine. Above Corvara another section that was pretty cut up was where the blue alternate route joins the red slope when you ski down from the top of the Col Alto gondola. All the other slopes in this area (apart from the steep sections) were absolutely fine and the snow was mostly grippy.

Après & Nightlife:

Seemed like most people were having their ape’s ski in the Capanna nera hut just above Corvara. Otherwise the main Apre’s was at the L’Murin barn beside the La Perla hotel. Not the best apres I have experienced but certainly not the worst. Prices were fairly reasonable and it is in a wonderful location. There is a small igloo bar next to the Borest gondola station but there wasn’t that much action in here though the prices were good. Nightlife in the evenings was mainly non-existent. Most popular bar was the ice bar at the Col Alto hotel though this seemed to be mostly locals.

Overall:

Excellent trip and already planning next years to the same place. Would be hard to criticise anything really. If I did then it would just be picky so I’m not going to. Thoroughly recommend the area to anyone but I don’t think I would go any later than the third week in march. The sun was already starting to decimate the snow on the hillsides and in the villages themselves and apart from on the mountain itself, it didn’t look much like a winter wonderland. Happy to answer any questions. Apologies for the length of the report

A snowHead

@jimmybog, Great report on that little bit of skiing paradise.

That DIY transfer from INN sounds quite adventurous - may I ask how long that took?

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Great report. we get lots of questions about Corvara..will try and remember to point folk to this

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Just booked my flights to Innsbruck with easyjet, and Col Alto hotel for half term 2016 , cant wait!

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@jimmybog, very useful report - details about things like ski busses are invaluable. Glad you had a good time. Beautiful, isn't it?

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@jimmybog, Thanks - very interesting and useful. My coach transfer (on a busy Saturday) took 3.75 hours to Arabba recently so not much different

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Corvara (Dolomites) Trip Report - March 14-21st 2015

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