La Villa help

A snowHead

Hello there! So I think I have decided on a place in La Villa. The apartment is close to the Doninz lift. My question is, how do I get from the Doninz lift to the Piz La LLa gondola to access Alta Badia? I've downloaded the 3D map and it looks like you have to cross a road? or can you ski directly to the Gondola or is there another way I missing?

A snowHead

Another quick one, if we ski to colfosco, on our return, how do we get off the Borest to the Col Alto? Or is this 3D route planner not the best? https://gyazo.com/6a909c81579c0e7794514c410c0b76f2

Also it suggests the Red Altin (17) how steep is this for a nervy blue skier?

Also with being a nervy blue skier, does this mean the only places we will be able to visit are San Cassiano (depending on how steep the red is to it), Colfosco and Corvara? or are there any other places we need to go to? I've been skiing 20 years but I am one of those who just don't do reds lol

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From the top of the Doninz lift, ski down a path that takes you to a 2-way chair (Colz, apparently) that crosses the road to the Piz La Ila car park (then it's 50m walk/skate thru the car park to the gondola).

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ah that makes sense from the pictures, thanks @andy,

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

From Borest, cross over the flat bit to the Costes de l'Ega chair, go up that, slide down a green/white path to Col Alt gondola (make sure you turn off else you end up at the bottom again)

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I'm feeling a bit sad I am already planning our daily routes lool but I like to cover distance and need to know I can do them on blue or very easy reds. What are Bamby 1 and Bamby 2 in terms of difficulty? Also what is:
a)The longest blue run
b)the prettiest run in Alta Badia that I should not miss

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@polo99, to get onto Col Alt from Borest you take the short chair 29 up (costes da l'ega) then turn left back on yourself, then quickly turn right to go under road and then cross another small road to get to the base of Col Alt.

A short walk with a bit of uphill from Borest to chair 29.

I don't think you need red to get to san Cassiano, take blue 11 which is generally lovely.

Plenty of blues to ski in that pralongia area.

After all it is free

Sorry for all the questions.
If we wanted to visit Arraba, how difficult is either the 24 (Savine) or 27 (Bec de Roces) down? Also the return from Arraba to La Villa, is there an alternative to miss out the 1 (Boe)

24 (Savine) or 27 (Bec de Roces) as always it depends on the conditions, I'd say that 27 is easier, 24 is marked as a black on some maps.

Last week it was good in the morning. Both were tough, 24 particularly, at the end of the day moguled and icy, but by then you would be going the other way.

Having enjoyed the long red 1, I couldn't tell you if there was another route, but I'm sure someone will be able to say.

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Last year when staying in arraba for the BB I chickened out of the red down back from Alta Badia and got the bus back (bus stops in Passo di campolongo and Corvara, timetables available from tourist information). I did manage to ski from arabba to Alta Badia two different ways.
When you get to Passo di campologono you can either cross the road and go up and ski over to pralongia on easy blues. Or you go up the lift towards boe, then on the way down head towards the crepe de munt drag lift. At the top of the drag you can ski down to join the bottom bit of boe. I found the bottom section of boe to be a bit tricky, it was awkwardly cambered and rather busy, but it was wide and with a bit of sage advice from other snowheads I made it down without much of an issue.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

The nicest views from blues IMO are 18, 35, 21, 9, 8, 7, 10, 11 and 15 Very Happy

I think 9 is the longest run (top of Pralongia to San Cassiano) and it’s all very easy. The most difficult blues are the one into Passo Campolongo from Mt Cherz, Ciampai and the link to it from Piz Sorega and 14, which has some steeper sections. There is a slightly steeper slope near the top of 7 that can be avoided by staying left. There are magic carpets that will help you avoid poling on the far left of the piste just before Costes da l’ega and Pralongia 1 chairs.

I did a TR last year of San Cassiano which covers many of the blues on the Alta Badia plateau and has some photos. If you can stretch to a red, the one each way to Santa Croce are easy. I would recommend that trip and just doing 18 and 15 repeatedly rather than stressing about the direct runs down Bamby. Remember that if you do want to download on Piz la Ila, you need to get back using Bamby, not Pre dai Corf chair.

snow reports

thanks so much for your replies. I did read your trip report @what...snow, but I am going to read it again Smile

I just hope that Alta Badia is enough for us on the blues. Hubby and son will happily go down reds, it is just me that is the nervous nelly (I can actually parallel ski but I just keep losing my nerve) I just don't like steep slopes. I would like to try the Sella Ronda and also what is this Hidden Valley trail and also what is the trail that you have to get a horse pull back? Is this all manageable on blues and easy reds? Thanks for your help

@polo99, The Hidden Valley is a red run but you need a bus/taxi to get to the Lagazoi cable car from Armentarola to access it. At the end there is a horse tow that costs a couple of euros, or you can get a taxi. Taxis and buses turn up at Armentarola and have a set charge which last time I did it was 4 euros. You can get to Armentarola via blues I believe. The Hidden Valley run is only steepish at the very top but it is wide and after that it’s quite gentle.

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

I did the 'Alternative route' above Plan de Gralba en route to Selva. Swapped a blue piste that turns into a red for a bit then a very short chair, then blue for a short blue, 2 chairs, black then red, chair, long black that finishes with a short section of red! The reds above Arraba were proper reds but it looks like you could shorten the skiing by just taking the cable car in Arraba rather than the official route which I think was via Portados gondola and Carpazza chair. Someone on here is bound to know. The reds in Canazei weren't hard on this route (the clockwise or orange) and the red into Colfosco definitely isn't, it isn't much steeper than the very easy wide blue it turns into half way down.

A snowHead

The official route changed when they put in that gondola+chair in Arabba. It used to go via that cable car, where there's a very steep red (one may even say black) pitch at the top, which used to be absolute carnage towards the end of the day. The new route comes out at the bottom of that steep pitch, but there's still another short steep bit of red.

The alternative route is well signed at Piz Seteur. The non alternative is imho not signed at all - you just need to know where to go. And it's lovely run down thru the trees to Selva, and takes in possibly the world's shortest chairlift.

That's all on the orange clockwise loop (which we reckon is the more interesting loop).

A snowHead

1. The 3D ski map does not show the route from top of Costa Da'Lega chair to Col ALto gondola. The map below does show it

http://www.opensnowmap.org/

2. Longest blue run I'm sure is 9A/10 from Pralongia to San Cassiano.
Another long run is from Dantercepies or Jimmy hut to Borest gondola or Sodlisia chair in Colfosco
Yet another one is 21B from Pralongia, turn left at bottom onto Forcella/Incisa slope and follow all the way to bottom of masarei chair 28.

3. First and third runs above are pretty.
ALso variant 9 off 9A/10 through the woods is nice (with a detour down to Armentarola beside the drag lift)
Blue 11 is also a nice run and then leads onto 9A/10
Another nice one is 15A onto 15 down to bamby/La Fraina chairs

4. I wrote a trip report a few weeks ago with details of most of the blue slopes in this area. Check it out but be aware where I highlight the slopes with steeper sections, these would only pose difficulties for a beginner or a very nervous 2nd/3rd time skier. You shouldn't have any problems with 20+ years

5. Seen mention of blue 28 Ciampai as being difficult. You can get onto this slope by a short track from Piz Sorega restaurant and thus avoiding the top steeper section. The slope itself is wide and you really shouldn't have any issues.

6. I think you'll find there is plenty to do in ALta Badia itself without having to go further afield. We skied most of the main plataeu above Corvara/La Villa/San Cassiano and Colfosco up to passo gardena. Didn't seem to find the time to do anything else

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trying to put this all into one post

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trying to put this all in one post

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

sorry for the late reply! Thank you everyone for replying. I will have a look at your trip report jimmybog and have a look at the runs you suggest. With the arrival of the very warm weather, I have been to-ing and fro-ing with my decision of where to go. Plan B would probably be Les Menuires/Val Thorens. One thing that has been coming up on my research of Alta Badia, is there seems to be a lack of restaurants to go to on an evening? We will be self catering (mainly because me and my son are fussy eaters) but we like to go out somewhere plain for a pizza or a burger on an evening, nowhere fancy. I can see that there is some more snow to come though so still going with Alta Badia for the moment (will have to book it independently as most TO's seem to do catered, HB or BB) Even if the snow does not arrive do you think I would be better heading for Alta Badia given the good grooming and upkeep of the slopes or head for somewhere high up in France like VT? I'm still holding out for about another week before I make a decision. Hubby isn't that keen on going skiing saying there will be no snow (as we usually go in Janaury) and he hates this last minute thing lol

Also I read somewhere on one of the reports that people were saying the run 8? to San Cassiano was a nightmare? is there a big steep section or something? A lot of people mentioned this. (there were 2 runs but I don't remember the other one) I'm still on the fence about the Hidden Valley run. I've watched a couple of videos and there doesn't really seem to be any steep sections to it, but someone has said there are 3 fairly steep sections which is offputting. If this run was blue I problaby wouldn't even question it. Why is it red?

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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

I was in the area for the first time last week and I loved it there. One thing I found though was the difficulty of the runs was very much down to the weather and traffic. For instance I did some blues on a hot day (thursday) and they were horrible, very slushie and loads of small moguls/bumps and people. The next day was colder and they were lovely cruisy blues. A lot of the reds that were albeit steeper were easier than the blues as they were less tracked. So my takeaway for difficulty in the the area is that "it depends". What was apparent though was that there is a massive amount to do especially in the Corvara / Alta Badia area and I didn't find it harder than Saalbach or Les Arcs.

We did the Marmolada run on the hottest day and frankly it was horrible getting to it and back. The Marmolada itself was fine but the reds and blues getting there were awful, vowed never to do it again on a nice day. 3hrs to get to the top from Corvara and the red/blue down to the start of the cable car was horrible. But I did enjoy the main Marmolada glacier though.

The hidden valley was just amazing, again we did it on a hot day and the queues were mental. 2 hours to get to the top from the bus stop. But wow, what a run, the views the slope, the experience, the icefalls. We loved it so much we used our last morning to do it again, it was colder this day and we were up the top in 30-40 minutes and that includes the 15 min taxi ride! But wow what an experience.

I've been to 3 valleys, Les Arcs, Saalbach, Bansko, Les Arcs and Andorra and Dolomites is my favourite already ! We stayed in the Sporthotel Panorama in Corvara and would recommend them wholeheartedly

good luck

After all it is free

@jimmybog, yes you are right it was the 8 to corvara. I enjoyed your report. I see your wife is a blue cruiser, how did she find the runs? I'm sure half the blues I've skies in France should be red. Worst one was the pic blue from la tania to meribel on a day it was horribly moguled and a blue to courchevek which has a steep sheet ice section, I think it took me about 20 minutes to ski 15 metres!
And it was la villa we are looking at.

@djf, I'm hoping the last wwwk of March won't be too busy but I think you are right, conditions definitely affect the slopes. I'm sure I could manage a red it's just my brain says "red?, nope"

Honestly my wife was in a similar mindset with blacks this year and she just went down one and then felt the same about the colour. They are certainly harder slopes hence the grading but actually less bumpy and less crowded made them so much easier. I’ve really found lessons in resorts really helped with me. Tbh I didn’t do the steeper slopes very cleanly this year with loads of side slipping so I know I have to work in that but still liked them. Good luck

Help!!

La Villa help

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