 Poster: A snowHead
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Well, it's three trips really.....
I'm a 62 yr old fairly experienced piste skier. Done the Sella Ronda maybe half a dozen times or so but never felt the urge to "do a double" in one day. A friend has talked me into doing the double this next season. I don't really anticipate major difficulties if we can avoid lift queues at bottlenecks.
I have intended to do a trip to Serfaus / Fiss / Ladis for the last few years but never got around to it so far. This next season I have decided that I will go there.
I have already booked to go with family to Kronplatz at half term (15 - 22 February)
I have faith and confidence in the excellent snowmaking facilities in the Dolomites, but are the daylight hours too limited to have a go at the double Sella Ronda in December? Or is that trip better left until mid-January? Or mid-March? I don't want to have too many trips in rapid succession and am trying to space them out between December and late March.
Whenever I think about Serfaus (never having been) I get the image of a resort that would still be good in mid-March or even later. But what is Serfaus like in December?
My current thoughts are :
December - Serfaus
January - Sella Ronda somewhere
February - Kronplatz
But would it be better to go :
Very early January - Sella Ronda
Mid February - Kronplatz
Late March - Serfaus
Ahhhh the troubles of having "First World Problems"
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@JohnHSmith, I've skied Christmas and New Year weeks at Serfaus and it's been excellent. The Christmas week three or four years ago was very poor for snow across a lot of the Alps. I was expecting a very limited area open and when we arrive the town was snow free. The ticket office didn't want to sell us 6 day passes, told us to buy 3 days and they'd extend them if we wanted. When I got up the mountain the next morning I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the skiing. It was only 50% open but the snow was great on the open runs and it wasn't busy. We skied the six days. Having had that experience on a very poor start to a season I'd be quite happy to book Serfaus for Christmas again.
Only reason you might want to leave it until late in the season is if you like properly steep black pistes. If there's a shortage of snowfall like most places they concentrate the snow cannons and grooming on the most popular runs, so the main blues and reds will be opened first, then the easy blacks and finally the steep ones.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Christmas and New Year always involves an element of risk with the conditions. I have had great skiing on almost empty pistes in early December but some seasons it hasnt been worth going before mid January. Almost all resorts now have comprehensive snow making installations but the Dolomite resorts do seem to have it down to a fine art. If you have to book in advance I would go with your second option, even if it is a poor season March would see the maximum snow depths and a good chance of sunny days.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Skied Serfaus in late March (2016) and Sella Ronda (2019) and everything was open top to bottom.
Only the very bottom of the runs at the end of the day were slushy, but it was more like sand than wet concrete.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Ha, did both this season and I'm 62 as well! Skied the Sellaronda somewhat accidentally (just wanted to ski the Saslong and decided to return to San Cassiano without backtracking) on March 24th and was in Serfaus March 28-April 2nd. The extent of snowmaking in the Dolomites was on full display; stripes of white surrounded by brown. No matter, everything was open and the conditions were fine, typical for that time of year (hard and fast to start, gloppy at the end, glorious in between). I've already opined about Serfaus in these pages, I loved it and will return next year for sure. They had tons of snow, with only a few brown spots on sunny, low slopes off-piste. I noticed its basically turf under the snow there, so my forays into some corny trees under Koenigleithebahn did not damage my bases! 16 days between the Arlberg, Dolomites and Serfaus and 13 were sunny. Kronplatz is killer as well, a terrific on-piste area for anyone. I'm kind of done rolling the dice in December...often limited coverage and offerings, nasty weather and school vacation traffic to consider. I've only been to the Alps 6 times, the last five have been in March. Next year? March! (Cheaper, too)
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