Live TR Solo Canazei and Sella Ronda 19-25/3/22

A snowHead

Having seen other live reports I thought I’d have a bash at one myself.
18/3 flew out of MAN late afternoon to MPX. Arrive PX at MAN 3 hours before departure due to issues reported of long security queuing warlier in the week, thankfully non existent, 20mins from bag check in to being through security which is a best ever for me. Plenty of time to have a coffee and bite to eat.
Flight boarded and left on time, and again straight through passports and bag collection, haven’t been asked for the PLF at any stage of the journey.
Car collected and round to airport hotel and a lovely quick pizza nearby in Sarmancanda.

19/3 left hotel at 09.30 and had along drive of nearly 5 hours to Canazei due to a slow section of traffic through some roadworks ans a stop for a pee and coffee at the bottom of lake Garda. Whilst it’s a long drive it’s all motorway to Bolzano, then a windy up and over mountain for the last bit which took about 80 mins.
Checked into the Hotel Cesa Rotic, nice simple ensuite room for one, then popped out to get skis and lift pass ready for the morning and a quick look around Canazei and Alba.

Just about to go out for evening meal now, and will report on the skiing tomorrow.

A snowHead

Will be interested in what the snow is like mid-march...

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Enjoy, @geoffknight! Thanks for your Samarcanda recommendation - we went there tonight (for takeaway - forgot to book a table) and it was indeed excellent.

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Thanks. I will be reading with interest

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Sunday 20/3 the day started out with out any clouds, but the forecast was for increasing cloud from 13.00 onwards.
I decided to ski on the Ciampac side of the valley today, avoiding the Sella Ronda on a Sunday and possibly busy, I’m keen to avoid having to share enclosed lifts as much as possible. I rode solo up the Ciampac bubble, and then took the chairs up to Brunnech summit and lapped a few times on the top lift, the pistes were well prepared with no sign of the Saharan dust from last week on them, and very firm to start with, then started to soften up about 10.30 onwards. I took a coffee stop at 11.15 then up and over Brunnech summit towards the Buffaure sector where in lapped to and from the top to Buffaure with the south facing slopes becoming softer with each lap and really enjoy able. I popped back To Ciampac for a lightish lunch of Speck and Eggs, and after went back over Brunnech towards Buffaure with a few more laps in mixture of cloud cover and bright sunlight, then return over to Ciampac to finish off the day, but once over the summit the sun light disappeared and visibility went very flat so a I decided to call it enough for the first day, with a stop off at the hut at the top of Ciampac lift for a bombarding to warm up as the temp had dropped out of the sun.
When I came out of the hut when I picked up my skis, they felt lighter than than they had earlier, on checking them I realised they weren’t my skis, and with a quick walk round all the racks, realised some one had picked mine up in error, I’d rented Rossi Hero’s, there was a pair of Rossi lookalikes, easy mistake to make I guess, or a damm sneaky way to get a better pair of skis I decided it was probably an error, so picked up the lookalikes and tried ringing the shop on the sticker hoping they were rentals, but I couldn’t get through.
Luckily I had opted for the ski insurance cover on my booking, so popped down to the rental shop and gave then the lookalikes and picked up a pair of Volkl’s for tomorrow. The shop owner said they get the same thank happening once a week ! I’ve picked up a Velcro band and will use that to bind them together to hopefully prevent any further issues.
I’m on a BB deal, last nights meal was at Chlaet Edy about 400mtrs towards Alba, a very nice carbonara, decent half bottle of red, but a disappointing tiramisu.
Time to get spruced up and head off for tonight’s food, if the weather is favourable I’ll head off towards the Sella tomorrow and if the kegs feel ok, will do circuit, if anyone has advice on the best direction to go from the Alba lift to avoid the worst of the possible slush on the south slopes it would be most welcome.

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"..if anyone has advice on the best direction to go from the Alba lift to avoid the worst of the possible slush on the south slopes it would be most welcome.."

Probably head for Arabba - the Porta vescovo side is North facing

I think the Belvedere bowl above Canazei/Alba is north facing

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After all it is free

Monday 21/3.
Up and out early this morning the attempt the Sella Ronda, I took the Alba Col de Rossi cable car up, and decided once at the top to go anti-clockwise (green) direction. The snow was in much better condition than yesterday, not as hard and much nicer ski even first thing in the morning. I really enjoyed the skiing in the morning round to coffee stop at Baita Panorama Hutt above Selva Gardena. I got there about 11.30, enroute I enjoyed the scenery and plan to return over the next few days to ski the area around Arraba through to Covara. Today the sun shone bright all day and as a consequence any south facing runs were very soft and mushy, it seems that there were quite a few from my coffee break onwards Until I got back to the Val Di Fassa valley, where I stopped for some much needed food at 2.30.
The run down in to Selva to the road crossing was really nasty, very soft and cut up, and narrow, I’m glad it wasn’t too busy. One of the highlights for me was the run after Selva through what is a field of vertical rock stacks, I didn’t manage to get the name of the area unfortunately, I’ll try and find it on the map and add to it later.

For those that may be interested, I’m away solo as my sons studying for his A Levels this spring and didn’t want to take time out, and my wife has found skiing starting to cause her more arthritic problems over the past few years.
I did manage a week away in mid Jan on a package deal to Sauze, where the snow was somewhat lacking, and having missed last year like everyone else, I decided I need to ski as much as I can while I’m still fit enough to do so. I was happy to look at another TO package, but as time moved on, the number of options reduced and prices increased significantly, one in La Thuile went for £610 to £1150 overnight. I decided to book a flight for a DIY trip as back up if the TO stuff didn’t materialise.
I had a flight to Lyon booked for Saturday but was finding transfers or car hire were very expensive, and using public transport items just didn't seem to work out, so I moved the flight to Milan MXP on Friday late afternoon, and got a reasonable car rate £150 from Budget inc chains for 8 days. I didn’t decide on what resort until Thursday as I was looking at the snow reports, Aosta as a base was on my list as were the Dolomites, I plumped for the Dolomites as I’ve been to Aosta valley a few times and wanted to see what the Dolomites were like. I found a good deal on Booking.com for the BB that I’m in Cesa Rotic in Alba/Canazei, I’ve got a very nice single room, Ensuite, lovely local wood cladding, great comfy bed, the place is run by a lovely hard working young ( late 20’s ) couple with assistance from the wife’s mother, I guess it’s been in the family for generations as most seem to be. Breakfast is very good continental with eggs and fantastic home made bread and fresh fruit salad. The hotel was available through Crystal this season, but it disappeared a few weeks ago as did many other solo choices. There’s few places to eat with 800mtrs in Alba and all of Canazei is 1.2km walk, I haven’t gone that way yet as it’s uphill all the way back to Alba. I’ll definately book here again if returning, both as solo or with family, the only thing I’d look at changing is flight to Verona or possibly Bergamo to reduce the drive time by 2 hours or so. I have an early flight Saturday and will be leaving after skiing until lunch on Friday before the 4.5 hour drive to MXP. I have a table booked in Sarmancanda again which is fab and will be great to finish off the trip.
Planning on going to the Marmolarda area tomorrow if the good weather holds which is the forecast.

"..One of the highlights for me was the run after Selva through what is a field of vertical rock stacks, I didn’t manage to get the name of the area unfortunately, I’ll try and find it on the map and add to it later..."

Citta dei Sassi - City of Rocks?

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Tuesday 22/3
Woke up to beautiful clear blue skies this morning, and decided I would try and get over the the Marmolada glacier, however things went a bit off course, I missed the ski bus by about 2 mins, there’s a time table but it’s not very well adhered to, and only lines 1 and 2 are running as it’s late in the season. Sod’s law the next bus turned up nearly 30 mins later, by the time I got up to the top of Belvedere it was nearly 10 so initially I decided not to try and get there today, but did head over towards Arabba as I liked the look of the area as I passed through it yesterday, and the fact there are some decent runs which are south facing on one side of the valley. After a couple of runs I changed my midd and did head off towards Marmolada, two slow 2 man chairs to me to the Passo Padron, and I followed the signs toward Marmolada from there, it was only just after 11, but the runs down the valley are south facing and had become very soft, I wasn’t enjoying them so decided once I got to the chair going back up to Passo Padron to go back towards Arabba. A much needed coffee and slice of cake at the refuge the top sat in the sun was lovely. I then dropped back down toward Arabba, and enjoyed the run down, and a few others before heading up to Porto Vescovo, which turned out a disappointment as it only gave one run not much higher than the fast chair I’d used a few times earlier. I then headed back in the direction of Alba, and stopped for lunch at the bottom of red 41 which I had lapped three times, my favourite run so far this week, in the Passo Pordoi valley, and soaked up some some for a few mins in a deck chair after eating.
I did 3 more laps of 41 as it was empty, before dropping down into Belvedere, did I few runs there, a beer in the sun and then back down for just after 5.
Since I got back to my room I’ve looked at the map again in more detail, I don’t think I’m going to bother with the glacier, I’ve skied others before so it’s not a thing I need to tick off, I don’t think it’s worth the effort and talking the south facing slush fest in order to do so.
Plan for tomorrow is to go beyond Arabba early and return before the sun affects the south runs to get back to Arabba area.

You don't go for the ski, you go for the view and the experience.

You know it makes sense.

@geoffknight, it's not like a normal glacier, it's a long, long run and has a fairly consistent red pitch and the snow is usually good due to altitude and northerly orientation, but the best bit is the view from the top and feeling on top of the world.

You need to hit the south-facing run down to Malga Ciapela from Passo Padon just as the surface starts to soften, so probably earlier than you got there today.

Mind you, the view across from Rifugio Padon is pretty special with the flags of the world flying.

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

A snowHead

The view from the Rifugio Maria at the top of Sass Pordoi cablecar is pretty special too, if you get a chance to go up there.

Have you considered doing the Hidden Valley??

http://youtube.com/v/OPxzq-XOqM0&t=200s

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@geoffknight,
The Great War museum is worth the trip alone.

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@luigi, yes the views from Refugio Padron were excellent. It was really warm today, plus with other things I’m nit going to do the Marmolada or GWW this trip next time! I’ve done Vallee Blance, L2A, Tignes, VDI, and Kaprun glaciers previously, I live waiting till next time.

Wednesday 23/3
Much warmer today than previous days, and it wasn’t my best day today, had to get the hire car looked at, oil warning came on yesterday, dip stick totally dry, thankfully hotel owners dad runs a garage and got me sorted by 9.15. But by the time I had gone back and got changed it was 10am before I got to Belvedere, decided on enjoying the north side of Arabba in the morning and return to Belvedere for lunch and the rest of the afternoon. All runs were softer then previous days, but still very enjoyable.
Just as I was finishing my morning coffee and cake, very nice by the way Toofy Grin

I got a message from home, our son tested positive having felt a bit off colour over the past few days. As I returned to skiing and was debating if I was a good parent by being away, or should I cut short the trip, my mind wandered and I caught and edge and whacked in to a very hard icy side of the piste which was hip height, bruises to follow I think. Thankfully my son is feeling better today than the days before so I think I’m ok to carry on as planned.
Not sure what I’ll do tomorrow, but I feel that the best conditions are where I was today and will probably enjoy the good snow there again, and the same on Friday as Im only going to do half a day before heading back to Milan, I really don’t fancy 5 hour drive after a full days skiing.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@geoffknight, nice work. Thank you.

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Enjoying reading your reports each day @geoffknight. you were lucky to have a useful hotelier.

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

@Pamski, they have been wonderful, lovely young couple who have gone out of their way to make me welcome, I have a lovely clean room, super bed, and it’s clad in a local variety of pint that only grows over 2000m, and it has a fantastic aroma. I wasn’t expecting much for a single room, it’s exceeded my expectations, would certainly come back and also recommend to others.

After all it is free

Hotel Cesa Rotic still appears on the Crystal website, but with 'no availability' , even in to next year ?!?

@albob, I booked independently, and would do so again, there’s only one other solo guy here we are the only two Brits, I’m going to ask if they prefer booking direct or through a web agent.

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@luigi, I am as can be proved, oops, well it is a holiday Embarassed

snow reports

Thursday 24/3
Weather wise it was rinse and repeat, cloudless sky, very little wind in the morning, I’m really going to miss the bright skies next week.
I was up and out earlier than the last couple of days and at the top of Belvedere just before 9. I initially decided to head over towards Arabba to see how my hip and legs were, the first run told me OK, so when I dropped into Arabba I took the Arabba fly and headed over towards Covara area, a friend had recommended doing the Valon black run above Covara, and I wanted to spend some time over that way again as I had really enjoyed the runs in Monday when doing the Sella Ronda. The return south facing runs were starting to look a bit cut up as I made my way round, however I decided to crack on and once I’d done Valon I’d make my way back to the Marmolada side of Arabba. The runs into Corvara were in great condition and I probably had my most enjoyable skiing on the way over, the right mix of legs feeling good, pistes just soft enough and a beautiful day of sunshine. Wether I looked good is debatable, but in my head I was Dave Riding the whole way.
Once at Corvara I took the Boe bubble lift, I had to ask a German couple to put masks on, I don’t think they appreciated being asked but I really don’t care it’s easy to do and also the rules! From the top of Boe there’s a small travelator to the next lift, as I was waiting for my turn on the travelator, the female of my German friends tried to push in ahead of myself and a few locals, did they succeed, no, clearly they think they can do what they want.
A slow two man chair then takes you up to 2500 mtrs and right in front of the vertical rock face of the Sella, really stunning place to be, not particularly high, but the rock face goes up and up.
The actual run was ok but a bit soft and cut up for my liking (which means ability really) it’s classed as a black, but a red in most places, and then the return runs to Arabba Fly were also soft and lumpy, having to deal with it I felt my ability to ski slush improved a lot, but still really sucks all energy out of my legs, oh to be young again and have more stamina, rather than being slightly an overweight not so fit anymore 62 yr old.
I stopped for a coffee and Tiramisu ( well it does mean pick me up ) at the top of BecDeRoces
Once back on the Marmolada side I went towards Passo Peton and back, two nice blues with fantastic scenery, then I headed over towards passo Pordoi and did the runs from the Belvedere area on run 41 a few times before heading into the Belvedere bowl for lunch.
A spot of lunch and plenty of water refreshed me for finishing the day up and down the Belvedere bowl, before a quick beer in the sun and heading down.
The funniest bit of the day was during lunch, a group of 5 ladies, dressed to the nines, with more plastic enhancements than a Lego set waltzed into the Refugio and demanded a table at a roped off area as if they owned the world, many heads turned, as they wanted them to do. I skied for 1 hour 40 after lunch and before my beer in the same refigio I had lunch, and heading down, what a surprise they were still there, ladies who lunch maybe?
After finishing my beer I took the lift to get the gondola down to Alba, and there they were waiting for the same lift, seeing them up close their lips and cheeks were just odd, Katie Price would have probably said no, that’s too far. They were probably very pretty before, not do much now IMO.
Anyhow back to skiing, an early start tomorrow, ski until lunchtime then the long drive to Malpensa for the flight home early doors Saturday.

Friday 25/3 Final day of skiing today, so I made a early start having left my bags at the hotel in a secure room for collecting after I’d been skiing. I was only planning on skiing until about 12 as I had a long drive back to Milan for my flight early Saturday. I took the cable car up to Belvedere and went over the ridge to ski run 41 a few times, the snow was still very good and a did about 6 laps finding untouched corduroy in each run. I then returned to the Belvedere bowl for my customary coffee and cake, and then finished off the week with a few runs in the bowl before going back to the hotel for a quick change and pick up my bags. Skis were then dropped off in Canazei, still no sign of the skis that were taken in error on Sunday being to returned to the shop. I used La Zonda for the rental and found them very good and helpful. The temperature had increased it was 21c when I left the valley for the drive over to Bolzano, then onto the autostrada. The drive over was lovely, but a very windy with a big incline and then decline, it would be interesting in bad weather to say the least.
A quick fuel for the car and me outside Bolzano with the temperature hitting 24c, I wish basic Pandas had aircon. I hit heavy slow moving traffic on the A4 with a 40min delay due to a nasty looking accident, with further heavy traffic around Milan turned the drive into a longer than I anticipated, I checked in to my hotel at 19.15 having left Alba at 12.30.
The week was finished off with a nice meal at Samarcanda.
I’ll try and upload some pictures later on once home.

You know it makes sense.

@geoffknight, Sounds like a fantastic trip. I'd love to do a solo vacation one of these years but doubt my kids would let me get away with it! I did take a solo trip to Hawaii decades ago when I lived in California. I'd just finished a 3-month software install for our company and was feeling extremely uncharitable toward humanity, and especially my co-workers...I came back utterly refreshed.

I love the Belvedere area. We make it a point to hit the refugio at the top left every year, even if the food isn't out of this world the service is good and the 360 degree views are sublime.

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

@Pasigal, It was thanks, it’s the longest solo trip I’ve done, I didn’t feel lonely or anything like that at all, I have promised to take wife and son at some point as I enjoyed it so much, they didn’t come this year as son is doing his A levels, and my wife felt one of us needed to stay home with him oooppps ( I will make it up to het, she’s going to organise a trip to Venice with some of her girlfriends later this year.
I didn’t venture in to the refugio at the top, next time I definitely will Toofy Grin

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Live TR Solo Canazei and Sella Ronda 19-25/3/22

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