 Poster: A snowHead
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Heading to Kronplatz tomorrow. Looks like there are some alarmingly high temps about at times?! Hard to know which forecasts are reliable though… any recommendations?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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@smudger, -10c today :: who knows what next week will bring (sun is forecast)
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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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+1 for Bergfex.
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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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Thanks all - will try bergfex. Have looked at a few and temps seem to vary wildly. Even for tomorrow!
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Managed to get out once it cleared at noon to find some of the more exposed lifts closed but still plenty to ski, including some really soft stuff for our boys to play in. Crep de Munt came up trumps yet again for a late-ish lunch. Great week in Alta Badia.
Off to Madonna now. Any recommendations on where to eat up top?
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The Pastascoss hut does some good food inside but the smashed burgers from the outside but were fab - you can eat them inside as well. The food at Ristorante Boch looked good but we didn;t eat there. We tend to push through until 3ish and have a late lunch which mostly ended up being the Hungry Wolf for brilliant pizza - we also needed to fuel up as the hotel dinner was not great. They also serve IPA and a really lovely Pale Ale so himself was happy not having to drink fizzy lager. The Dolomiti Pub was good as well but the Mr.Wippy heads on the Guinness must have been illegal! They also bring you free nibbles.
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Brill, thanks @melbouch, !!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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the bad news is that it has been pretty warm this week, not as bad as last year when it hit 13deg C but on Thursday the bottom of La Longia was so slushy it was difficult to turn.
The good news is that it's snowed a bit in val gardena this week and in Alta Badia it snowed last night and most of this morning and has remained below freezing all day. I just cleared ca 3inches from the car in La Villa and it was more like 6-8 inches on tables outside the rifugios higher up.
So everywhere is looking and feeling much better. Forecast is for below freezing tonight and tomorrow so this should hopefully form a decent base.
The hotel onwer just told me that for the first time ever they are more than 50% brits next week as they have 2 large group bookings. Our group of 7 were the only brits this week.
We're also off to madonna di campiglio and were going to leave mid morning but have decided to ski Alta badia in the morning as we anticipate great conditions.
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@snowfraise, +1 for the hungry wolf, it might be in town but it's almost ski-in ski-out as it's next door to the world cup run finish so you can ski down the world cup run, do a hockey stop in the stadium, throw you arms in the air like you just won and go for pizza, alternatively you can pootle down the blue that crosses the black and side slip to the finish line 
The twenty somethings liked the Pizza and ambience at Rifugio Bioch. Rifugio Zeledria was good when we visited for lunch a couple of years ago as was Chalet Fiat which I think is now called Chalet Spinale.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@richb67,
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First day with a delayed start (teenage faff) yesterday - staying in Ortisei so spent the day up in Seiser Alm. A couple of cms of fresh snow on the ground. Breeze was pretty cold until midday. Those reds are never reds … I’m not complaining though. Snow remained lovely + grippy all day. Red back into town was icy and scraped at the bottom. Not particularly busy. Heading over to Selva today - is Saslong a proper black / hard? What’s the best time to do it? Thanks all.
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You know it makes sense.
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@franga,
Saslong is the downhill ski run and very enjoyable though not particularly difficult, though the very top bit up at Ciampinoi can be slick. This bit is not necessary.
The red alternative is in my experience a bit icier and tougher.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Don't bother with Sasslong A other than to say you've done it. Sasslong B is a beautiful tree lined run which has virtually no traffic by comparison.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Thank you both - we did the full run but admittedly it was not a patch on Flak or the La Longia back to Ortisei. The sun came out today - it was absolutely glorious. Snow largely / still very good. Loving the views and the number of tree-lined runs.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Always stop off at the Curona Hutte when skiing La Longia and say hi to Werner. It's the best small hutte in the valley imho. The views are breath taking. 
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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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Saturday skied Alta Badia and Arabba, great until lunch then hard packed on anything steepish. Very busy around Arabba and the SR routes, most people we’d seen for well over a week. Guess the great weather brought all the locals out, the hotel owner said after Friday’s snow the phone never stopped ringing.
My instructor always says that fresh snow messes everything up for two days so hopefully today was fabulous all day.
Now in Madonna and had a great day, was very busy this morning, pistes seemed to be holding better than When we were in Alta Badia. Lots of Brits around. Also seem to be a reasonable number ‘aggressive skiers’ out today, that’s paraphrasing my wife’s blunter and more scathing description. Got wiped out by someone who had lost control so have first signs of a very large bruise, fortunately we both skied away. Interestingly 2 police officers (not Carabinieri) arrived almost immediately and checked we were ok which was good of them. Lots of people were drinking so I wondered if they were on the lookout for inebriated skiers.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I meant to say yesterday, that anyone coming next week should be in for a good time - lots of new snow in Selva and the gloom of last week was due to be replaced by SUN !!
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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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We have just arrived in La Villa. It's beautiful but warmish, and doesn't look like much snow here in the village. We will head up in the morning for our first day, hoping the conditions will be good on top!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| albob wrote: |
| I meant to say yesterday, that anyone coming next week should be in for a good time - lots of new snow in Selva and the gloom of last week was due to be replaced by SUN !! |
One of my ski pals is in Selva with his wife for the following week (Fly 22nd). The forecasted daytime temps are looking shockingly warm.  +4 to +7. That'll make a mess of the pistes sadly.
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@Mollerski, I'm home now so haven't bothered looking at Temps 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Stunning scenery and blue skies in Madonna, though much busier than Alta Badia. Maybe because it’s half term week for so many.
Zeledria was bang on for lunch yesterday - thanks @richb67, . 
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Explored Alta Badia today on first day ever in Dolomites. Pistes in good nick and held up well with fairly mild bumping on the steeper/busier home runs. Lunch at Bamby (just passing as we got hungry) was good and had our choice of tables at 12.15. Fuller but not crazy by the time we left.
Favourite run, Red 17 to La Villa.
Considering hidden valley but worried about reported queue lengths…. Would you drive from arabba? To get there before the hordes (and explore 5 torri afterwards)?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Doesn't make sense to do Cinque Torre afterwards as the run from Hidden Valley takes you away from them.
Why don't you ski from Arabba and aim to do the Hidden Valley later in the afternoon on way back when there's unlikely to be a queue?
Could ski over and get the bus / taxi up from Armentarola or, even do the Grand Guerre - Marmolada, bus to Alleghe, bus from Pescul to Fedare and over that way then back via Armentarola
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@8611, my rationale is have to pay for the bus/travel from Armentarola no matter which way we go….. But if car is at 5 torri then 1- can hit hidden valley when quiet, and 2- no rush or timing anxiety to get back
Maybe I’m overthinking it (probably!)
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I skied Hidden Valley 3 weeks ago, I made the first cable car, just 5 minutes not really queuing. Well worth doing that in my opinion … skied a near empty perfectly groomed piste.
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You know it makes sense.
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@Mollerski, Can I ask, as you appear to be the resident expert on the Hotel Flora, how warm it is. We stayed at the Ingram last year and it was very warm (the gala dinner night with added candles had us taking turns to cool off in the snow outside!). I just don’t want to overpack jumpers if I’m not going to need them.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| melbouch wrote: |
| @Mollerski, Can I ask, as you appear to be the resident expert on the Hotel Flora, how warm it is. We stayed at the Ingram last year and it was very warm (the gala dinner night with added candles had us taking turns to cool off in the snow outside!). I just don’t want to overpack jumpers if I’m not going to need them. |
Yeah, it's pretty toasty. I always turn the rad off and sleep with a window open at night. Also, when we were there in Jan, the buses (bus stop in front of the Oswald Hotel) are now superb! We hardly waited once. They've added smaller buses which go to Dantercepies. It's now a very reliable slick service. 
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Poster: A snowHead
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@gilo, definitely worth skiing the cinque torri area, some nice pistes and quite quiet up around there.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@gilo, drive, park across the road and if there isn’t a queue at the cable car go straight up but expect a queue at the Armenterola taxi area back up. If there’s a queue then ski around cinque torri first and hope it dies down.
Re queues it’s just pot luck, when we drove past recently there were 2 or 3 coaches offloading people at 9:30 which used to be a quiet time. The next day there might not have been any until 11.
Personally we’re in the HV is over-hyped/not-worth-the-hassle camp but it’s undeniably beautiful. Some people love it and go every year so it’s worth doing at least once.
Oh, don’t do it on the first sunny day after a few poor weather days as everyone who has stayed local rushes to do HV and SR on the first nice day.
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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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| richb67 wrote: |
@gilo, drive, park across the road and if there isn’t a queue at the cable car go straight up but expect a queue at the Armenterola taxi area back up. If there’s a queue then ski around cinque torri first and hope it dies down.
Re queues it’s just pot luck, when we drove past recently there were 2 or 3 coaches offloading people at 9:30 which used to be a quiet time. The next day there might not have been any until 11.
Personally we’re in the HV is over-hyped/not-worth-the-hassle camp but it’s undeniably beautiful. Some people love it and go every year so it’s worth doing at least once.
Oh, don’t do it on the first sunny day after a few poor weather days as everyone who has stayed local rushes to do HV and SR on the first nice day. |
Hidden Valley - I did exactly that 3 weeks ago following a low light/bad weather spell, on a beautiful sunny day. On the first cable car, no queue, near empty piste.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I suppose if you have a car you can back both horses - if queue you can head off and do cinque torre, if not get hidden valley done and then do cinque torre
You might also save money if more than one of you, only driver would need to get taxi back up (it's fixed fare per person once you have minimum 4 in the minivan I think)
Two small variables on that -
- not sure when the taxis stop but wouldn't imagine there's a huge market to be going back up at 3 o'clock for instance
- when I was there in Jan the piste from passo falzarego car park down to cinque torre was marked closed, people were schlepping over (and back) on an off piste trail
- your companions will have to wait 40 minutes for you and will doubtless spend the fare on hot chocolate or, I hope, bombardinos
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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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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Mollerski wrote: |
| melbouch wrote: |
| @Mollerski, Can I ask, as you appear to be the resident expert on the Hotel Flora, how warm it is. We stayed at the Ingram last year and it was very warm (the gala dinner night with added candles had us taking turns to cool off in the snow outside!). I just don’t want to overpack jumpers if I’m not going to need them. |
Yeah, it's pretty toasty. I always turn the rad off and sleep with a window open at night. Also, when we were there in Jan, the buses (bus stop in front of the Oswald Hotel) are now superb! We hardly waited once. They've added smaller buses which go to Dantercepies. It's now a very reliable slick service. |
Thank you, T-shirts it is then! And good news about the buses. We found them very hit and miss last year which is why we opted for a hotel nearer to town and the Kronestub!
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Duly noted although mines a negroni!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| gilo wrote: |
Explored Alta Badia today on first day ever in Dolomites. Pistes in good nick and held up well with fairly mild bumping on the steeper/busier home runs. Lunch at Bamby (just passing as we got hungry) was good and had our choice of tables at 12.15. Fuller but not crazy by the time we left.
Favourite run, Red 17 to La Villa.
Considering hidden valley but worried about reported queue lengths…. Would you drive from arabba? To get there before the hordes (and explore 5 torri afterwards)? |
Ohh we were at Bamby at the same time!
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Staying near Arabba this week for half term and I'm surprised at how quiet it is in general. Have spent a couple of mornings in Alta Badia and it hasn't really been busier than at other times..... Standard queues at Biok, Pralongia 2 and Piz Sorega but other lifts have been fine - ie. Ski straight on.
Also been to Ste Croce and Alba/Pozza which have been v quiet. Considering doing something more mainstream now and hoping that it's ok elsewhere....... Quite fancy Seceda, WW1 tour, SR or Kronplatz but slightly worried about getting caught out!
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