 Poster: A snowHead
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... so that me an Mrs Technique can sit somewhere nice, and take it in turns to look after Technique Jr and throw snowballs at him, whilst the other one is able to do a lap or two of some worthwhile terrain, without going too far away.
e.g. somewhere where there is a concentration of pleasant cafes, nearby the convergence of several nice long lifts, with some pretty scenery, prefarably without having to go over a ridge into another valley. Does that make sense?
A good mid mountain spot accessed by gondola/cable car would be fine too. It doesn't have to be at valley/town level.
Does anyone have any recommendations, plox?
Thox in advox.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Arabba isn't too bad. Hotel Mesdi http://www.hotelmesdi.com/en/location.html which I've stayed in a few times and would recommend is very close to skiing and right by slopes (also has a decent bar / cafe slopeside too). Town has a few decent cafes and decent skiing all round. As well as lift hotel side of road which has a reasonable run back from top, opposite side of the road is the cable car and several decent runs back to village from there
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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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Cheers man. I already quite fancy Arabba from that region, due to it allegedly being a bit tougher skiing than a few of the surrounding resorts.
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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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Mr Technique, You might also care to consider the Val Gardena resorts. Although Selva/Wolkenstein is probably the best known of them since it's directly on the Sella Ronda circuit, the other resorts in the valley ie St Christina and Ortisei/St Ulrich are also worthy of consideration. Ortisei/St Ulrich in particular is the prettiest of the resorts imv with plenty of pleasant cafes and skiing on both sides of the valley (the Seceda plateau on one side with some nice runs including a long 10km red back down to the town, and on the other side the Alpi di Suisi/Seiser Alm). Both of these are served by gondolas which can be used by both skiers and non skiers, allowing you all to meet up on the mountain.
In your parlance, Val Gardena rox. 
Last edited by You need to Login to know who's really who. on Thu 23-09-10 14:46; edited 1 time in total
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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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Mr Technique, Cortina? It has a number of ski areas which can be accessed via a lift or short drive with the car/bus and some fab mountain restaurants. Lapping whilst the other is keeping your son entertained would be pretty straigtforward and you would be able to ski some decent terrain too. If you are interested in Cortina, I'll come up with some suggestions for you.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Thanks, keep it comin'!
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juliad, surely not Cortina - it is a big town with skiing starting from several places far apart around the edge and generally no skiing back to the main town. Or were you thinking of a base up above the town somewhere-***?
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snowball, yes I was thinking Cortina might be a good base but it doesn't have the convenience of some of the Sella Ronda resorts like Arraba. If convenience is a key factor Cortina wouldn't be the best option granted. If you don't like getting on a bus or driving it is not the place to go.
With Cortina you have the option to explore a different area each day by uploading in the cable car/bussing/driving. For example, do Faloria one day - easy uplift from the town, restaurant at the top station of the cable car for the little one and a parent whilst the other can go off for a ski. Another day you could do Cristallo, again restaurant at the bottom (Rio Gere) or the one higher up if they take the child on the chair. You've got the Tofana/Col Druscie area which can be accessed by lift and has a couple of restaurants. Socrepes can be driven or bussed to and has plenty of terrain for a little one to play around on with a number of restaurants. There is also Cinque Torre if people don't mind a slightly longer drive.
Rather than one parent and the child staying at resort level whilst the other one skis, they could all go part way up the mountain making it easier to change over. I have seen this happening with Italian families whilst I've been there and the kids seemed to be perfectly happy playing about whilst their parents swapped skiing for babysitting duties. If you are only doing relatively short laps does it matter that the place doesn't offer vast networked skiing? Although I do agree that it wouldn't work if you needed to come back down to resort to change over.
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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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Mr Technique, I can't really think of anywhere that fits your description of 'front de neige' as found in purpose-built french resorts, most of the Dolomite resorts have grown organically from small villages and the terrain tends to dictate one lift per slope rather than multiple long lifts departing from the same point.
The area around the nursery slopes in Selva has quite a few hotels with cafe terraces, that would be an interesting spot to play with the little one while the other one could go up on the Dantercepies gondola and take the nice red variants back down. On this hotel's website are some nice views of the area I'm describing
http://www.hotelmiravalle.it/en/lage.htm
On a sunny day , you could head up the Ciampinoi gondola on the other side of the valley, there's a restaurant at the top with a large terrace and some flat areas, from here there are red runs down in 3 directions with lifts back up. Here's a 360 panorama taken from this point (If you can get it to open):
http://www.val-gardena.com/en/ciampinoi/page109.html
Hope this helps.
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My first thought was Corvara, I haven't stayed there but there seemed to be a "front de neige" in at least two of the three directions in which you can ski (broadly vs Arabba, Selva and San Cassiano).
Or the very little Plan de Gralba?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| dsoutar wrote: |
| Arabba isn't too bad. Hotel Mesdi http://www.hotelmesdi.com/en/location.html which I've stayed in a few times and would recommend is very close to skiing and right by slopes (also has a decent bar / cafe slopeside too). Town has a few decent cafes and decent skiing all round. As well as lift hotel side of road which has a reasonable run back from top, opposite side of the road is the cable car and several decent runs back to village from there |
I agree that Mesdi is about the most on-snow hotel in town.
I was talking to the 'president' of the Arabba tourist office last Winter.
Heading from the Mesdi (ie. Behind the Portavescovo) toward the cable car u have to stop at the road and walk through a car park which is a total non-event on the way around the Sela Ronda circuit. I asked why they didn't turn the car park into a nice little snow-piazza surrounded by ski-shops, cafés and restaurants and he explained that they had been considering it for 10 yrs the competing interests in town couldn't agree how to share the benefit of it - typical  So, they had decided to cut the crap and just stick a chair lift in over to the Gondola side. The intention was to do so for this season. It'll be a great improvement if they've got around to it - I wonder if they have?
Specifically re. the OP: Arabba does fit the bill as you described it but, if one of you is going to be 'stuck' there each day, you should note that it's not much of a town for non-skiers' : there really aren't many shops or anything. You often drive out, no? A good thing about that area is that the mountain passes between towns are high enough that they intertwine with the pistes to some degree. So for example, the road from Arabba to Corvara goes through 'Passo Compolongo' where there are a few lifts and a hotel/restau right next to the road. Many of the eateries on the mountain are accessible by road as well as the piste as they are placed at the head of the pass. I think, if you were based in Arabba with a car, apart from Arabba itself, you could probably pick a new 'base' each day, some barely 10 mins away and most within 20-30 minutes drive.
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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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| luigi wrote: |
| Mr Technique, I can't really think of anywhere that fits your description of 'front de neige' as found in purpose-built french resorts, most of the Dolomite resorts have grown organically from small villages and the terrain tends to dictate one lift per slope rather than multiple long lifts departing from the same point. |
No, I couldn't either  hence the thread.
Cheers for all the suggestions everyone. Maximising skiing time isn't very important here, neither is off-slope activity. Most of the time we anticipate will be spent building snowmen and wiping bums. Hopefully with a quick slide now and again inbetween times.
Arabba still in the lead I think.
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| Mr Technique wrote: |
| Most of the time we anticipate will be spent building snowmen and wiping bums. |
Yes, but don't forget you have Technique Jr with you as well this time.
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You know it makes sense.
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He'll be here all week. Try the veal.
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