 Poster: A snowHead
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Currently in San Cassiano and it's been snowing continuously since we arrived last night. There's a good 6 inches outside the hotel, and we're only about 1550m I think.
It got very choppy on piste this afternoon, with all the fresh snow on the base from last week, but hopefully will be nicer tomorrow when the bashers have been out and compacted it a bit.
Temps were just below zero this morning, but it got a bit unpleasant this afternoon when the wind got up and the temperature dropped.
We've had a good day finding our bearings between San Cassiano and Corvara, though we had a bit of bother late on when we reached the top of Pralongia only to find the San Cassiano piste closed due to an avalanche. We had to peg it back to Corvara to find another route! Nice adventure with freezing extremities, mogulled pistes, limited visibility and trying to beat the lifts closing  We were glad of the tea and cake!
Forecast is for the snow to clear sometime tomorrow morning and for Wednesday to be sunnier.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Off to Selva for Easter, what odds would people give for being able to ski back into resort?
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Scarlet, will be inetresting to hear about the WW1 tour. Presumeably it is just the name of a route rather than any particular artifacts or interpretation ? The front line was just to the east of the Sella Ronda at the Col de Lana and the Passo Falzerego, although the Austrians had a sizeable garrison holding the Marmalada, even sheltering inside the glacier
There's a good museum part way up the Marmalada cable car which is worth a visit.
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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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Can anybody update us on the current snow conditions?
Cheers!
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Apart from some cloud and light snow at altitude yesterday afternoon, it has been sunny for the last few days. Spring conditions are in now, with smooth, but hard pistes in the morning, nice in the middle of the day, till it turns to slush in the afternoon.
Some pistes without cannon cover are full of bare patches, notably pistes 9 and 6 in the San Cassiano area. Most of Monday's fresh snow has melted off the sides of the valleys lower down, especially where it gets the sun all day. Pistes with snow cannons are generally ok, but there are a number of white ribbons to be found below about 1550m.
The black/red piste at Lagazuoi was in lovely condition this morning so we went up and did it again. The black down to La Villa from the top of the gondola was also pretty good this afternoon as it was in the shade, and the red off Boé gondola back to Corvara which was very lumpy a few days ago was nice too.
The best snow is to be found high up or with an aspect that doesn't get the sun all day. We didn't go off piste, but snow cover seems to be thin or non-existent there.
Peter S, we did the Sella Ronda instead that day, but did go up the Marmolada yesterday. Unfortunately the museum in the gondola station closes for lunch so we couldn't go in, but I can inform you that the cafe in the same building does do excellent tiramisu 
We saw a fortress/museum on the road up to Lagazuoi in the taxi from Armentarola which looked interesting though, and there is a fair bit of info available at Lagazuoi.
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Just finished our second day in the Dolomites. We are staying at the Hotel Pralong in Selva which I would highly recommend.
There doesn't seem to have been snow here for a while with a lot of grass visible at the side of the pistes. The snow that is on the pistes however has been kept in tip top condition although with the high temperatures at the moment there are some runs which are getting very mogulled. We haven't found any pistes closed yet so its not spoiling our ability to explore a beautiful region.
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Was in Hotel Pralong new year 2004, no snow any where apart from the piests, Im booked up for the dolomites for march 31st in corvara wondering whether to switch resorts. What like was it onthe sella ronda?
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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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Bjorn Toulouse, All the pistes are absolutely great. Some get a bit soft and slushy in the afternoon but that's to be expected with the fine weather and warm temperatures at the moment. The slopes above Corvara are all in great shape. Snow is also expected early next week.
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SCollier1, thank you, sounds good! Out to the dolomites this weekend 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| SCollier1 wrote: |
| Bjorn Toulouse, All the pistes are absolutely great. Some get a bit soft and slushy in the afternoon but that's to be expected with the fine weather and warm temperatures at the moment. The slopes above Corvara are all in great shape. Snow is also expected early next week. |
Thanks for the update. I do fancy going back to the dolomites but I'm headging my bets
I have an option on livigno so I'll wait and see closer to the time.
Thats the one good thing about going the ryanaire hire car route. 3.5 hrs to Corvara 4.5 Livigno I booked verona purly for the dolomites though!
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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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Sadly,jimmybog, snow is whiter than that.
Just got back from San Cassiano. We had good freeze-thaw conditions more like April than March, but perfectly skiable if you could put up with the heavy stuff in the afternoon. There is a reasonable amount of snow left on piste, but brown patches are appearing and you need to pick your slopes with care in the afternoon. Some lower routes are closed which means you cannot get back from Pralongia to San Cassiano without going via Corvara. There was no difficulty in getting round the Sella Ronda, the Hidden Valley is still good as far as the horses and the shady side of Cinque Torri is nice. Cortina is real only skiable at the top and is suffering. From La Villa up to Santa Croce is a good trip with nice snow above Pedraces, even though it is only a strip of white across the fields.
We had a great week and plenty of good skiing, so do not worry if you are going there soon. Pack at least factor 30 though!
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You know it makes sense.
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| Chris Bish wrote: |
Sadly,jimmybog, snow is whiter than that.
Just got back from San Cassiano. We had good freeze-thaw conditions more like April than March, but perfectly skiable if you could put up with the heavy stuff in the afternoon. There is a reasonable amount of snow left on piste, but brown patches are appearing and you need to pick your slopes with care in the afternoon. Some lower routes are closed which means you cannot get back from Pralongia to San Cassiano without going via Corvara. There was no difficulty in getting round the Sella Ronda, the Hidden Valley is still good as far as the horses and the shady side of Cinque Torri is nice. Cortina is real only skiable at the top and is suffering. From La Villa up to Santa Croce is a good trip with nice snow above Pedraces, even though it is only a strip of white across the fields.
We had a great week and plenty of good skiing, so do not worry if you are going there soon. Pack at least factor 30 though!
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Sadly I'm not going there soon as I've just returned from a week in Austria. Just like to check the web cams now and again as thats where I skied the last two years.
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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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Also got back on Sunday from Selva.
Snow was in amazing condition given that the temperature in resort was a fairly consistent 16-18 C during the day for the entire week we were there. It was like a summer holiday, I've never known skiing like it, apart from one August on the glacier above Zermatt.
Best to be up early and in by 2, which suited us well as we had little ones to pick up from snow clubs etc by then.
Like Chris Bish said, there are a fair few bare patches lower down but they seemed to be being patched up overnight with efficient grooming (no cannons going during our stay I don't think, too warm even at night).
The nursery slopes at Nives were in surprisingly good nick given the temperatures and lack of natural snow. The runs under the Saslong chair lift and further down were in good condition - bit icy, but that's got to be better than that awful sugary mush that appeared elsewhere come 1 pm...
As of saturday 17th (our last ski day) you could still ski back down from plan de gralba into selva - it was funny going up the final chair to the top of the Nives area though, the hillside beneath it was completely bare and the smell of defrosting manure was noticeable.
We found the runs down off the Ciampinoi toward Plan de Gralba quite tough going - mogulled and mushy. Especially irritating given that a) we are crap skiers and b) that there didn't seem to be an efficient bus service between selva centre and Plan, and that a taxi cost between 15 and 20 eur.
Good holiday though. Would return.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Ah yes, we got the 9.05 bus one day but it was a bit of a tall order getting down into town to catch it and getting two little kids fed, up and out to nursery by 8.40 am. It's just a shame they don't run more frequent buses up to P de G. The reason for the rubbish service, according to our local source was that the local taxi drivers were vehemently opposed to losing business (surprise surprise). Have been to cortina before and their ski buses are excellent and fairly frequent.
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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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robertsnerys, You probably found it but there is an easier route down from Ciampinoi to PdG rather than the steep wide red. It involves going the other way from the top as if to Selva and then down a narrowish but not so steep red to Plan de Gralba
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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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| robertsnerys wrote: |
| Ah yes, we got the 9.05 bus one day but it was a bit of a tall order getting down into town to catch it and getting two little kids fed, up and out to nursery by 8.40 am. It's just a shame they don't run more frequent buses up to P de G. The reason for the rubbish service, according to our local source was that the local taxi drivers were vehemently opposed to losing business (surprise surprise). Have been to cortina before and their ski buses are excellent and fairly frequent. |
Yeah I quite believe this about the taxi drivers. When you are at Plan or Plan De Grabla you'll notice lots of taxis driving round. And 15-20 Euros for a 5 minute journey is just an absolute rip off in my view.
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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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| pjd wrote: |
| robertsnerys, You probably found it but there is an easier route down from Ciampinoi to PdG rather than the steep wide red. It involves going the other way from the top as if to Selva and then down a narrowish but not so steep red to Plan de Gralba |
pjd - I get confused about which run is easier down to PdG from the top of Ciampinoi. I remember going down the first or nearest (or so I thought) run to the gondola station. The top part of this run was quite steep and narrow but then became wider. I thought this run was quite difficult being a beginner at the time. Is this the easier run you are talking about or is this the harder one?
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20cm of fresh overnight, gave rise to fanstatic condtions..
well I can dream but it was nice and sunny, and they've done a good job of keeping it open
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| bertie bassett wrote: |
20cm of fresh overnight, gave rise to fanstatic condtions..
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jimmybog, That sounds like the easier one. If you have the piste map in front of you, it's the one on the left. Having said that, if it's still not that easy and I would not take beginners or near beginners down it.
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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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great conditions today on the pistes around the cinque torre, best snow we've skied todate. Loverly run home down the hidden valley.
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good conditions today for a clockwise sella ronda, bit slushy lower down but higher up was good, especially on the n-facing slopes. Should be open for a bit longer even if they don't get much more snow.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| bertie bassett wrote: |
| good conditions today for a clockwise sella ronda, bit slushy lower down but higher up was good, especially on the n-facing slopes. Should be open for a bit longer even if they don't get much more snow. |
I'm out on 31 march getting a bit worried looking at webcams and forecast. Stopping in Arabba so at least the Marmolada should be OK and the Belvedere area still looks OK on webcams.
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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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You know it makes sense.
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For anyone heading out in the next week or two you can see a slideshow of conditions from last week in this post.
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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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Poster: A snowHead
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2 SRs and a M added up to 29 lifts, 11,519m of descent and 62km that day. I was somewhat in a state at the end of it all though 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Perfect blue skies and very hot temperatures and they are still keeping all of the Sella Ronda area runs open.
I have skied this area 5 times now and have never seen the slopes so quiet,I mean really quiet.
We have often skied runs and not seen another skier,it is simply awesome. Skied the saslong black and red over the last 2 days both with excellent snow conditions.
Marmolada yesterday was the only time we had to wait for a lift,approx 10 mins and the snow at the top was excellent.
2 more days of sunshine forecast,so tomorrow off to hidden valley and my favourite cheeseburger stop in La Villa,excellent.
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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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johnmac1956, I am going to Arabba on Saturday with Colletts, you have given me some hope here.
Received an email rom Colletts today, who informed me that the Pedraces Badia area closes at the weekend and looking at the Webcams I can see why.
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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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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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What are the snow conditions like at Selva Val Gardena at the moment? Going there on 8th April - Will snow last!!
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I am off to selva on Sunday, are you still able to ski back down into the resort? 
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Yes,the runs into Selva are all open at the moment.
Had a great run on the Dante yesterday afternoon and the saslong was also excellent.
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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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Looking at the webcams of the lack of snow in the Dolomites and you really have to hand it to the pisteurs for keeping any runs open. I know they have a good reputation for this but they have certainly earnt their pay this winter. I couldn't believe yesterday on a webcam that someone was actually skiing on the learner slope in Selva. How they managed to keep that slope open at village level in the current conditions is beyond me.
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Snowforecsat are showing a very heavy fall in Val Gardena by next wednesday....although it will probably change again by then !
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FAQ
I was well up to my thighs in snow, but still couldn't find the ground to stand up properly, and had to crawl out 
