 Poster: A snowHead
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Currently in selva till the weekend and thought of doing the hidden valley tommorow or Friday. Is it worth the trek? Can it be done on skis from selva or shall we drive as we have our car here. Thanks in advance.
Any other tips on this trip?
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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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Definitely worth trip, did it from Selva last year
Amazing scenery
Lift and Ski most of way, cant remember the name of place, you take a shared minibus 5 euro (armontolo ?) to the cable car,
Two nice refugios for lunch, as you desend. easy red
On your left the biggest frozen waterfall, I've ever seen
The hidden valley flattens out quiet a but at bottom, from there horses pull skiers on a rope (makeshift lift)
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If you head over the other side of Alta Badia towards San Cassiano and then go to Armenterola - get a taxi from there and it's not far. When you get to Armenterola there is an organised minibus/taxi queue, like queuing for a lift, but they put you in a taxi or coach instead. Five euros gets you to the gondola taking you up to the Hidden Valley. The queue looks big, but moves fairly quickly. A spectacular ride up to the viewing platform, where the views are fabulous. The initial slope off the platform gives you two options. Turn right at the bottom to return to the Gondola or off towards Cinq Torre, but for the Hidden Valley, TURN LEFT. Ski down, stop, look, take pics and you will eventually get to the horses. Position yourself next to a loop in the rope and pay the man 2 euros, laugh at the fat bloke who falls over, hang on until it stops. Pole along 200mts of flat to the button lift, up the button then ski off to the right down to a bubble and back towards your destination. Setting off from Canazei at nine last year, we were on the bus about half ten, easily doable.
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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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Exactly as mfamily2, says. I strongly recommend doing the Cinque Torri bit while you are there too. Stunning place to ski. If you don't fancy the horses, you can avoid the flat by getting a taxi to Armentrola from the road just past the restaurant where the flats start. Usual system of fill the minibus and €5 each. Worth it, especailly if you are worried about getting back, which you shouldn't be.
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daveqpr, To get to Amerenterola from Selva take the lift up to Dantercepies and ski the long run to Colfosco, then take the flat chair to Corvara and then the Bubble to Col Alt via a small chairlift that gains you the height to ski down through the streets of Corvara. From Col Alt Amerenterola is signposted. From memory it took us about 1 hr 40 mins to ski there. Well worth it. It was our best ski day last year.
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Chris Bish, for a strong intermediate do you reckon it would be realistic to ski from Selva over to the Hidden Valley and also do the Cinque Torri in a single day before skiing back to Selva?
Ideally I'd like to: get from Selva to Lagazuoi, ski the Lagazuoi black run down to the base station of the cable car a few times, then head over to Cinque Torri, ski that, go back to Lagazuoi (on the bus or (?) the new chairlift), ski the Hidden Valley (including a 1-hour stop for lunch at Rifugio Scotoni), then on down to the horses, drag to Armentarola and ski back to Selva.
Sounds ambitious. How long does it take to get from Selva to Lagazuoi?
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Idlehands –
We skied from Canazei and back easily in a day and had a 1hr lunch, set off on first lifts and enjoy,
strong intermediate skier will easily cover this.
Have fun.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| idlehands wrote: |
| Ideally I'd like to: ....ski the Lagazuoi black run down to the base station of the cable car a few times |
It's a nice run down but I think it's marked in red - or did I perhaps miss a turning somewhere?
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Red Leon, The run back to the bottom of the base station is black, I don't think its that long.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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idlehands, I don't think you will have much of a problem. Running through it in my mind, there are a couple of lifts between Selva and Corvara, where you get on the each-way Borest chair. Most of the way down to that is gentle-gradient cruising. Not sure if you want to walk through the streets to get to the yellow Col Alt (Delete??) lift or take the little magic carpet up to the chair, cross the road on the wooden bridge and then ski down to the Col Alt. Top of the Col Alt you go left to a chair and then you are in sight of the top of the San Cassiano system. One blue hoon gets you to Armentrola. On reflection, that is quite a complex route. You might waste a lot of time looking at not-very-good piste maps!
It seems like a long way, but even allowing for WTFAW time under two hours at cruising speed. The bus/taxi at Armentrola will not delay you long. I'm not sure that black from the top of Laguzio is worth more than one trip. It is nice, but not a black as such, and I don't think it is graded black any more. (It used to be - maybe it was unpisted then.) Added to that, if you are going to get held up anywhere, it will be the queues for the Laguzio cable car, which I believe are unpredictable.
My personal view is to say spend some time at Cinque Torri. Not so much for the skiing (usually deserted - even at half-term) as for the views. It is even more stunningly beautiful than the Sella.
Assuming the lift queue for the cable-car is OK, then the best way to get to the Cinque Torri is to go down the erstwhile black from the top. You come back to the road, but opposite a chair. Go up this chair and keep right as you come down the run. You will spot a path through the woods on the right about 3/4 of the way down. Keep some speed and you will whoosh to the modern chair at the bottom of the Cinqu Torri bit in no time. You are now in the Cortina area, by the way. Two nice steepish reds back to same fast chair. You can take the single chair (honest) to the top, a bit of rope tow and you can get down the other side. Always deserted here. I once watched from the chair as the only two skiers on the fast red collided! Clanky old two-man chair back to top. Turn right quite early off this red to pick up a trail to an invisible chair that goes through a gap in the hills. From here, you can work your way back to the bottom of Laguzio, down Hidden Valley run to horse-powered drag (or taxi, which is quicker and gets you to the Armentrola drag sooner) and back via Corvara and Dantercepies.
A biggish day, but if you are skiing "next lift" rather than "stop at the second cannon for a breather" (done both!) you will get round with time to spare. A lovely day.
Last edited by snowHeads are a friendly bunch. on Thu 12-01-12 22:08; edited 1 time in total
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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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Red Leon, tiffin, its colour depends which map you look at.
(Edited now I've nipped upstairs and checked maps!):
On the Dolomiti ski area map the run from the top of the lift down to the bottom is black. If you go off to the Hidden Valley it is red.
On the Cortina maps that they hand out at that lift it is red both ways.
I think we did both right (to go to Cinque Torre) and left for Hidden Valley and I'd say they were both just red.
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I agree with Wigan -
Some of the maps detail the run to Cinqu Torre as Black but at best its a Red, nothing difficult.
Nice run down for some good carving if not to busy.
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You know it makes sense.
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It was certainly marked as red (and was a red - I am not brave) when I skied it 17th March 2011. Older maps seem to show it as black - hence my theory that it used to be unpisted, which might blacken it. Nice enough run.
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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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| Chris Bish wrote: |
Assuming the lift queue for the cable-car is OK, then the best way to get to the Cinque Torri is to go down the erstwhile black from the top. You come back to the road, but opposite a chair. Go up this chair and keep right as you come down the run. You will spot a path through the woods on the right about 3/4 of the way down. Keep some spped and you will whoosh to the modern chair at the bottom of the Cinqu Torri bit in no time. You are now in the Cortina area, by the way. Two nice steepish reds back to same fast chair. You can take the single chair (honest) to the top, a bit of rope tow and you can get down the other side. Always deserted here. I once watched from the chair as the only two skiers on the fast red collided! Clanky old two-man chair back to top. Turn left quite early off this red to pick up a trail to an invisible chair that goes through a gap in the hills.
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On the other side of Cinque Torri I think the trail off to the "invisible" chair is on the right hand side as you ski down the main run, not to the left.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Ok we did this today. It was well worth the trip. We boarded the dantercepties at about 8.30 and arrived at the hidden valley cable car at 10.10 so I agree 1.4 hours was about right from selva. However, my wife is not a strong skiier so it could be done even quicker. The weather was superb today with 100% blue skies and no wind at all. We done the run of the hidden valley via a gluewhein stop half way down and then got the horse lift, that was great fun and well worth it. We then skied at few alta batia runs before having lunch at colfessco. A few more runs then back to selva for some après, and I'm just about to cook a steak dinner.
All in all a great day and thanks all for the tips. Will post a few pics when we get back.
Tomorrow is col raiser.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Ok we did this today. It was well worth the trip. We boarded the dantercepties at about 8.30 and arrived at the hidden valley cable car at 10.10 so I agree 1.4 hours was about right from selva. However, my wife is not a strong skiier so it could be done even quicker. The weather was superb today with 100% blue skies and no wind at all. We done the run of the hidden valley via a gluewhein stop half way down and then got the horse lift, that was great fun and well worth it. We then skied at few alta batia runs before having lunch at colfessco. A few more runs then back to selva for some après, and I'm just about to cook a steak dinner.
All in all a great day and thanks all for the tips. Will post a few pics when we get back.
Tomorrow is col raiser.
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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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daveqpr, What is the piste condition? I am flying out there on Saturday?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Alastair Pink, You are right. I will edit.
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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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| mfamily2 wrote: |
| daveqpr, What is the piste condition? I am flying out there on Saturday? |
Piste conditions are excellent with the snow from the beginning of the week and the cold temps since then, though today was a beautiful sunny day and slightly warmer. There is not enough snow for any off piste.
Incidentally the black run from the top of the hidden valley is shut as the snow is too thin, so won't open till they have a good dump. This doesn't apply to any other run as they all have good depth. However a few patches are now getting a bit worn, though this doesn't affect your fun at all yet. Needless to say more snow would be welcome.
It was also quite marked the difference in snow between here and Austria. On our journey here last Friday we drove through really heavy snow and the whole place was covered in a thick blanket. Even though they got some in the Dolomites it was clear to see as we drove through the border on Saturday the difference in snow levels. Don't let that worry you though.
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daveqpr, Many thanks, enjoy your day.
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Great info, thanks all. We will be there in 2 weeks' time - can't wait!
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