J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Wanderer

...... and UK residents will probably be able to hire a car in Switzerland and drive it into Austria or France without concerns about Customs (currently not allowed under EU Customs laws).

Even the crappyiest cloud can have a silver lining :roll:

Cortina d'Ampezzo looks to be one of the closer resorts to Venice (2 hours from the airport according to google maps). If you are prepared to travel a little further, pretty much anywhere on the Sella Ronda will give you access to wonderful almost limitless skiing.

flat country skier wrote:yes, a good choice for a beginner.

Selva itself is probably not a brilliant base for beginners. There is an area for pure beginners near the bottom of the Dantercepies lift but I am not sure where you would progress to from there. Most of the runs back to the valley are black or relatively difficult reds, especially for the evening home run. Even up on the mountain, there can be a few tricky link runs that would be challenging for beginners. Alpe de Suisi would be a great area for beginners with lots of fairly easy slopes and nice blues to progress on but would be a little bit of a journey from Selva (lift out of Ortesei). There are a few easy blues in the Monte Pana area as well but again beginners would probably have to travel down to S. Christina and take a lift up from there.

oscarbigfeet wrote:We had our first visit to the area last Feb and loved it, lift system is superb. as already said the Ronda is something to do but its certainly not the best of the skiing available. I'd recommend a trip down to Poza, easy access by following the green route to the cable car at Belveder go down in it to Alba 20 paces across to the gondola up to Ciampac and two chairlifts later your skiing down into Poza on one of the best runs(there are red and black options-red is superb) in the entire area, from Bufffaure into Poza. Simply follow the orange route back to base. Enjoy.

While the Buffaure/Pozza area is good, it might be a bit of a struggle to get over there from Val Gardena and back before the lifts close without putting yourself under too much pressure. However, it is an excellent example of the numerous small (connected) ski areas that you can easily reach off the Sella Ronda. Because they typically have only a very small number of runs, they tend to be very quiet and you will often have them practically to yourself :thumbup: .

A "stealth change" suggests that something underhand is going on. This is not the case - it is simply the authorities in France and Austria ensuring that (mainly) young people are no longer exploited by the tour operators. While it may be a pain to see the cost of these types of holidays increasing or not even been made available, it really is only fair that staff should be fairly treated.

Don't forget, the tour operators are generally very large multi-nationals who are in it solely for profit. These are the people that load up a €300 surcharge per person on families that are stuck to the mid-term break for their ski holiday :twisted:

You haven't said when in March you will be there. The Skiwelt area normally starts to wind down around mid-March due to its low altitude so you should check the resort websites to see when the season ends, bearing in mind that they can start to close down various sections and links before the resort officially closes. At that time of year, you would normally need to consider going high or stick to resorts with glaciers. It is a great area and Soll is a great base but it might be a bit late. Kaprun itself would be an obvious choice but you clearly want to try somewhere else. Mayrhofen/Hintertux might be an option (c.2 hours drive from Kaprun). Mayrhofen could be suffering by then (depending on the weather at that time) but the Hintertux will definitely still be fine.

Accommodation should be fairly easy to find in most resorts at that time of year.

I too struggle with the question of what type of skis to hire. I have been skiing for over 25 years now and am a confident on-piste skier. Unfortunately, I have never managed to gain any competence in powder. I usually tend to go for the "red" grade of hire skis, on the assumption that the entry level skis are either pretty old or will not be up to higher speed skiing (without really having any evidence to support this belief). I typically do not apply any other criteria and accept whatever I am handed by the hire shop, other than length (up to my chin!).

On a couple of occasions recently, I decided to upgrade to the "premium" category (usually in resorts where the price difference is relatively modest). However, I found that the skis I got were extremely heavy and stiff. It may have been down to the limitations of my technique but I found them very difficult to control (albeit in soft slushy conditions on both occasions) and certainly did not enjoy the experience. On each occasion, I had to return to the hire shop with my tail between my legs and ask for something "more forgiving" :oops: .

At this stage, I think I am resigned to the fact that I should be satisfied with the "red" level skis and not agonise about the issue any more!

While I do not ski powder (because I can't and I am not sure that my ancient knees are up to learning at this stage of my life), I would fully accept the views expressed about the value of special fat skis for those seeking to venture off-piste.

Firstly, the Dolomites are brilliant, especially for adventurous intermediates. Selva is a great base but definitely go for whole area pass.

You can easily head off in either direction on the Sella Ronda. The Sella itself is a bit of a slog and I prefer to think of it as the M25 which you use to get to another ski area. There are lots of little ski areas linked into the Sella and it well worth diverting off to them for much quieter slopes and often very good ones. A particular favourite area of mine is Monte Pana which is not far from Selva. It only has a few runs but they are wonderful (Alpha, Bravo and Charlie - all worth doing). Another "day trip" worth considering is over to Alpe di Suisi. You get a bus from the bottom of Monte Pana - it is a typical ski bus but travels over narrow forestry roads - definitely interesting (unfortunately, it is not on the lift pass - I think it is about €6 return). Alpe di Suisi is a high plateau with relatively easy skiing. It has a very relaxed vibe about it. The Hidden Valley is another possible excursion. It is a bit of a trek and if I am being honest, I am not convinced it is worth it. You do get a very long red run down from the top through a completely unspoilt valley but some of it is pathways.

The area is full of excursions that you can do which is one of the reasons I love it. The lift infrastructure is generally excellent but do watch your return times if you venture into other valleys if you want to avoid expensive taxi rides home.