Day 5 - Thursday, we decided to tackle the long journey over to the Lagazuoi ski tour. According to Google maps, the base of the cable car was 47km from our hotel by road :shock: . The journey over was lovely though many of the slopes were completely brown with only a white slick for the piste. Despite this, the pistes were in great shape
. Unfortunately, on the last run down to the shuttle up to the base of the cable car, my daughter had a minor fall. She subsequently went into shock and we had a lengthy delay at the top of the cable car as the medics fed her sugar to get her over it. Thankfully, a delayed lunch, she was able to ski on. The long "Hidden Valley" run down was actually a bit of a disappointment. Somewhat icy in places and not helped by being a narrow track for long stretches. Having said that the views were spectacular. When you get to the bottom, there is a long flat section. They have horse drawn tows to get you past this section. Quite a novelty but takes a while to "load up" and get going :D .
Signposting to get there and get back was very poor. I had downloaded a list of lifts that I needed to take which helped but we still managed to take a wrong turn on the way back. This combined with my daughter's earlier wobble meant that we were not able to make it all the way back to our hotel :evil: . A couple of beers were had in
Arabba before an expensive taxi ride home.
Day 6 Friday - the weather was closing in with some fog up high and snow forecast so we stayed in our own valley - basically skiing in the Col Rodella and Belvedere areas.
Nice long runs down to the valley from either side. given the conditions, we indulged in a long lunch in Rifugio Frederick August to the side of Col Rodella. It has a giant statue of a bull on the way down to it and its own short little drag to get you back on the slopes. The food was excellent though not cheap.
Day 7 Saturday. Bright sunshine again and we headed over towards Selva and down the wonderful Sasslong piste. It was in great shape and very quiet so high speeds were the order of the day :mrgreen: . Much fun had. We then took the funicular up to the Col Raiser side. After lunch at the top and a couple of runs up there we headed down the aptly named La Longia - a 10km long red into Ortesei. Its a wonderful run. A toss up between the Sasslong and it for my favourite run of the week, though Alpha and Bravo above Monte Pana are firm friends as well -) .
Headed down into Canazei after skiing for the Ireland v France rugby match. Watched it in the bar in the Dolomiti Hotel. Had expected a bit of a crowd but we were the only group watching. Dave Mac had said he might get in but unfortunately, I didn't get to meet him. Still, a good Irish victory was most welcome :thumbup: .
Day 8 - Sunday. We had time for a few hours skiing before heading to the airport for a late flight. Didn't venture too far but still made it over to Monte Pana for a last go at the Alpha/Bravo slopes. Managed about 4 hours skiing before we had to leave :( .
After a quick shower and change headed off. The traffic on the way to Bergamo was very heavy but kept moving so the journey took us a little longer than expected but within our contingency :thumbup:
Overall a fantastic trip and my love affair with the Dolomites deepens. The area is simply vast and the sense of touring that you can have is wonderful. Despite little or no snow for ages, the pistes were in super condition while the lift infrastructure is generally excellent. Add in good quality food and drink at very reasonable prices and lovely people, there is not much to dislike :mrgreen:
Most unusually, we did not meet another Irish person on the entire trip. The hotel was mostly filled with Italians with a few Germans, Swedes and a family from the Czech Republic. Not a lot of Brits about - a stronger presence in the Arabba and Alpe de Suisi areas. It seems fairly popular with the Swedes with busloads of them driving all the way :shock: .
One of the Horse tows returning to pick up more customers!
View from top of Lagazoui at 2800m
Another view from top of Lagazoui at 2800m.
