Just back from Canezei (Val di Fassa / Dolomites / Sella Ronda)

Just back from an enjoyable week based in Canezei. It snowed the weekend we
arrived which helped the week but the snow was disappearing rapidly by the
end of the week. Much of Canezei has returned to brown fields and sitting in
the cafe this morning had more of a feel of late spring that early March.

The conditions on the upper slopes are still good if they are north facing
albeit hard packed. The south facing slopes are really suffering with heavy,
slushy spring-like snow by late morning. I went around the Sella Ronda on
Friday morning in the clockwise direction. The south facing slopes between
Corvara and Arraba are awful - I hated them :-) The button lift in this part
of the circuit is a real leg killer!

Also, Canezei is really not a good resort for beginners (say 1st and 2nd
week). Although the middle part of the Belvidere has some nice runs, the
only way to back down is via the churned up, heavy red run. In fact, there
is only one blue run on the high mountain I think. It means that a nervous
beginner will struggle to get out the Belvadere area esp. with these spring
like snow conditions. Corvara would be a better choice.

The highlight of the week though was an organised trip to Chinqui-Torri
(excuse my Italian) and the "Hidden Valley" - a run from high above Corvara
(North East) incorporating a horse-pulled section though an almost level
blue section. Can't recommend it highly enough. Excellent snow conditions,
quiet and beautiful scenery down the hidden valley including a frozen
waterfall.

So the Sella Ronda area is intermediate heaven but get out early to try and
minimise the time spent on the heavy reds, unless you like that kind of
thing (which I think infers expert).

Cheers, Rob.

Just back from an enjoyable week based in Canezei. It snowed the weekend
we

PS. The skibus sucked the week we were there - one morning, nothing turned
up for over an hour. Next day wasn't much better with a 30 min wait.

The queues weren't quite as expected either - many of the main lifts had
considerable queues.

Cheers, Rob.

On Sun, 04 Mar 2007 00:22:52 GMT, "Rob"
wrote:

Just back from an enjoyable week based in Canezei. It snowed the weekend
we

PS. The skibus sucked the week we were there - one morning, nothing turned
up for over an hour. Next day wasn't much better with a 30 min wait.

The queues weren't quite as expected either - many of the main lifts had
considerable queues.


Next time, go in January :-)

Better queues, usually better snow.

But if you have school age kids, or are a teacher, you don't really
have that choice :-(
--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
How many of you believe in telekinesis? Raise MY hand!
To reply by email, my address is alexATheneyDOTplusDOTcom