Dolomiti Seconda Parte - Wkd. March 16

For those of you that don't remember, I went to the Dolomites during the prior year to ski the Sella Ronda loop (see Dolomites post on March 1, 2016).  Unfortunately, this first attempt was unsuccessful as the result of my smart car being unable to handle the snow.  For St. Patrick's day this year, I went back with friends to the region to attempt the loop again.

We arrived on March 16th in Venice and did some sightseeing on the island the first days before starting the drive to La Villa (Alta Badia).  



Venice Pier

Immediately upon landing, we ran into our first trip hiccup as the rental car was accidentally booked for the following weekend; luckily, this was quickly solved when talking to the rental desk.  Once this happened, I did a quick re-check of the hotel dates and realized that I had also booked our hotel for one day late and immediately contacted the hotel for help and was told they were full, but would call the neighboring resorts to try to find an alternative and would call me back in 30 min.

After 30 minutes, the hotel called and said they had an extra room in a condo near the hotel for rent for 400 EUR, which I decided I would accept in order to not be homeless although very steep.

After the 2.5 hour drive, we arrived and the hotel was able to rearrange and rooms for us to stay the duration of our visit at our original location, with no added cost, the only casualty being that I was now forced to sleep on the couch for the trip.  I felt this was a minimal price to pay after almost single-handedily ruining the weekend!

All three days of skiing we had were quite sunny and warm (50-60 degrees Fahrenheit), but the snow was quite good.  I did not realize, but this area of Italy is also considered as part of Tirol (Austrian) so I had yet another week of pizza and Wiener schnitzel.


Lunch on the Hill


On day one of skiing, we spent most of our time in Alta Badia and Corvara.  This day brought back many memories of skiing down the Gran Risa World Cup piste.

For day two, we skied the Sella Ronda loop and it took 6:15 including stops for wrong turns, lunch, and Après ski.  The Sella Ronda is a loop of runs/lifts that connects several cities (Corvara, Via Fasso, Arabba, and Gardena) around the central rock formation of the Dolomites (Sella).  The terrain is not challenging, but does take time as we skied 21.7 miles.  The loop was a lot of fun and great way to see the full resort.

For day three, we skied the Lagazuoi tour, which requires a cable car to one of the highest points of the Dolomites and then the run down takes over an hour and requires being towed by horseback for the last portion of the trip.  Scenery was gorgeous and a great great run to finalize the Dolomite trip!

Top of  Lagazuoi

Trail of skiers towed by horse after ski tour

We arrived back in Geneva where I think got home at 10p, unpacked, then repacked for a work flight at 9a the following morning!

   

Après Ski at Top of Gran Risa

Austria Ski Trip

I haven't had many updates in quite sometime.

  

Since November.....

 

1) I was in the US most of December for scaphoid surgery and to spend time with friends and family.

2) In January, only skied once for a friend's birthday weekend as I was in a cast and was working nonstop.

3) I was in the US all of February for US busy season and to get my cast removed on Feb. 17 (2.5 month after surgery).

...and now it's March...

After returning from the US, I worked one week and then took a week off from work for a ski week in Austria.  This was my first trip to Ski in Austria and I went with Marc, Steve, and Adam and Milena also joined.

As the Americans were to arrive late Saturday in Zurich, I spent Saturday morning with a skiing warm-up in France and took advantage of having a rental car.  This turned out to be an extremely good idea as it was then I discovered that the initial car I was given had a Magnesium roof (not magnetic) that was incompatible with the ski rack the rental company provided.  Prior to picking up the Americans in Zurich, I had to then call the rental company and go to the Geneva airport to exchange cards for an SUV that was automatic (given the risk); please note that its very difficult to find automatic cards in Europe!  Everything worked out and I eventually arrived in Zurich and picked up Steve and Marc at 11 to then drive to Saalbach where we arrived at 4:30a.  The next day we took advantage of the 1:30p half day pass and skied Sunday and Monday.

Saalbach is one of the larger resort systems in Austria and we were able to ski half in two days.  Conditions were alright as the resort's peaks are about 2K meters and we had nice sunny days with the day of driving (Tuesday) where we received a foot of snow!

Kicking off the trip in Saalbach!

Top of Saalbach

Lunch at Saalbach

Following Saalbach, we spent the remainder of our trip in St. Anton; this was a three hour drive towards Switzerland and we skied Wednesday to Saturday. 

Our first day was one of the better ski days I've ever had as it was sunny and we were making fresh tracks in bowls with over 1' of fresh snow!  The 2nd day we received 4" of rain in the city, which translated to snow and no visibility on the mountain.  The 3rd and 4th days we were able to find some fresh tracks while skiing in the sun.

View from the top during 4" rain in the city.

St. Anton is a great ski destination with tons of terrain (we skied less than half), the city has great restaurants, and also one of the best Après ski locations in Europe although definitely not the safest as going to the Krazy Kangaroo requires you to party hard and then need to ski 200m down a mogulled run in the dark.  

Off Piste Crew

Apres Ski

Krazy Kangaroo

All-in-all, we had one or the better weeks of conditions in Europe with the ski conditions and our trip was during the quarter finals of the Champions league so the city was quite lively as we were able to watch one of the greatest soccer comebacks in history (Barca v PSG).

Skiing Bowls

Rare site of both Nitz brothers buried in snow.

It was sad to see the trip come to an end after many wiener schnitzels and aperol spritzes; great trip and was excited to ski with Marc again and have him take advantage of my time abroad.

The Whole Ski Crew in St. Anton