The entrance to Sellaronda

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Our travel started on 3rd of March from Newcastle. Very early in the morning, four people of the group (me, Barbara, James and Ruth) took the Easyjet flight from Newcastle to Stansted, had breakfast in Stansted and then took the Ryanair flight to Verona Brescia. We could have taken the Ryanair flight from Newcastle to Milan Bergamo (Ryanair), but the arrival was too late at night. In Verona Brescia we hired two cars. We realised that there is a direct bus from Verona Brescia to Canazei, but the car offers more freedom. We also realised that most people flying with Ryanair tend to rent a car with Hertz (through Ryanair website). It took us more than an hour queuing, and half an hour to find the Hertz people (the office closes at 16:00) to show them a damage on the "spotless" car. Then, we drove to Trento where Barbara picked up her skiing equipment from her parents and then we met Oliver and Martin in Bolzano where they arrived by train from Munich. At about 22:00 at night we arrived in Canazei. We took the keys for the room and then off for dinner. Yes, there are restaurants serving dinner late hours in Italy.

The next day we set off to do some shopping and rent our ski equipment. James brought his own boots but this didn't reduce much the rental price (he paid 50 EUR, we paid 60 EUR for a six-day rental). The supermarket proved to be very expensive, to the point that we thought we should have done some shopping on the way from Verona Brescia. After a quick brunch, we bought our ski-pass (202 EUR for 6-days Dolomiti Superski, which allows all areas plus Sellaronda) and we took the gondola lift from Canazei. The day was sunny and nice. We just took a glimpse of the pistes. We skied to Arabba, then Vescovo and back to Canazei.
On 5th of March, the weather was cloudy but not too bad. During the day we skied the Sellaronda clockwise. We got a bit confused in the part from Ciampinoi towards Selva, but at the end we found our way. The route is wonderful and highly suggested to everyone. We were told that the counter-clockwise Sellaronda has a "slow" part that involves a lot of "pushing".

On 6th of March, the weather started sunny. We saw the clouds at the area of Marmolada, but undeterred we set off towards there. Just before Arabba, snow started falling. When we arrived to Passo Padon, the snowstorm was there along with a sign saying that Marmolada is closed. Disappointment. And very cold! Blinded by the snowfall we skied back to Arabba via Porta Vescovo, and then back to Canazei. The route from Passo Pordoi to Canazei had no wind, hence skiing was more enjoyable even though there was snow falling. Moreover, there were not many mad people like us, so we really enjoyed the empty pistes.

On 7th of March, we decided to change a bit and we went to the Ciampac-Buffaure pistes. They are famous for the bad weather conditions, especially the cold wind blowing, and indeed it was like this. There is a black piste in Ciampac with 46% slope, where I had a spectacular fall (I think I must have rolled down the slope for about 80m). All spectators gave me a 10/10! :)

On 8th of March, we set off to go to the area just above Santa Cristina. But we lost (once again) our way and instead of Santa Cristina, we ended up in Monte Pana. The map was not helpful at all here. However, with a bit of intuition we found our way to Santa Cristina. But it was already late and we decided to head back to Canazei before the lifts stop.

On 9th of March, it was a very nice sunny day again. Hence, we re-attempted to go to Marmolada. This time, it was open. But alas, sunny weather means more people, and there are two bottlenecks to Marmolada. One is in just above Arabba where from the gondola of 12 people, the next step is a chair-lift for 2 people. The other bottleneck is in Malga Ciapela, where the gondola to Marmolada starts. There are three gondolas to Marmolada, all of the same size, hence no bottleneck there. The restaurant is between second and third gondolas in Serauta and it closes early. We managed our way back to Canazei, and returned our ski equipment. At night, we wanted to go clubbing. In the previous years clubbing was synonymous with the chalets in the mountains, where people would go by snowbikes, dance, drink, have fun, and then early morning hours sledge back to the valley. This year, the chalets were not synonymous to clubbing. Because of "loud-music" that disturbs the environment, they are not allowed to stay open until late and they close at midnight or a bit after midnight. Hence, the valle di Fassa was too quiet during the night, and the only place we liked was the Frogs bar in Alba. There was a bar in Moena we liked in the past, but this time it was not as good. The service was too slow and they gave us an expired beer bottle.

On 10th of March, we passed through Montagnaga where we had lunch with Barbara's parents. Then, we drove to Milan Orio-al-Serio airport (or Milan Bergamo), where we returned the cars. The rent-a-car parking is at the edge of the airport and there is a small bus transferring people. Allow minimum 15 minutes for the car-park and the bus.