To Rifugio Lagazuoi

Monday morning it was time to drag our backpacks to the cellar, about 28 people were dumping their backpacks there, putting on their smelling ski boots and trying to get to their skies and most of them at the same time. Our ski guide was a little on the late side and just after 9 am he turned up, our destination was going to be Lagazuoi, one of my favorite places in the Dolomites. We had to do quite a distance in order to get there in time for the last gondola to take us up the mountain for the night. On the way we passed the Santa Croce church, but we did not stop there for a break. Our guide had chosen another baita to stop for lunch, but Olly and I went back up the mountain to hike up the small trail to take some photos of the church. Luckily the clouds drifted away and some bluish skies appeared. The Sasso della Croce, 2999 meters became somewhat visible in the background. From what I remembered the food at the restaurant next to the church was very good, however you need a reservation to get in. Same we did not eat there like last time. After our little stop we skied back to the other baita to have a quick lunch, because the others had almost finished I choose a yammy Strudel alla Mela with vanilla sauce.

La Crusc, Santa Croce

After lunch we hit the slopes again, towards the end of the afternoon we had to take to bus to Falzarego Pass, to catch the gondola op to the rifugio Lagazuoi. This place is at an elevation of nearly 2.800 meters, on a clear day you will have the most spectacular views there. However this was not one of those times. Thick fog covered everything, it was also fairly warm up there, nearly – 8. Previous years it always has been around minus 20 degrees. Dragging up the backpacks on the stairs to the rifugio was somewhat of a task, but we managed. This time the showers very working properly, although you have to be careful because the shower works on coins only and has a limited amount of water.

Not a decent view into the valley

Sleeping arrangements in Lagazuoi for groups is in dormitories, we had a room for 12 divided by 9, which meant that we had a little extra space, and otherwise it would have been cramped. The beds were not the best. Hardly any space between the top bunk and the lower one, but because my back was still killing me I had no option. I did not feel like crawling down in the middle from the top bunk with a serious backache. So it was the lower bunk for me, no sitting up in bed for a couple of nights. Supper was nice, but not as great as last time. The pasta: ravioli with poppy seeds was superb though. Hope I can find that recipe somewhere so I can make some at home. At around 9 pm everybody was pooped and crawling into bed.

It is a beautiful day

One of the down sides of travelling in a big ski group is that you have to share accommodation, we slept on bunk beds. Unlike last time I came prepared had brought earplugs, however the snoring sound was so loud that I had a hard time to fall asleep. Also the fact that my back was killing me wasn’t helping me. So I awoke early the next morning feeling totally exhausted. I had an early breakfast and took a couple of photos, the weather was absolutely gorgeous. What a change compared to the previous day.



I was so sleep deprived that I thought it was better to skip skiing with the group and head back to bed for a couple of hours. So when the other assembled to get their ski group assigned, I was back in bed. I tried to sleep for a couple of hours, but the weather and the sound of skiers outside was beckoning me to get out of bed and hit the slopes.



So around 11:15 am I put on my skies and went to the ski piste just outside the Rifugio. I skied towards Colfosco and then on to Corvara, there I did a couple of different runs, I even managed to get a few black ones in. I wanted to go to the Marmolada area, but by the time I figured out how to get there it was getting close to 2 pm and was not sure if I would make it back in time. So instead I had a lovely lunch, panino con salsiccia, enjoyed the sun for a while and skied the area around near Corvara for a while. Headed back around 4 pm and turned up at the Rifugio before everybody else, which was great because it meant I did not have to line up for the shower. By the time I was showered and dressed the rest of the group started to turn up. Dinner at seven as usual and early to bed, the next day we were heading to a different area.


View from the chair lift from Corvara to Colfosco.

Long and windy road

Next morning we had an early breakfast at 6:30 am, the luggage had to be re-arranged to fit in Hup's stuff as well. Our Volvo was a tad on the small side to fit everything in, but after a little pushing and shoving we could close the booth of the car and we drove to the Brennero. Lots of snow on the pass when we entered Italy, instead of heading to Bressanone we had to drive to Chienes and Val di Badia, we stopped off in La Villa were we purchased our ski passes. In the meantime it had started to snow, which was going to be great for the skiing but not getting up to higher elevation without snow chains. For a while we managed, but then the car came to a hold and we had to put them on, causing a traffic jam and lots of cars honking their horns.

After Colfosco we got stuck behind a snow scraper which was not a bad thing, it was snowing heavily and thick layer of snow was covering the road, if it hadn't been for the scraper we might have had a problem getting up to the pass. The road seemed never ending because of the many turns and the poor visibility. But in the end we made it and parked up the car, unloaded the luggage and had hot chocolate before heading out on the slopes. There was a thick layer of fresh snow on the piste, unfortunately the visibility was poor. And we had to get our ski legs back. Towards the end of the day I had my first crash, my ski seemed to stop while the other one was still going on a fairly flat bit of slope. The result was that I head dove into a pile of fluffy snow. After brushing off the snow we continued skiing. It was not until about an hour later that I discovered while taking my skies out of the gondola that my binding had come partially undone from the ski. It meant that my skiing day was over and I had to get it fixed before the shops would close.

Luckily I could go down the mountain with the chairlift, while the others skied down. One of the lift attendants had a look at the binding and told me that there was no way that it could be repaired. This meant I had to either buy new skies or rent them. We drove back to Colfosco to one of the rental places just in time to hire a pair of skies. It was confirmed my own skies were ready to be binned. After sorting that out we drove back up the mountain just in time for dinner and to meet some of the others of our ski group.

Back to Italy...

After just a couple of hours of sleep the alarm went off way too early on the 19th of February. Normally I have to get up early to get to work, but 4 o'clock is a wee bit too early for me. After packing the last stuff in our backpacks, checking the skies and the skibox, we headed for Amsterdam to pick up our travel companions. After a quick stop at Olly's place we drove to Zeeburg to pick up the next passenger. We stuffed everything in the back of the car and before seven we were on our way to Innsbruck, where we were going to stop for the night and meet up with the last person who was going to join our group.

The journey to Austria was not too bad, a couple of traffic jams in Germany. Unbelieveble how many Dutchies were heading for the Alps. It looked like the Dutch had taken over Germany for once, so many Dutch license plates. Just before Innsbruck we received a phone call from the travel agent, letting us know that the Passo Gardena had been closed due to heavy snowfall. It meant that we had to do a little detour the next morning to get to Rifugio Frara.

Around 5 pm we arrived at the hotel in Innsbruck, checked the route for the next morning and went out for a meal at Dollinger, a hotel we had stayed at a couple of years before. I did not have much of an appetite, because I had snacked on too much "bad" stuff on the journey. And my back was killing me for me being stuck in the car for so many hours. After the meal we went back to the hotel and went straight to bed to catch up with some seriously needed sleep.