Skiing Italy 2009

Day 2 (9 Feb)

 

Today couldn’t have been more different to yesterday if it tried! We awoke to sunny blue skies and beautiful soft white snow. All a skier can ask for. It was also Monday which meant, hopefully, the weekend skiers were safely back at work and could leave the snow to us serious holiday makers.

 

 

 

We breakfasted with the 2 other couples we have met here, Greg and Caroline and Grant and Wendy. So far we haven’t met any other people from the west coast of Australia, but plenty from Sydney. The meals at the restaurant in this hotel have been beyond reproach, simply excellent, and today was no exception. We finished up breakfast and headed to the cable car station. We, like most skiers, have rented a ski locker at the station so we don’t need to carry our skies each day. The walk takes about 10 minutes and is a very nice way to start a ski day. After getting our skies and boots we stopped and admired the spectacular view up the mountain. You can see the cable car cables in this shot and see where they go up the mountain.

 

 

The queue for the cable car was quite long. The ride up wasn’t and we quickly moved to the start of the ski slopes. The slopes had been groomed during the night and looked fantastic. We made a quick plan of where we’d ski and immediately skied down the first slope. Was the skiing good? No, it was great! I found the slopes in New Zealand to be hard packed and icy, these were soft, powdery and fast. We had such a great time that we completely missed the stop for the first lift we should have taken to get back to the top of the slope. So we skied to the next. While we were on that lift Gina noticed another lift running near this one that had covered chairs. She wanted to go on that one! So we skied down to the bottom of that lift and rode in the covered chairs. For a girl from Russia who only knew t-bar lifts this was heaven. I have to admit to thinking they were pretty good myself.

 

 

 

 

After about an hour and a half we decided to stop at one of the cafés on the mountain and have a drink. Hot chocolate with cream, who could say ‘No’ to that. Being our first proper day skiing my legs were just getting used to the idea and weren’t all that keen on it. Lots of stops and rest for me. We skied again after the coffee break and I noticed the slopes getting a little more crowded. Most of the lift chairs are 4 seaters, and one of the things we like to do, if there is anyone else on the chair with us, is to find out where they are from. We found that most in New Zealand were Europeans. Most today were Danes. Apparently it’s a week long holiday in Denmark and the Danes who ski take the 12 hours to drive here (through about 4 other countries!) and stay the week. We have found most people are very friendly and chatting away makes the time on the lift as much fun as the skiing. Ok, the skiing is way better. Today lots of skiers were doing the Sella Ronda circuit. It’s a circuit around the mountain peaks you see in background of the photos we take and takes the day to ski the complete course. Once my legs are able to hold up for a whole day we will be doing it too. In one place you ski past a 16th century castle. Looking forward to that. We broke for an early lunch, mainly to avoid the rush hour at the café. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! After lunch we met another guy who we had briefly talked to the night before at another hotel that the Aussies meet at each evening. At the top of another run Jeff offered to take a photo of both us.

 

 

We continued to ski until about 1 o’clock when we noticed a marked increase in the roughness developing on the slopes, due to so many skiers. With this and my leg muscles really starting to make their presence felt, we decided to call it a day. A fantastic fun day at that. We made our way back to the cable car and while waiting took some more photos (well, what else is there to do?)

 

 

 

During the walk in the morning I had noticed a frozen fountain in the town centre and commented that I would like to take a photo of that on the way home. Gina remembered and stopped us to take the photo.

 

 

A little ‘lay down’ in the hotel room quickly became a nice sleep. Tonight we’ll plan tomorrow’s skiing and have another one of those superb Italian meals.

 

Till then…. You know the rest….

 

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