More fresh snow at Val di Fassa and Belvedere - Passo Pordoi

Val di Fassa seems to have a great spring this year. While the snow dumps have been slowing up our ice climbing the snowboarding has been a pure joy. Of course some of the easy off pistes have been skied so that there is nothing left, but there was still plenty for us too.

Today we had the most spectacular view over Dolomites. The highest peak at the nearby area is he Sass Pordoi, 2950 meters. It is accessible via cable car and can be skied down. Magnificent views! A worthwhile Refugio to visit and have a coffee.

After all we got a pretty good impression of the Val di Fassa. Of course if you are hunting for lots of black slopes then this is not the best choice. But for the regular skiers, snowboarders or off piste skiers Val di Fassa has a lot to offer.

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Val di Fassa and Belvedere - Passo Pordoi, 20.3.2016

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Santa Cristina and Cascata Tervela

Today's new ice fall to discover is in Val Gardena and Santa Cristina. Cascata Tarvela is a true drive in ice fall. Walk from the parking to the ice fall takes only 5-10 minutes. 

Great ice fall that is quite easy to see from the city. It offers 1-2 pitch climbs on a varying grade from WI3 to WI4+. It is an ideal place to get used to the Dolomite ice and for the days when you don't want to take the long approaches.

The view over the city of Santa Cristine is also splendid during the spring. The opposite side of the city is almost clean form the snow while you can still climb on a ice fall. Big contrast!

For us the day at the Cascata Tervela offered a good opportunity to climb several single pitch climbs and get prepared for the next multi pitch. Good day and a great reason to see Santa Cristina.

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Santa Cristina and Cascata Tervela, 19.3.2016

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Fresh snow at Val di Fassa - Ciampac - Buffaure

Spring and fresh snow is not a guaranteed combination in the southern alps and Dolomites. But for some reason we have been lucky with the snow conditions for several times in a row. Our first snowboarding day at the Val di Fassa was blessed with good snow and a perfect weather to enjoy it! 

Val di Fassa is part of the huge Dolomite Super Ski resort but it is a nice and a big resort as is! Resort offers enough pistes for a 4-6 days of skiing or snowboarding.

The skiing resorts at the Dolomite mountains seem to share the same slope characteristics. Lots of good red lines and just few black ones with plenty of easy access off piste skiing for all skill levels. And the facilities in general are very good starting from the beginner slopes, snow parks and ending up to the lifts and restaurants.The specialty at the Dolomite Super Ski is the six days ski tour over the Dolomite mountains or if that is too long then you can always take the one day tour over the Val di Fassa.

We didn't took the ski tour today but instead of that we found lots of easy to access off-piste routes with untouched snow. Great day in a beautiful mountain scenery!

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Val di Fassa and Ciampac - Buffaure, 17.3.2016

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Spring climbing over Ledro Valley

If you just want to see photos then click here

Twisted winter holiday, we are climbing more than snowboarding. Well you got to do what feels good.  So today we visited Regina del Lago's sector A that is excellent choice for 6a/b climbers. We know the crag already but during the last summer we had only time to visit the B sector. 

Regina offers great views over Val di Ledro and routes are long and excellent for 5-6 climbers. Approach is relatively quick, about 20-30 minutes and the path is mostly clear to follow. Crag is hot during the summer days but excellent for the spring climbing. It should be climbable starting from February so it is definitely a place to visit during winter.

Our last visit was at the B sector and now when comparing the sectors they offer a varied type of climbs. Most of them are positive and some are slabs but A sector has also corner crags offering great variation to other routes. The right side of the A sector seemed to be more interesting when it comes to routes.

During the day we noticed that the air was full of dust that was also blocking randomly GPS, normally Lake Garda would be visible from the top. So if you wonder the photos that is most probably the reason. Great day, great crack. We will be back.

 


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Madonna di Campiglio, Regina del Lago, 20.3.2014 March

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Another good spring climbing crag - Croz de le Niere

Our winter holiday is turning slowly but surely into a spring climbing holiday. Instead of snowboarding we decided to check out one of the nearby crag that we visited once during the last summer. Hot topic of the day is Croz de le Niere.

Croz de le Niere has easy to access and offers good rock. Crag has total of five sectors from grades 4-8 so its a pretty nice place to visit for any level of climber. You can read more about it when we visited it the first time during the last summer.

Croz de le Niere seems to be also good for early spring climbing. When compared to Coltura, Croz de le Niere is not as hot and some of the routes start to turn in to the shadows earlier in the afternoon. Still the location remains warm, today the temperature was about 17 celsius degrees. Some of the sectors may be in the shadows sooner and few may stay under sun shine for almost the whole day.

We had some good climbing, but be aware of the bolting. Some of the older routes may have more distant bolting. Lot of routes start also from the middle of the wall as a second pitch. Belaying can be done from a comfortable hatch so second climber can bring some water and snack if you are planning to climb more routes from the middle.

Heta's 5b lead.

Mika's 6a lead.

Spring colors.

Sector A - La Formica.

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Madonna di Campiglio, Croz de le Niere, 19.3.2014March 21, 2014

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Views over Madonna

This time the blog entry is brief, just few photos of the impressive and breathtaking views over Madonna di Campiglio.

Heta posing!

Mika posing!

 And same stuff in a Picasa album:

Madonna di Campiglio, 18.3.2014

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Summer in the middle of a winter holiday

 If you just want to see the photos then click here. 

We have been wondering for some time now if it would be possible to have a holiday where both, winter and summer activities could be combined. And now, almost accidentally, that dream is actually coming true. 

After the day at Madonna di Campiglio's snowy slopes we decided to see if the nearby rock climbing cracks are already accessible. Plan was to find a reasonable late winter climbing crag nearby Madonna di Campiglio. Based on the climbing guidebooks we spot a suitable crag called Sunny Place nearby Stenico. Guidebook claimed that it would be perfect during the early spring but too hot during the summer months. And it would take less than hour and is located only 45 kilometers away from Madonna.

So we decided to head down to Stenico. After the first 20 minutes once the narrow serpentine road was cleared down to Pinzolo we noticed that the outside temperature had raised up to 16 Celsius degrees. Day actually started to look promising for rock climbing.

After half an hour of driving we realized that our path would pass one of our favorite crag, Coltura. Pretty soon after that Coltura's high walls were in front of us facing the sun. It became immediately clear that instead of the additional driving and 30 minutes approach march we would start climbing immediately. At the same time the outside temperature was showing amazing 22 degrees. All of a sudden winter changed into a warm summer day. Luck or what, but for some reason we had packed our summer clothes with us. Now it became clear that light clothing and sun lotion were actually needed.

Temperature at the wall was even higher than 22 degrees, most probably around 26 Celsius degrees, giving a distant glimpse of the hot summer months. So season's opening climbs reminded us about the requirements for hot summer days, you just can't drink too much! This was an excellent opening for the upcoming rock climbing season!

Oh, about the routes, I don't know if it is the weather or lack of skills but my maximum heart rate during the hardest climb was 202. It is high even for younger fellows, so I guess that the route was demanding enough for an old fart.

Heta is pushing hard.

Madonna is somewhere there 35 kilometers away.

Sun is just slipping behind the mountains.

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Madonna di Campiglio, Coltura, 17.3.2014

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