Tag Archive for: Val Gardena

Evelyn Kanter

The Top Resorts in Europe – World Famous and Not

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Lots of snow and sunshine days, gorgeous views, varied terrain, modern lifts and multiple choices for dinner, nightlife and shopping.  All are the hallmarks of what makes a winter resort great anywhere in the world, including in Europe. These are the top-rated resorts in France, Italy, Switzerland elsewhere in Europe are based on a mix of all those things, plus transfer time from and back to the nearest airport.  Plus the low cost of weekly ski passes – as low as $50/day – adds to the appeal.

Research by the Europe-based air transfer company hoppa rates Chamonix, Courchevel and Tignes the top three, and includes lesser known Bansko, in Bulgaria, and Grandvalira, in Andorra, as up-and-coming super-affordable hidden gems less crowded than the larger and more famous destinations on the list.

So here are some factoids to help you decide where to go next –

Chamonix  – Nestled at the foot of Mont Blanc in the French Alps, Chamonix tops the ranking with an overall score of 9.94. Famous as the birthplace of modern alpine skiing and host of the first-ever Winter Olympics, it remains one of the world’s most iconic resorts.

Ski passes average $85/day for a weekly pass, annual snowfall reaches 470cm, and no other resort in the list offers as many restaurants or nightlife options.

Courchevel – Contributing to Courchevel’s high score is its average annual snowfall of 399cm, its high number of nightlife listings and restaurants and its high number of Google searches. Courchevel is a great place for a luxury stay. Along with stunning scenery and desirable hotels, and more than a dozen Michelin-starred restaurants in the area, including Le Sarkara, Le 1947 à Cheval Blanc, and Baumaniere 1850.

Ski passes also average $85/day for a weekly pass.

Tignes – This resort completes an all-French top three with a score of 8.29 out of 10. Contributing to its high score is its high snowfall of almost 700cm per year, an affordable ski pass of just around $50/day for a weekly pass, and its high number of nightlife listings.

Due to Tignes’ high average snowfall – around 669cm a season – it is considered a safe resort to book. That means you don’t have to worry about whether or not it will have snow.

Val Gardena (Dolomiti Superski) in Italy and Val d’Isere, also in France, are also on the top ten list – and both are destinations this season for the 70+ Ski Club.

Bansko ski passes are the least expensive on the list – around $50/day  – which is one third of the price of Zermatt in Switzerland, the most expensive ski resort in in Europe, and also on this top ten list. Bansko has a ten-mile cruiser known as the “Ski Road”.  Closest airport is Sophia.

Grandvalira is the largest ski resort the Pyrenees, with more than 150 miles of trails, 70 lifts and six base areas. Is part of the group that also includes Pal Arinsal and Ordino Arcalis. You can ski all three on one pass for around $75 for a weekly pass.

Other resorts on this top ten list include Grindelwald/Wengen/Murren in Switzerland’s Jungfrau Region and two more areas in France, both smaller and lesser known than their big sisters, La Plagne and Alpe d’Huez.

Surpisingly, no resorts in Austria or Germany made this list.

Not world-class Innsbruck, with its world-famous Hahmenkamm run, or even Gurgl, where I learned to ski after college in the 60s, trading English lessons for ski lessons, and site of the recent World Cup races in which Mikaela Shiffrin cemented her winning legacy as G.O.A.T.  Not Garmish-Partenkirchen in Germany’s highest mountain range, site of the1936 Winter Olympics, where some inns on the main street have been serving guests since the 1600s.  So it goes.

You can read the full research here: https://www.hoppa.com/en/discover/infographics/european-ski-index

What is your favorite ski resort in Europe? Where do you want to go next?

See you on the slopes.

Jon Weisberg

Short Swings!

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Boris and Ivan have been skiing across the frozen steppe for many days. After too long on the front, they’re finally going home. Boris spent hours telling his colleague what he intends to do when, finally, he arrives home: hug his family, down a hearty meal, paint the dacha, tend the garden. 

“Ivan, what is your plan?,” he asks. 

“My wife will come to the door with vodka.” 

“And then?”

“We’ll embrace and make passionate love.”

“And then?”

“I’ll remove these damn skis.” 

That’s one of the few decent ski jokes I know, and, apologies, if I’ve used it before in this space.

Unfortunately, we removed our skis too early this season. And there are legitimate questions as to whether there will be a next season.

That thought, stated indirectly, appears to be on many minds. It’s why Ikon Pass is being sold with a safety net. Purchasers can decide by late November whether they want to use it for 2020-21 or 2021-22. They’ve discounted the price to encourage early sales. And Epic Pass just announced baked-in insurance coverage. Their parent companies need cash to service debt, proceed with planned projects and maintain whatever is left of their payrolls.

Some areas, pursuing similar early purchase tactics, are spinning their messages to get patrons to help them keep the lifts spinning. Their appeal: Your early buy will help keep us afloat. I don’t mind that, as long as it’s not coming from an area that joined one of the big pass programs and eliminated its own senior pass discount. There are several of them.

It’s interesting to see how the resorts are responding to COVID. My prediction is that singles will be riding doubles, triples will be occupied by two’s, etc. Areas relying on gondolas and trams will limit their occupancy and require facemasks. Lines will be longer. See below for Chamonix’s sensible response. 

I expect day lodges will have fewer seats and surfaces will be aggressively sanitized. Maybe restrooms will have full-time attendants whose job will be keeping everything clean. Resort HR departments advertise for “Lifties.” Why not “Resties?”

Expect hand sanitizer stations to be as ubiquitous as tissue dispensers.

Of course there will be rogue skiers and boarders defying the rules and placing themselves and others at risk…just like they do when playing human pinball racing down the hill. The likelihood of their getting reprimanded for sneezing in line is about as likely as their getting stopped for reckless skiing.

I haven’t missed a season since 1954 and don’t intend to miss out on 2020-21. But if things get too complicated on the hill, I might throw in my ski towel, grab my beach towel and head South.

Chamonix Fights COVID With Thermal Scans

Skiers at the French resort are now required to enter a thermal scanning device (similar to an airport security gate) to check their temperatures, use sanitizing material on their hands, and wear masks while waiting in line and riding lifts. Social distancing will be implemented in lines and on enclosed lifts. If found effective, this protocol may become the industry standard.

COVID Concerns = Season Pass Changes

IKON and others offer generous early purchase discounts for next season.

Epic now includes full and/or prorated insurance in event of job loss, stay-at-home orders, job transfers, etc. as well as resort closures due to COVID and other diseases, natural disasters, war, and terrorism.

Mountain Collective provides “incentive credits” encouraging existing pass holders to re-up for 2020-21. 

Alta will issue discounts to existing pass holders based on last season’s use. For a round-up of Utah area offerings, see Harriet Wallis’ story elsewhere in this issue.

Aspen will credit existing pass holders for its truncated season and “…have a refund policy that makes committing to the 2020-21 season risk-free.”

Indy Pass, arguably the best skiing value in North America, offers two days at each of 52 resorts for $199, including its Get America Skiing Promise providing up to 80% credit for the following season, no questions asked. Passes go on sale September 1. Pass holders at participating resorts can purchase the Indy for $129.

COVID Shutters Las Lenas 

Argentina’s premier resort, Las Lenas, announced that because of COVID, it will not open for the 2020 season.

Masterfit Establishes COVID-19 Webstore

SeniorsSkiing.com advertiser, Masterfit Enterprises,  has added protective face masks to its offerings during the pandemic. The insole and bootfit training company is selling facemasks to businesses and consumers at its Masterfit COVID19 webstore.   SeniorsSkiing.com readers get a 10% discount on their first 100 surgical mask purchase using coupon code FOMCOVID1910 at checkout. Here is a link to a story about how Masterfit landed in the PPE business. 

Val Gardena Repurposes Snowguns to Disinfect Streets

Handled by the Italian resort’s volunteer fire fighters, the snowguns are being used to spread disinfectant with hopes of reducing spread of COVID.

Higher Elevation Populations May Be Less Susceptible to COVID

A paper in the June issue Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology concludes that, among other factors, “…the virulence of SARS-CoV-2 is reduced at high-altitude due to the physiological acclimatization of its inhabitants, and due to particular environmental characteristics.” The study looked at prevalence of COVID in high elevation populations in Tibet, Bolivia and Ecuador.

Two Dimensional Ski Films

Have you noticed how the many GoPro ski films on the Net have a flattened sameness to them? I enjoy watching ski films, despite their similarities to pornography (Same motions. Different locations. Repeat.). But helmet-mounted cameras generally record ski tops against a white surface, making even the steepest terrain look pretty flat. I just watched a GoPro video of someone skiing the Alguille du Midi in Chamonix. I’ve seen it, and it’s heart-stopping steep. His GoPro footage documents the run, but does little to convey the challenge. Give me those long, across-the-valley Warren Miller and John Jay telephoto shots or the ones from the chopper floating above. Go Pro is great for a lot of things. Showing steeps is not one of them.

High School to Use Local Chairlift for Graduation Ceremony

Graduating Kennett High School (Conway, NH) seniors will ride a Cranmore Mountain chairlift to receive their diplomas. Nice way to maintain social distancing in this small New England ski town.

Send A Photo Wearing Vintage Skiwear

Skiers from 1900. Source: The Guardian

Okay, you’ve cleaned the house, organized the family pictures, Zoom-cocktailed with family and friends. Here’s a suggestion for something different: Send us a selfie of you/spouse/friend wearing  vintage clothing and we’ll publish the most interesting ones in June. Make it a sweater, jacket, hat, pants, whatever. For inspiration, check out this gallery of ski fashion dating from 1900 to the early ‘70s. It was published by the British daily The Guardian. Send your pictures to info@seniorsskiing.com and include your name and where you live.

Thanks for reading. Please forward SeniorsSkiing.com to your skier friends. Advertising in SeniorsSkiing.com is a  great way to reach the 50+ snow sports enthusiast. Rates are very low and our 16,500 subscribers are very responsive. Contact: advertising@seniorsskiing.com.

Murray Sandman

My DIY Dolomite Ski Adventure

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With 450+ lifts, the Dolomiti in northern Italy is the largest ski region on the planet. This UNESCO World Heritage site is beautiful, historically and culturally interesting and overall, outstanding.

DOLOMITI SUPERSKI represents the area’s twelve regions, some quite famous (A portion of the 2026 Winter Olympics will be held in Cortina d’Ampezzo), others individually unique. Best of all they can be accessed using a single RFID pass, which includes use of an expansive network of regional buses. Seniors (those born before November 30, 1954) get discounts on already low ticket prices. Click here for 2019-2020 ticket prices.

Climate Change now requires illogical and calculated guesses when planning long ski trips from ‘down-under’.  Mine began mid-February with 2 flights, a bus, a train, another train, and finally the local bus from Bolzano to the Val Gardena region – a tiring 27-hour journey.

My goal was to ski the famed Sellaronda ski circuit covering four Dolomite passes around the Sella massif. I would be there for three weeks, and during that time, I chose to change lodging only three times. It was a good plan created with the help of the local tourist office and one that easily can be followed by others. 

I started in the northern Dolomites. St. Cristina and Selva are ideal base locations offering plenty of lodging and dining options and providing easy access to skiing throughout Val Gardena. My first lodging was Garni Cir, a small BnB in St. Cristina. The next morning I caught a bus to the base area where I purchased my Dolomiti Superski Pass and took the Saslong gondola. The majority of slopes in the St. Cristina–Selva area are steepish and perfectly groomed; more relaxing intermediate slopes are on the Alpe Di Siusi slopes above Ortisei. 

My ski week in Val Gardena included first tracks on the World Cup slopes above St. Cristina and Selva, plunging down the steep skiers’ left off the Plan De Gralba cable car, and non-stop skiing the Saslong’s slick and bumpy pitch late one afternoon.

After 6 perfect days it was time to move from Val Gardena to the Val Di Fassa region. 

I took a local bus back to Bolzano, where I checked my luggage at the train station and visited the museum housing Oetzi, the world’s oldest “wet” mummy. This is a must-see for anyone visiting the region.

Reconstruction: Alfons & Adrie Kennis © South Tyrol Museum Archaeology/Ochsenreiter

After a stroll through this lovely small city, I caught the regional bus to Campitello, where I checked into the Tobia Hotel-Restaurant-Bar on the village piazza. Campitello is a rustic village with easy access to the slopes above Canazei-Alba and the off-piste steeps around Arabba. On route, I met two university students coincidentally staying at the same place. Both, I soon discovered, were excellent skiers and fun companions.

The next several days, we skied Canazei, Alba, Arabba, Marmolada and the Pozza di Fassa region. It was exhilarating and exhausting!

My next stop, a bus ride from Campitello, was San Martino Di Castrozza. On the way we crossed the beautiful Passo Rolle Pass before descending steep switchbacks into the town. I honestly think San Marino Di Castrozza is one of the world’s most beautiful mountain resorts. Surrounded by seriously steep peaks, it is a gateway to several ski areas. On this, the last leg of my Dolomiti journey, I stayed at Albergo BnB, a pretty place within walking distance of the new Ces gondola.

The mountains above San Martino Di Castrozza. Credit Murray Sandman

When I was there the snow was hard and fast, especially off the Tognola peaks and the Coston and Direttissima chairs. Many off-piste slopes are tree-covered and look like they’d be fantastic on a powder day.

It was the end of my three-week do-it-yourself Dolomite ski experience. Accessing my online DOLOMITI SUPERSKI Performance Check, I saw that in 15 days I skied 65,143 downhill meters over 357 kilometres of trials using 130 different lifts. On top of this let me say that the food was fantastic and the skies bright, bright blue. Another great ski trip!