Around to Arabba…

This morning we were on the move. After breakfasting on what was left in the fridge - where Cameron won the ‘breakfast of champions’ award by having a leftover chicken schnitty - we played Tetris to pack the car, paid our bill and headed off to our second ski resort, Arabba. Arabba is on the opposite side of the Gruppo Sella from Selva, and getting there involved a hairy drive around a million hairpin bends and switchbacks up and down the mountain passes, often dropping away to the side with no barriers. Naturally there were plenty of Fangios out, but we just took our time and let the crazy people pass us. We were lucky the roads were very clear, as it is been quite warm - it’s above zero again today - and so there was no ice and snow to navigate.

Cameron’s view from the back seat while being crushed by luggage

No barriers, no worries

We are staying at the Hotel Alpenrose apartments in Arabba, it came on the recommendation of my work colleague and it is a lovely family owned hotel. This time we have half-board, which means we don’t need to cook as breakfast and dinner are included. Also good news: it is ski-in, ski-out which means no more dreaded stairs to the Costabella lift! Since it was only 10am and check in wasn’t until 1pm, we decided to go out skiing. We parked the car, put on our ski boots and carried our skis through the Hotel Alpenrose car park out to the slope, and off we went.

Hotel Alpenrose

They even have a convenient seat for snowboarders

First up we took the Burz chairlift up and skied down a lovely easy blue run with plenty of sun and snow, and we were on the lookout to figure out how we ski back to the apartment. Our reconnaissance was successful as we spied a short skinny traverse back to the hotel from the lift - nice work team! The run was so good we decided to do it again, but this time we skied down to the Arabba Fly lift, otherwise known to us as ‘the weird downhill chairlift that crosses the road’…ok… We made our way down to the Europa 1 Gondola which we haven’t ridden yet. Settling in for a long ride, we went up and up and up. Approaching the middle station we debated whether to get off, but decided to go right to the top to Porto Vescovo. At 2,478m I think it is the highest we have been this trip - it is a loooong way up. As the gondola climbed steeper and steeper, I looked over at Sean, who was staring at the floor and appeared to be doing breathing exercises - weird, I thought. So I asked him if he was ok and his answer was “NO” - the height was too much for him. Mercifully we were pretty close to the top, and he was fine once we were on solid ground…until we walked out of the gondola station onto a small windy ridge and I decided I wanted to take photos. “Don’t be too long” was the messaging, so I hurried to capture as much of the spectacular view as I could, knowing we would definitely not be coming back up here!

At the top of Porto Vescovo - make it quick with the photos!

Down we went, winding along a lovely easy red run. We came to a fork in the run - to the left was the black Soursass run in its wide, steep, groomed glory and to the right was a continuation of the red run. Sean was ahead and indicated to stay on the red run. Cameron was a bit behind me, and not having heard Sean and not looking too far ahead, dropped into the Soursass run. I stopped exactly at the fork, not quite knowing what to do - I was worried we would end up at opposite ends of the ski resort. Sean was happily skiing down further and further way, then finally he stopped. In the meantime, Cameron had taken off her board and was trying to climb back up to me through deeper heavy snow. decided I would follow Cameron down then re-group with him at the bottom, so I yelled at her to get back onto the piste and I called Sean to give him the news, hoping he’d pick up. Thankfully he did and we were back on track again.

Cameron and I wove our way down Soursass - 3km of magnificence, maximum gradient 45 degrees, well groomed and uncrowded. We stopped for a quick leg rest and marvelled the view, and verbally high-fived to Cameron’s ‘happy mistake’. We cruised on down and there was Sean chilling out at the next fork where the runs rejoined. Phew! All together again we made our way back down to the bottom of the Arabba Fly lift, this time going the uphill direction, landing us just above the village centre. It was past midday and since we hadn’t had our usual morning tea stop, we decided to have an earlier lunch, knowing we would have dinner at the hotel tonight.

Soursass happy mistake

We stopped at the bottom and chose Miky’s Grill - the smell of grilled meat hit us as we walked in…and then we saw the huge grill, like a massive indoor BBQ.. It was pretty clear as to what was going to be on the menu here! We ordered up burgers - Cameron and I split one for fear of the serving sizes - and Aperol spritzes (we are too afraid of Limoncello these days) and watched the chef cook them to perfection on the grill. Cameron and I had a “Maxi” burger which was a burger pattie, buffalo mozzarella, pickles and thinly sliced cured ham on a lightly toasted bun - not what I would usually put on a burger, but it was a winner, I would definitely have at again…one day…when the scales recover from the after-effects of this holiday…! Then we noticed the cake trolley, so Cameron and I shared a slice of cake and I had a macchiato to stave off the food coma. By then we were ready to go back out again. The overcast conditions from this morning had cleared and it was back to brilliant sunshine.

Lunchtime!

Now that’s a grill

The “Maxi” burger

Cake trolley!

The servers wearing modern lederhosen!

Lunch views

We did a couple of cruisy runs off the Burz lift, including the black Burz run - another lovely steep, wide groomer - and then rode the Le Pale lift up to do a few cruisy runs in the sun there. At the top of this lift is another cool looking rifugio, I made a mental note as a potential lunch option in the coming days. The glaringly bright sun and snow at the top of Le Pale had me squinting and wishing for my ‘sunny day’ google lens. Sean decided to take a seat on a chairlift chair randomly sitting in the snow, so I wisely started taking photos of the amazing view. We decided we were getting pretty tired and so we made our way down towards to the hotel.

Don’t over do it

See a theme here?

Fun in the sun

We do need some snow though

As we cruised down, I could see Sean and Cameron ahead of me, and then all of a sudden I was on the ground with a ski missing - on which I landed. As I was getting up, two kindly children, one with a pink hairy helmet cover that made her look like a pink fairy floss yeti, stopped to see if I was ok (I was). It’s good to see kids doing the right thing on the slopes here, so much for the adults! I tried to put my ski back on, but for the second time this trip, the brake was bent and digging into the snow. I bent it back into shape and got moving again, but there will be a serious ski inspection tonight as I don’t want that to happen again! I am also going to have a bruise to rival Cameron’s knee bruise on my upper left thigh, I can feel it coming up as I write this, ouch!

I checked us in at reception - there was a long list of instructions to get to our apartment and an entire folder full of information to absorb. We haven’t managed to get the lift operating yet - someone has to call it from above to get it to leave the ground floor. Interesting. We managed to get all the bags up, our apartment is much more ‘compact’ and less ritzy than our previous apartment and Cameron is on the couch in the living room. The bathroom and particularly the shower are tiny - we had a huge rain shower and a sauna in our previous bathroom and Cameron had her own bathroom. The shower is exactly like the one I had in my room at INSEAD in France, and at the time I remember thinking Sean would not be able to fit into it. Turns out I was right - he can barely squeeze in to it - which I find amusing. Obviously he does not…

I’m not exaggerating - had to use 0.5 zoom to take this

All cleaned up we walked up to the main hotel for dinner. I was curious to see what the food would be like. We had a pre dinner drink and then sat at our table. The waiter stopped by to hand out menus and also pointed out the buffet of salad, ham and cheeses. At first we were confused but then realised that first you have a little bit of salad, ham and cheese. Then you have your full four course dinner. Yep that’s right, four courses. And the food was delicious - mostly I was just happy to have some salad finally so the rest of the meal was a bonus. Scallops, baked crepes, swordfish for Cameron and I, goulash for Sean and a Swiss roll kind of dessert and we fairly rolled down the hill to the apartment, exhausted and ready for bed.

Dinner!