Fondue with a view!

…and a ring rescue!

26.01.2024 - 26.01.2024 8 °C

For once, we made good on our promise to take it easy for the day. We are all showing the bruises and war wounds from this trip - I am definitely now winning the bruise competition. The bruise on my outer left thigh is now bigger than my iPhone and a lovely purple-blue hue. Ouch. Cameron’s knee is also not pretty. Sean, on the other hand, has not taken a single tumble on the slopes whereas Cameron and I have had pretty much one per day on average. That being said, Sean did take a tumble off the piste this morning when coming home from breakfast, he slipped on the ice at the front entrance to our apartment and landed flat on his back. Luckily he was fine, his head landed in a pile of fluffy snow and after seeing stars for a minute managed to get back up and is completely fine. Not even a bruise!

It was a pretty photogenic day!

This morning we were up fairly early as breakfast finishes at 9am, so we sat down at our table at 8am. After last night’s large dinner, we had a pretty light breakfast - the buffet selection of yoghurt, fruit, pastries, scrambled eggs, bacon, cheese, fresh juices, coffee and more was tempting but we were all pretty full. Getting out on the piste just after 9:30am, we decided we’d go over to Corvara and ski for the day - it is another lovely sunny day and still fairly warm. We went up the Burz chair and skied a nice long run down into Passo Campolongo. Then up another chairlift and another lovely long ski down into Corvara. We got to the bottom of the lift in Corvara, and while we were waiting in the lift line to go up, we saw that the temperature was 8 degrees - whaaaaat! Too hot! And we still haven’t had anymore snow, so there are patches of brown all over the hillside. There is enough snow on the slopes because to the snowmaking, but it is very hard packed and there is not much to carve into - hence my continuing tumbles!

Chopper ride anyone?

More fabulous views

Busy lift - and I wasn’t kidding about the 8 degrees

We decided we’d have lunch at the Col Alt rifugio today, which came highly recommended from our friends the Hallams, so we thought we’d suss out where we needed to be at lunch by taking the Col Alt gondola up to where the restaurant was supposed to be. When we got to the top, we skied downhill thinking the rifugio was lower, and did not notice it just next to the top of the gondola at all - too busy looking at the view. We skied a bunch of red and blue runs around Corvara, enjoying cruising in the sunshine and checking out the many different rifugios dotted all over the hills. We looked and looked but saw every rifugio but Col Alt. In the end we had to consult the piste map, and realised it was at the top of the gondola. We were quite a ways away, so had to make our way back down into Corvara and get the gondola back up.

The Las Vegas rifiugio - incongruous?

Looking good!

The Ice Bar

There is a gorilla hiding behind the cows here, and also note the huge grill in the background - they Iove a grill in Corvara!

Another fab view

Where the hell is that rifugio?!

By the time we got onto the gondola it was after 12pm and Cameron, for the first time this trip, said she was getting hungry and I must admit I too was hungry for once. So once we got to the top, while we were sheepish for not noticing the large rifugio attached to the gondola station, we were very happy for a feed. We decided we’d have a longer lunch because we were having an easy day, so we took a table in the restaurant (as opposed to the self-service rifugio area). This turned out to be a truly awesome choice, as we were taken outside onto the back deck and given a table right on the balcony. Sean was fine with this as he faced away from the drop, watching the party people on the deck with the mountains in the background.

Col Alt - too bright!

I opened my menu and immediately saw fondue - we haven’t had it yet this trip, so there was only one thing to do! A lovely bowl of hot cheesy fondue arrived, with a bowl of crispy croutons and loooooong forks. We dug in - it was a bit tricky getting the croutons on the fork without them disintegrating, but where there’s a will there’s a way, and there was a LOT of will! Then Cameron and I shared a venison tagliatelle (Cameron’s choice), and Sean also had pasta with sausage, fennel and tomato. We washed it all down with a glass of pinot noir each. We decided we needed to peruse the dessert menu - and we spied ‘World Champion Pastry’. Obviously we had to try that - it turned out to be a chocolate dessert with chocolate seven ways, an absolute no-brainer, so Cameron and I shared it. Sean had yoghurt mousse, berries and green apple sorbet - also delicious (obviously I had to taste test for him). Beside us to our amusement was a table full of 12 or 15 blokes clearly in for a big lunch toasting with prosecco and beer glasses and taking photos - I would not like to be sharing the piste with them in an hour or so - and a family with the cutest baby dressed in a white ‘marshmallow’ suit with a fur-rimmed hood and a white beanie with little ears….awwwww!

Fondue!

Venison pasta - note the ‘dining bubble’ behind Cameron

Sausage pasta

Selfie time! (They hate that!)

Cristian Beduschi World Champion Pastry - I agree!

Sean’s yoghurt mousse

Reluctantly, we decided we had better head off home as we were tired and it was getting on towards 2pm. Down we went, back into Corvara and loaded ourselves onto the Piz Boe gondola, Sean facing uphill as usual and Cameron amusing herself by dropping snow through the ski rack holes in the floor - good thing is was only forest below us! Our skis are to ‘fat’ to fit into the holes on most of the gondolas…so we have to nurse them the whole time. Reaching the top of Piz Boe, we skied all the way down into Passo Campolongo, rode up another chair and then skied all the way home. With me taking a tumble on the final tricky traverse home, landing on my right side this time so I guess I’ll have a matching bruise…great.

Our ski room is in the garage of our apartment block, and to access it we have to go through a ‘doggie door’ built into the garage door - it is kind of hilarious. Skis away, we headed upstairs to shower off the sweaty day of skiing and chill out for a while before dinner. Cameron went last and was taking her sweet time, when suddenly we heard a cry from the bathroom. We rushed over thinking she’d had an accident, but no - in tears she informed us that she’d dropped her school graduation dolphin ring down the bathroom sink. Sean and I surveyed the situation, figuring it was stuck in the ‘s-bend’ pipe under the sink. So Sean volunteered to be plumber and unscrewed it, put a bowl underneath and tipped it upside down. Out came water, some gunk and…Cameron’s ring! A very lucky rescue indeed! Sean put the pipe back in place and we were back in business.

Doggie door an endless source of amusement

Sean the plumber rescuing Cameron’s ring

After the ring rescue ordeal was over, we decided to go for a walk around Arabba. We checked out the tiny ski shop next door, passed on the supermarket and started going down the hill to the main village. When we realised we’d have to walk up again. What was a whole lot more appealing was a pre-dinner drink in the lobby lounge of the Hotel Alpenrose, so like sensible people we promptly walked back up, found a table and ordered up! Sean ordered a very fancy cocktail that involved a smoky dome, Laphroiag scotch, Campari, Benedictine and vermouth. Cameron and I have simpler tastes - a Prosecco and an Aperol spritz. Plus I am afraid to order anything stronger than wine in case it hits me like the Limoncello did.

Fancy cocktail

Dinner time arrived and it was yet another festival of food - veal slices to start with, followed by green lasagne and veal tenderloin with bok choy for me, cuttlefish for Cameron and pork tenderloin with bok choy for Sean. The meat was amazing, but the bok choy, well, not cooked quite the way I’d expect. Dessert was a buffet including all manner of Italian pastries, patisserie and even a chocolate fountain. Excellent!

Veal