Sunshine spectacular!

Today we managed to get up a bit earlier, to a beautiful sunny and not too cold day. We managed to get downstairs to put our boots on just before 9am. We are already a bit bruised and battered - particularly Cameron who not only has her nasty blister but also a lovely multicoloured bruise on her knee. As she tried to pull on her boots, Cameron realised that the pain of the blister was too much, so told us she would sit out skiing today. So it was just Sean and I heading off to the lifts.

Cameron in the wars

We decided today we would go a little further afield, as a bit of reconnaissance for when we do the Sellaronda. Sean and I headed up the Ciampioni gondola and then had a lovely run in the sun down towards Plan de Gralba. We then rode the Piz Seteur Gondola up and upon reaching the top, Sean got a call from Cameron to say that she had visited the pharmacy to pick up some blister bandaids, was no longer in pain and would like to join us. So we skied back down towards Plan de Gralba as she came up the same way we had. We waited part way down the run watching to see her descend from above us and finally the “traffic cone” pants appeared in the distance with Cameron’s unmistakable smooth boarding style as she arrived to meet us.

Another cracker day

Glad you could join us…I think…

The three of us then rode up the Piz Seteur Gondola, and followed the green (clockwise) Sellaronda signs down more beautiful sunny runs between the trees towards Passo Sella. Up nicely padded (and possibly heated!) Sasso Levante chairlift to and we found ourselves on another lovely long run in the sun towards Pian Frataces. We had crossed the Selva Val Gardena ski area boundary and passed into the Val Di Fassa area - it hadn’t taken us too long at all. The morning was getting on and we spied a little rifugio, so we decided to stop for some morning tea. Imagine our (well, at least Cameron and I) delight when we discovered they made crepes. Of course we had to have some - chocolate crepes with nut cream, washed down with a macchiato (we have the hang of this now), sitting outside in the sun, listening to the (mostly 80’s tragic) music pumping. Earth Wind and Fire’s ‘September’ began to play and Sean and Cameron formed a slope-side two-person flash mob re-enacting Sean’s ‘Dad dancing’ performance at Cameron’s valedictory dinner. Of course I videoed it - perfecto!

Click this link to join the impromptu flash mob
https://youtu.be/WecReU_zZXo?si=ME37QETpS5ZZDhUk

Crepes!

Back on the skis (…and board) again, we headed down to the next gondola, the Pian Frataces-Gherdecia gondola. At the top of that gondola we followed the green Sellaronda signs and skied over to the Sass Bece chairlift to ascend even higher to 2,395. The view from the top was absolutely spectacular. It was midday and there was another fabulous rifugio (Sass Bece) so we decided to stop and have some lunch, sitting outside enjoying the sunshine and views. Sean went ‘local’ with frankfurters, sauerkraut and fries, Cameron and I shared a pizza and washed it down with Aperol spritzes. Yes it’s a tough life but someone has to live it! Our waiter’s curiosity got the better of him and he asked us where we were from - and I’m pretty sure he thought we were insane when we told him just how far we had come to ski. Come to think of it…

‘Gone local’

Yep we are definitely crazy to fly halfway around the world for this

The Sass Bece rifugio was about a third of the way around the Sellaronda, and about 11km from home, so after finishing our lunch we decided to be kind to ourselves and turn back towards home, following the orange (anticlockwise) direction of the Sellaronda. So back down a lovely long run to Pian Frataces, up the Pradel-Salei gondola, down another little run towards Passo Sella, up the Cavaces-Grohmann chair and then, after some conjecture about where to go (mainly from me, but then again I have no sense of direction!), down a big long run to Plan de Gralba. Where we hit a little snag - a poma lift. Which Cameron can’t ride on a snowboard. So we had to make a new plan - we had to go back up and try a different route. Back up the Piz Seteur gondola for “take #2” and we managed to avoid the dreaded poma, instead taking a really long run down into Selva.

We weren’t home yet. Just as our legs were about to blow up, we had to get on a really short chair - literally 2 mins ride - to make the final run down to the centre of Selva. This was where the real sting came - you have to then ski down towards the carpark in the Main Street and then uphill on an icy skinny track full of people (imagine a crowded luge track, you get the picture!), take your skis and carry them across the road, up a set of stairs, then put them back on again to get onto the last lift to ski to our house - the Costabella.

We lumbered across the road, up the stairs and sat thankfully on the chairlift. At the top of this lift is yet another rifugio. Cameron and I looked at each other and said “apres ski?”. Sean did not argue with us, so we put our skis in the rack and sat down in the afternoon sun, afterall it was only about 2:30, so we had plenty of time to get home - what could go wrong?!

We ordered up some drinks, Sean had “hot lemonade” and Cameron and I were intrigued by limoncello spritzes, so we ordered a couple of those. Sean’s “hot lemonade” turned out to be boiling water with lemon squeezed into it - probably good for his cough but nowhere near as exciting as our limoncello spritzes. They were delicious! As Cameron and I took a few sips both of us very quickly realised the drink was going straight to our heads. We were having a great time laughing (everything was hilarious!) and rocking out to the weird German apres ski music - we were ready to party! Subsequently I remembered that limoncello is WAY more alcoholic that aperol - which is why they are so dangerous! And oh dear we still had to ski home - this was going to be interesting…

‘Hot lemonade’ wasn’t all it was cracked up to be

Limoncello spritz on the other hand…

Thankfully the run home was short, and we arrived unscathed if a bit lightheaded. With our gear stowed for the day, we decided we’d go out for dinner since we had not had too much for lunch and we’d skied quite a long way - 22km all up. However the one proviso was no pizza or pasta - that is pretty hard up here, but we were all wanting some veggies and non-carb food. Showered, cleaned up, and the effects of my limoncello spritz worn off, Sean and I made a quick trip to the supermarket for supplies, and then the three of us wandered down to Luis Eatery for dinner.

God I love this supermarket

The restaurant was a lovely modern Scandinavian style interior and we settled in to our table, ordered a bottle of Italian pinot noir waited for our food. The service unfortunately was incredibly slow - it took us an hour to get our entree - but the food was delicious. Smoked duck and tempura squid for entree, followed by steak for Sean, sea bass for me and duck…ravioli (so much for the no carbs!)…for Cameron. There are no photos of the main course because we were too hungry to take them! We were all too tired and full to have dessert, so we wandered back home and succumbed to the big day we’d had.

I’m hungry, hurry up with the food!

Tempura squid

Smoked duck