Santa Caterina Valfurva, Italy

valodja from CZECH REPUBLIC writes:

I have been there 4 times in last 5 years. So I can say, that really a lot has changed. In 2002´s late March I remember having one 2km slope having all the morning just for myself and my RC40s :-) Yes, it used to be a reaaaaally calm place, something of old-school. Now, after the WorldChampionships, there are new cable-cars with nearly a one-km ascent in ten minutes, so you can ski yourself to death if you want :-) But the fact is, that there is also a lot more people, but still nothing compared to some comparable Austrian/French resorts. It is still a small resort, but he who loves intimacy of high-mountain nature and the challenge of going long and sometimes quite steep runs with over km of descent one after another (like me), he will probably love this place. If you go to the newly opened high plateau in the back part of the resort will be amazed by the beauty of the >3000m mountains all around you.
What next to say. SC has some problems with natural snow - all around are mountain crests well over 3500m with extensive glaciers, so the majority of snow falls there and until the Italian guys started up a system of snowmaking, there was sometimes a problem at the beeginnig of the season. And there is still what to improve :-) Yes, but after the snow falls onto to the pistes, it remains well to late April. Probably the best time to go there is the classical main season, because the majority of slopes are real north-north-western, so the slopes are dark for a major part of the day until mid Feb or so. But yes that this resort has some potential for gorgeous week all around the season. And the few lifts? Nobody will really force you to use them ;-) The gondolas do their work perfectly.

2006-11-20