Here's the piste map for
Folgarida/
Madonna di Campiglio, that I took from the Tourist Board website (sorry it's a bit blurry):
The ski area is basically divided by the road through the valleys that runs from
Marilleva at 900m (far lower right) left along the bottom of the piste map to Daolasa (at 814m) where Cat and I got off the train, and on and upwards to Lower Folgarida (at 1300m) where we were staying, then to Upper Folgarida (at 1400m) and behind the nearest set of mountains to Madonna di Campiglio (at 1524m)and then descends to
Pinzolo (at 770m) on the far upper right of the piste map.
So for us to ski to Madonna di Campiglio we had to go up, across to the right, and then down. And from here we could either go up again to Passo Groste (top left at 2444m) or go up further to the right up Monte Spinale, or keep right when we were ski-ing down towards Madonna di Campiglio and then go up in the new gondola (highlighted in red) to the Pinzolo ski area and the Doss del Sabion (at 2100m).
So there was actually a great deal of very interesting ski-ing, made challenging by the poor light conditions, powdery lumps, and other skiers and boarders. And above and to the right of Marilleva there was another mountain, the Dos de la Pesa (lower right at 2155m).
And because of the lie of the land, and all the trees, you couldn't see one ski area from one of the other ones (even if it wasn't foggy!)so we had to rely on the signposts, the piste map, and our sense of direction. I navigated mainly by thinking 'keep right' or whatever at the junctions and by picking the red runs (or black ones!) over the blue pistes.
It felt a very SAFE resort - presumably because it's fairly low and most of the pistes are tree lined. Plus, I knew however wrong we went there was always a road at the bottom, with buses and taxis, to get us home. It's not one of those resorts, like La Rosiere/La Thuile where you're in serious trouble if you can't get back to the right valley before the lifts shut.
On the crucial, connecting lifts, they put up the time the lift shuts. For example, I noticed that the lift back to the top of Monte Vigo, on the border between Folgarida and Madonna di Campiglio, the Malghette 3-man chairlift, shuts at 4-10 p.m. There was usually a small queue at this lift when we were there around 3 p.m. Presumably they will upgrade this small chairlift at some time in the future. And the other important chairlift is the 2-man Bassetta which take you back to the top of Monte Spolverino. Once we reached this point it was downhill ski-ing all the way back to Lower Folgarida and we knew we didn't have to worry about lifts closing :)
The connecting piste between Folgarida and Madonna di Campiglio, heading away from 'home' is the red 10, Malghette. This can be rather difficult for less confident skiers, and there's no blue alternative route.
On the first group day, Monday, Simon and I headed up to the highest point in the ski area - Passo Groste. But because of the high avalanche risk the top section of the gondola route wasn't open, so we didn't ski this area until a couple of days later when they re-opened it. However, we did find a really nice, empty, red run with about 1 foot of powder on it so we were quite happy :)
It's called the Vagliana piste and it goes off left (as you look at the piste map) to a dead end from the main piste down, with it's own little chairlift. The run is like a roller coaster and it's great fun when it's deserted!
We also discovered that route 66 down from this mountain should be avoided. It's a blue piste with a very annoying flat section, and it ends in the car park by the Groste gondola (although you can take a chairlift up Monte Spinale before you reach the car park).
Getting to the Pinzolo ski area from Folgarida is rather challenging. For one thing it takes about 2 hours, as the new very long Pinzolo-Campiglio express gondola route (which is in 3 sections) takes 22 minutes! There's no other way of getting there, except by road.
Ski-ing to the start of this gondola (after we'd got into the Madonna area) we had to remember to keep right and try to find the black 57 piste (otherwise you have to try and find the flat route through Madonna di Campiglio - which I never did find!) to the start of the 5 laghi Express gondola. Having made it that far, we stopped for some lunch in the restaurant at the top of this lift, and were very suprised to see Felthorpe's group of 10 or so troupe in just as we were leaving!
And then we had to find the start of the Pinzolo gondola. There's a very nice easy black piste down from the restaurant, and we knew exactly where the gondola should be, but we reached the bottom without finding it, and had to go back up the gondola for another go! However, I saw it from the gondola and realized that it's set back from the piste, almost hidden really, so the second time around I found it no trouble! Ian assures me he found it first time around, so he's clearly a much better navigator than me :)
We thought Pinzolo was great - in fact we went there twice :)
The first time it was snowing very hard and there was hardly anyone there, and we had a lovely time on powder on fairly empty pistes. There are some very nice, long, red pistes, and one scary black one that I chickened out of (although I think Simon and Davidsa2 would have done it). The second time we went there it was sunny and we could rocket down the red pistes as we could actually see where we were going and there was hardly anyone on them :)
We skied most of the area, over the 2 visits, but not all of it, as there's quite a bit to do :)
Another day I skied down to Marilleva with Simon, Davidsa2, Billip1, and Sinbad14. That's a lovely long red run right down to the bottom (well, technically it's 2 pistes) and it's quite a challenge to do it without stopping! We had intended to go up the other mountain from Marilleva, the Dos de la Pesa, but I forgot and absent mindedly walked into the main return gondola. However, luckily, that gondola only takes you half the way back and we found the chairlift that goes across from the half-way point up to the top of the Dos de la Pesa. And from the chairlift I spotted the mini-slalom course :)
The others agreed that we'd all have a go at it, but there was a queue of skiers and snowboarders ahead of us, so we had to wait our turn. And whilst waiting we noticed, firstly, that you couldn't start until the lights stopped flashing red and green and went green, and secondly that usually whoever went down it crashed because we couldn't see what was behind the second gate but whatever it was we assumed it was something pretty bad because we could see the spray flying upwards when they fell over and then later on they re-appeared further down the slope plastered in snow!
So, 2 of our little group decided it was not for them, and went around the side and down to the bottom. I was feeling rather nervous myself, but I decided that whatever was around that corner couldn't be worse than the World cup Slalom course in
Courchevel which I'd done with my instructor several years ago.
Sinbad14 voted that I went first, so I moved into position. I had been planning on starting off with a snow-plough, to cut down my speed, but I could see that would be impossible because there was a narrow channel cut through the icy snow with a turn about 45 degrees. Anyway, I managed the first turn (which was the hardest part) and then I approached the gate for the mystery second turn and I went wide around it (just in case) and discovered that there was indeed a drop, but not too bad, so I went down it and shouted back to Sinbad14 that it was OK. But I'd lost a lot of speed by going so cautiously around that second gate and did the rest of the course very slowly. However, I became aware of some cheering and I looked across and I could see Davidsa2 and Billip1 who had very carefully positioned themselves to have a grandstand view!
And when I came off the course I discovered that it had timed me - 36 seconds I think, and it said that the video was available on-line. Sinbad14 came down successfully next, and beat me at 28 seconds, and Simon came down last very carefully at 44 seconds. However, it seems we need the number of our lift passes to see the videos, and we gave them away to the mini-bus driver Dmitri as a 5 euro tip (the deposit on the card), so we haven't been able to see the videos :(
