I don’t wanna sound too much optimist, but it looks like the winter season 2017-18 will start in the right way in the Dolomites. We had couple pretty good snow falls early in November that built a perfect base layer in some spots above 2000 meters. In the last couple weeks lots of people have toured around Giau Pass and the Cadini di Misurina, both very close to Cortina d’Ampezzo, where you can find the best conditions for ski touring at the moment.
It only took a quick skitour in Arabba with friends the 10th of November to put myself straight into ski and skins mode, even if it’s only November and I should keep climbing…!
I haven’t check myself the conditions around Giau and Falzarego passes, but I’ve been around the Cadini di Misurina few times, and I’ve found very good conditions, especially last Saturday where I did some classic itineraries with friends and skied nice powder snow. Very few rocks under the snow, even the pine bushes are pretty well buried.

Ski touring in the Puez Natural Park, Dolomites.

Yesterday I drove to Alta Badia with Nicoletta to check the situation around the Puez Natural Park, a little corner of the Dolomites I really love in the winter time. The wind has blown a lot in there, the base layer is not as good as in Misurina, but the white look gave me hope for the upcoming season. With a little of bit of ski sauvage and a good dose of adventure we skied down the Gardenacia north couloir, one of my favourite ski touring loop over there. The couloir was pretty dry, hard packed where skiable, but we had fun and in the end we had some nice turns on soft snow. Thanks Nico for following my crazy plans!
Tomorrow evening we should get some new snow … let’s keep our fingers crossed.
Next week I’m flying for my first time to Patagonia, for a wild hiking trip, I will go back on skis in mid-December. I will keep you posted.
Have fun, and be safe out there :)