{"id":11615,"date":"2017-03-22T12:47:58","date_gmt":"2017-03-22T11:47:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.albertodegiuli.com\/en\/2017\/03\/sci-alpinismo-dolomiti-traversata-san-martino-castrozza-al-lago-braies\/"},"modified":"2017-03-23T07:56:52","modified_gmt":"2017-03-23T06:56:52","slug":"dolomites-ski-traverse-ski-club-great-britain-san-martino-castrozza-lake-braies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.albertodegiuli.com\/en\/2017\/03\/dolomites-ski-traverse-ski-club-great-britain-san-martino-castrozza-lake-braies\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolomites ski traverse with The Ski Club of Great Britain, from San Martino di Castrozza to Lake Braies."},"content":{"rendered":"

I was pretty\u00a0worried about the Dolomites ski traverse from San Martino di Castrozza in Braies scheduled for late February with Ski Club of Great Britain<\/a> team. The skitour\u00a0to Forcella Bachet had given me some hope, but there were still many uncertaintes about the possibility of doing a whole trip on skis outside the groomed slopes. Fortunately something happened the day before the trip started, a good snow fall turned everything white again. As\u00a0I met the group in Cortina d’Ampezzo, before moving to San Martino di Castrozza for the night, we warmed up our legs around Cadini Misurina, Forcella della Neve is a nice and easy daytrip\u00a0and the good powder snow on the downhill made us smile and gave us hope for the following days.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Monte Mulaz ski traverse, Pale di San Martino.<\/p><\/div>\n

The first day of our Haute Route went for the traverse of Monte Mulaz, a classic and beautiful skitouring day around Pale di San Martino \u00a0that should not be underestimated expecially after a snowfall, even more when a strong wind from the north starts blowing up in the mountains.
\nAfter a nice descent on powder snow from Baita Segantini, we started skinning up the slope towards \u00a0the Passo del Mulaz, couple of steeper section needed to be well evaluated but we got up safely. The strong wind welcomed us only on top of \u00a0Passo del Mulaz, but it looked like it didn’t affect the snow quality and stability down the north side. The descent down to Molino was more than exciting, great powder snow, soft and fast top to bottom all to ourselves till the end of the mule track\u00a0that leads to the lifts of the ski resorts. We spent the night at the Rifugio Fuciade<\/a>, very well known for its hospitality and tremendous cuisine. The bad part came during the night as a very strong wind started to blow with no stop… The traverse\u00a0from Fuciade Malga Ciapela across Forca Rossa\u00a0was still fun, \u00a0the snow was still pretty good under the treeline\u00a0and gave us some nice\u00a0turns.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Forca Rossa ski traverse, San Pellegrino.<\/p><\/div>\n

We got down to\u00a0Malga Ciapela on skis and the atmosphere was just unreally silent, the Marmolada cable car was closed due to the gusts of wind, and we had no energy left to skin up to Rifugio Pian dei Fiacconi<\/a> for the night. Guido, a good friend and owner of this beautiful mountain hut under the Marmolada (tallest peak in the Dolomites), solved the situation, giving us a ride with the snowmobile. Thanks again\u00a0buddy!
\nThe third day was dedicated to traverse of the Sella massif, very few skiers had already skied down the\u00a0Val de Mesd\u00ec, we didn’t know what happened after the wind though, we had to go and check it out ourselves. It was my first Val Mesd\u00ec of the season, and the conditions we found were more than good, the exit couloir was in good conditions despite the lack of snow. In the afternoon we reached the Rifugio Lagazuoi<\/a>, one of the most beautiful mountain huts and with the highest sauna in the Dolomites.\u00a0This is what I call “a luxury”.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sella Massif ski traverse. Val Mesd\u00ec.<\/p><\/div>\n

Unfortunately the bad weather came in for the last two days, we\u00a0traversed\u00a0from Lagazuoi to Senes across the Col Locia, Rifugio Fanes and Peder\u00f9 on a gloomy day and it got worse in the afternoon when we had to skin up to Rifugio Sennes<\/a> on a pouring rain that turned into heavy snow once we got over 2000 meters. We were supposed to ski down to Lake Braies on the last day, as we reached Forcella\u00a0Riciogogn we decided not to ski down the back side, we saw very little snow down the north side and some tricky snowslabs that would have compromised the safety of the group. So we got the chance to make some good turns from Munt de Sennes and ski down to Ra Stua, and kept further towards Cortina d’Ampezzo.
\nIn the end we got\u00a04 beautiful days out of 6, the group showed great skills and they did great throughout the week, despite somebody is close to be 70 years old. Way to go guys!<\/p>\n\n\t\t