(Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy)

When we first looked at the piste map for the Passo Falzarego ski area, we didn’t have very high expectations for our third day on the slopes.  We knew that the view from the top of Lagazuoi was highly regarded, but otherwise the ski area looked a little lightweight.  There weren’t many lifts, nor were there a lot of pistes.  On the plus side, it looked like the weather would once again be sunny and warm.

We needn’t have worried.  It was another wonderful day on the slopes.   We went on some pistes more than once but that allowed us to ski them properly after taking photographs the first time down.

Unfortunately, the hockey game didn’t take place that evening.  It was supposed to be a playoff game between Cortina d’Ampezzo and Fassa…but Cortina had already eliminated Fassa and therefore the scheduled game didn’t need to be played.  We still wandered around the 1956 Olympic Arena and looked at the various Olympic-related exhibits inside.

Our 4th day of skiing was supposed to be in the Alta Badia region to the west of Cortina.   To get there, you need to take a bus to Passo Falzarego and then ski down the mysterious and isolated “Hidden Valley”.  We were a few minutes early for the scheduled 8:45 a.m. bus departure, along with a number of other skiers.  The minutes crept by until it was after 9:00 a.m., when somebody decided to ask the staff member at the bus station when the bus might arrive.

We then learned that there was no bus:  there was a rotating strike and our bus driver was not working. There was no sign and no announcement.  We were quite disappointed about this and also began to wonder about the wisdom of having purchased the (more expensive) ski pass that enabled us to also ski in Alta Badia.  We quickly decided to ski in the Faloria region again, as one of our group members arrived late on Sunday and hadn’t skied there yet. There was also one piste, high up in the rocks, that went through one of those impossibly rugged mountain-top canyons but was closed on Sunday due to high winds.  Maybe it would be open today?

This makeshift day turned out to be the best yet.  Faloria was even less crowded than on Sunday and the pistes were in excellent condition despite the continuing warm temperatures.   We skied the long black-rated piste from the top of Tondi several times because the conditions were so good and the layout of the piste enabled long, uninterrupted skiing.

We had lunch at the mountain restaurant pictured at the top of my previous Cortina post and then  turned our eyes to the nearby Forcella Staunies piste (also pictured in my previous post).   It wasn’t open in the morning but now there seemed to be some activity around it.

Yes!  It was now open!   And then, as we rode the chair lift up to the top of the piste, we fell silent.  You cannot help feeling completely awed when sheer cliffs abruptly rise hundreds of metres on either side of you.  You feel like an insect, a fragile piece of near-insignificance, fortunate to be there but also well-advised not to linger very long.

The rocks are so close to you that no photograph can really capture their immensity, although we tried our best!  We returned several times – when would we ever have such an opportunity again?

Another travel lesson learned – although the strike was inconvenient, it enabled an  alternative that was probably even better than what we missed.  We can always go to Alta Badia tomorrow, as we were assured that the striking bus driver would return.