(Madonna di Campiglio, Italy)

For our fourth day of skiing in Madonna di Campiglio, we set our sights on the only directly connected resort we had not yet visited:  Folgarida.

The trek to Folgarida was not very challenging from a skiing perspective but it was still a pleasure because of the brilliant sunshine along the way.  There were a few lift lines at Malghet Aut and the pistes were rather busy there, possibly because one of the main pistes was closed for a slalom race.  Nonetheless, we enjoyed some easy cruising in the sun and were looking forward to a lunch to match the conditions on the slopes.

Some inspired map-reading led to the discovery of Rifugio Solander, at the top of the fun intermediate piste running down Val Mastellina.  The rifugio was on top of a sunny crest but hidden enough behind a generic-looking cafeteria that most people weren’t even aware of it.  It looked promising, and there was a table open at the edge of the balcony.  Would this lunch live up to the expectations that had been set so high in Cortina d’Ampezzo and Val Gardena?

Indeed it did!  The warm dishes were delicious and, just as importantly after the past couple of days, still warm by the time we got to our table.  There was also an assortment of appealing fresh plates of local meats and cheeses:  we had the luxury of too many desirable choices.    We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves here and vowed to return on our sixth and final day of skiing.

After lunch, we did some more high-speed laps in the Val Mastellina and decided to take on another piste with a warning sign.  It was called “Little Grizzly” and the reason for the black rating was immediately apparent:  about 50 meters from the top, it dropped off quickly with a 67% incline!  Even so, there was enough snow on it to make it a much more enjoyable experience than our ill-fated journey down Spinale Direttissima a couple of days before.   We felt a sense of vindication, as we could actually link nice parallel turns here despite the steepness.

After that, we hung around the Marilleva region for a while and checked out some of the pistes that we had missed on our first day of skiing.  The crowds were much sparser than at Folgarida and we slowly made our way back to our base camp at Madonna di Campiglio.

As always, we ended with the challenging Amazzonia piste and finished our day with a  hearty appetite.  Coming up:  details on our final two days of skiing, as well as the special dinner of local specialties put on by our hotel.