What do you do with a couple of spare days on the way home from the Munich ISPO show?. Well if you are headed in to Italy you couldn’t do worse than showing your face in Val Gardena – or more specifically Vallunga. It is easy to find just look out for the peak of Sassolungo (3181m) standing like a sentry over the entrance to the Dolomites. Under its gaze skiers swoosh around the famed Sella Ronda, a 26 km tour around the Sella group.
A cross country skiing piste traversing Vallunga makes access easy, although for some of the higher routes the approach could be considered long. We had two days of perfect weather. It was cold with clear skies. Walking deeper into the valley you are rewarded by the sight of slender ice falls bisecting glowing yellow walls.
For us it was eye candy, way out of our league, but we found what we were looking for at the head of the valley – easier angled 3 pitch lines we could hack away on.