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From Oakland to Tahoe to London to the Alps

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AlpedHuez

AlpedHuez

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F5202BA4-EC90-4465-9B34-7CCCF789546D.jpeg Here’s a photo of the La Chavanette / Swiss Wall, at Portes du Soleil, on a clear day, from a better vantage point above than you have as a skier at the top of the run (you cannot see down the mountain from where those skiers are, not practicing social distancing, in a more innocent time)
 

Juha

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Here's a selection of photos from my trip to Trois Valees - Courchevel, Meribel, Val Thorens, et al. The largest ski centre in the world. (The second largest is also in France. I will upload those photos next!
Hello Alpe d'Huez,

Welcome and thanks for lots of pictures!

Just for a note, Dolomiti superski is considered the largest ski area in world with 1200 km of slopes. Trois Vallees has 600 km, which obviously is more than enough for one week.
BTW, I once was approx 20 years ago skiing a long weekend in Alpe d' Huez - very positive experience with good ski capacity and enough and good choice of slopes.
 
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AlpedHuez

AlpedHuez

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Just for a note, Dolomiti superski is considered the largest ski area in world with 1200 km of slopes. Trois Vallees has 600 km, which obviously is more than enough for one week.
Just going by the official numbers, as Dolomiti SuperSki does not promote itself as a single region, with a single pass, etc.
I was planning to go to ski in Italy, when the whole Covid oubreak happened. Will be back again before long.
 

Juha

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Do not trust that source you linked, it is not correct at all. The writer has poor understanding. There is no such area as Sella Ronda - that is a name of two routes (clockwise route and counter clockwise route) going round Sella Massif in Dolomiti Superski area through several valleys. On those routes there are valleys and villages like Val fi Fassa, Val Gardena, Alta Badia, Arabba and Canazei for example.

Dolomiti Superski is an extremely nice area. When CoVid situation is resolved we are certain to go there again. They actually do market it as area with one ticket coverage, please check here:

Anyhow, as said there are many resorts with enough to ski for several weeks - I wish we all could visit them soon!
 
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AlpedHuez

AlpedHuez

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OK that does look legit :cool: I have been to Cortina, but that was in April a few seasons ago, so two of three mountains were shut already.
 

SkiMore

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@Juha , I know one can ski between all the resorts on the Sella Ronda route, but can one ski between all the resorts in Dolomiti Superski? I remember a trip where we skied at Ortisei, Cortina and Kronplatz and as I remember we had to drive between them. That may have changed. I agree, it would take weeks to have the full experience of these massive resorts. :)
 

Juha

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@Juha , I know one can ski between all the resorts on the Sella Ronda route, but can one ski between all the resorts in Dolomiti Superski? I remember a trip where we skied at Ortisei, Cortina and Kronplatz and as I remember we had to drive between them. That may have changed. I agree, it would take weeks to have the full experience of these massive resorts. :)
Yep,
All the valleys and resorts in Dolomiti Superski are not connected by skis - to reach some mountains/Valleys one needs to take a ski bus or even drive a longer way. Cortina and Kronplatz are examples of ski areas that are far ends of Dolomiti Superski and not connected by skis. The drive time between these two by car is approx 1.5 hours on twisting mountain roads. However, the area in the middle round Sella Massif is all.connected with possibility to ski in many "satellite" areas connected with Sella Ronda (routes round Sella Massif).
It is quite common to see in large ski areas that not all valleys/resorts are connected by ski, for example in Portes du Soleil one also needs to take ski bus to reach some resorts in this ski area residing both on Swiss and French area. Over there they advertise 600 km of slopes in 12 resorts, most connected by ski but not all. Very nice area as well like any larger ski area in general.
 

Cheizz

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Only the four areas of the Sella Ronda (Val Gardena, Alta Badia, Arabba and Val di Fassa) are connected without the need for wheels of some sort. For all the other 8 areas of the Dolomiti Superski, they are not physically connected. They do share one ski pass - Dolomiti Superski. That, in total, is about 1200 km of groomed runs. So I would call it the biggest ski region in the world, rather than 'ski resort' or 'ski area'.

And here are some pictures of Alpe d'Huez (early December, 2018) foto2.jpg foto3.jpg foto2.jpg foto4.jpg foto5.jpg foto2.jpg foto9.jpg
 
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AlpedHuez

AlpedHuez

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Great photos. As I've never been myself, I am trying to orient myself to the famous cycling route summit approach. Is the only way up to the town below the ski mountain the same switchbacks route that the Tour de France takes? Or is there some other approach that is more utilised? So if you are standing at the top of the quad or 6 person chair in your photos, you are looking down the mountain beyond the town below, in the same direction as the switchbacks (more or less where the foggy mist can be seen here)?
 
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SkiMore

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Thank you @Juha and @Cheizz for the information about Sella Ronda and Dolomiti Superski. This makes sense now. I didn't realize Portes du Soleil has a similar situation where not all areas are lift connected. Now I see it is mentioned in the article above - re: Portes Du Soleil , "there are small breaks in the circuit – at the edge of Chatel’s ski area for example or when you cross Morzine on foot or by bus to get from Les Gets to Avoriaz "

Than
 

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