Skibike Italy - Kronplatz

Ladin Country, Sud Tyrol, Italy. Kronplatz a new venue for us.

As you travel around the European Alps you come across areas which seem to belong to another era and others that speak a dialect so strange that although you can recognise the core language, it's simply impossible to even begin to understand what anyone is trying to tell you.
From France, where the locals speak so fast that I have no chance of any decryption, to Austria and Saalbach, where there has been so much foreign influence that the German is simple and easy going, enough to grab a quick word or two. Onto Alpbach where the dialect is hard Austrian and finally to Ladin country, where the language is all of its own and spoken only by 20000 people in total. Hear Ladin in full flow, it’s nice to hear, but totally in a world of its own.
 

Kronplatz - wide open slopes

So to St Vigil, Sud Tyrol, Italy, Ladin Country, at the very head of a valley this lovely little town is a little gem if you want quiet and unsophisticated village life, it's bigger than you may imagine and is quite full of very high quality hotels ( check out Hotel Carmen a 3 star hotel punching well above its weight with its; 5 course meals, huge rooms, top wellness area and friendly staff, all for €78 a night, now if you want to impress the girls, lads !), small ski shops and better still, right on the edge of the Kronplatzski area and with a 20 minute free bus ride, Alta Badia and the Sella Ronda the other way. The usual big church surrounded by a small number of shops and a limited number of bars and pizza style restaurant’s, typically Italian but with that Tyrol flavour. Got the picture, it’s nice, well worth a visit summer or winter. Do check out the local red wine, it’s stunning, available only locally and unfortunately not available in the UK, damn.

So what is the ski area of Kronplatz like for a skibiker? Well get your arses there and give it a go, if you are beginning to skibike and want a friendly easy area then you can’t go wrong; American boulevard skiing at its best, long blues and reds, all very flattering and carefully maintained. Black runs that are, well, tough reds in reality, are long and would be a challenge to the average skibiker, tough enough to test you but wide enough and with an escape route at the halfway points to let you off if needed.
Be careful of the St. Vigil side black run towards Piccolino, at the top it has a quite a steep pitch of about 200 metres, most skibikers would struggle, particularly in the mornings when it was very icy as we went down heading for the buses that would take us into the lifts of Alta Badia, which incidentally as far as I’m aware, are not skibike friendly.
 

So typical of the Dolomites

Add in all new bubble lifts everywhere, main line train stations built into the base of the lift system at Perche, a social après ski area at the base at Bruneck and loads of Tyrol style mountain restaurant’s, it’s quite a gem. Looking at the ski map it may look small, but the area is vast, some of the runs are over 8km long of 100m wide piste, real French 3 Valleys style, without the expense and vast numbers of people.

There are some downsides of course, the mountain is just like a big upturned ice cream cone with the lifts all ending at the top plateau ( where there is the Concordia 2000 peace bell,  one of the biggest active bells I have ever seen and well worth the wait at 12.00 o’clock to see it wind up and chime the requisite 12 chimes of noon ), its tree sparse at the top and the piste so wide that in poor weather it could be a problem. Equally because the piste are so wide and even, you find yourself thinking that you are skiing out the area quickly, although in reality you are just scratching the available area ( remember the Dolomite Superski of which Alta Badia is part of, is 1200kms of piste and over 400 lifts ) . Also because the pistes are wide, every available run is groomed and hence off piste is quite limited. Be careful also about when you want to visit, it’s quite a long way South and will close late March if Easter is late as per this year.
 

Concordia peace bell at the top of Kronplatz

All in all though a gem of a place for skibiking and well worth a visit.

Better, Stronger, Faster - SkiBiking With The 6 Million Dollar Man

I was hardly back from my recent London to Rome road trip, before it was time to head back out again. This time pleasure was on the agenda and Alpincenter Bottrop, near Essen in Germany was the destination.
For a change I was to company in the shape of Tim and Lesley Brooking, with Tim supplying the transport and driving, oh the luxury of it. Somehow his car managed to carry both of my DIY Skibikes and a Lenz Brawler, borrowed from Carl Day, plus a veritable ski shop full of miscellaneous winter gear.

AlpinCenter Bottrop - almost "another day at the office"

For me the trip was almost "another day at the office" but for Tim it held far great significance. In recent years problems with his joints had brought him close to become wheelchair bound. A shocking scenario for a person who previously taught Physical Education and had some 30 or so years of skiing experience behind them
In the last 12 months Tim has been through a series of operations to replace both knee joints, and other parts. I suggested he was truly the "6 Million Dollar Man", but sick humour aside, it is remarkable what modern technology can now do to turn someone's life around, in ways that would previously have been unimaginable.

At my suggestion, we started our day by putting in some runs on skis in order to become better acquainted with the layout and generally warm up. For Tim this was to be a unique challenge, for the first time he was having to ski with legs that weren't significantly off camber! It was amazing to see that, in just a handful of runs, how he "dialled in" and transformed from wobbly beginner to smooth expert.

Tim Brooking - photo opportunity

After taking some photos and videos it was time to make the switch over to the skibikes. But the morning session had been such a success that Tim was almost ready to quit at that point and not even bother with the skibikes. I did mention that the disciplines can be very complimentary, besides which we had come an awful long way not to get Carl's bike out. So we set about assembly in the car park in lovely sunny autumn weather, before we returned to the relative gloom to continue.

I knew that Tim had previously been on a skibike with Serge Mermillod from Firem and his friend and ESF instructor Jef Exertier. So rather than hover over Tim and put him off, I left him to try things at his own pace. Once again he gained control and confidence, then the speed began creeping up and he was soon spending much longer going up than coming down.

Whilst he took a break for refreshments, it was my opportunity to hop on the Lenz Brawler and find out what all the fuss is about. I had a first run, then took another to be sure the first wasn't a fluke, I stopped myself from making third, I can't afford to get used to this.
The Lenz Brawler is an impressive ride, the steering is so beautifully weighted, it has a rock solid and stable feeling with none of the twitchiness typical of a skibike. Oddly, it is just as easy to ride standing on the footpegs as it is sitting down. The skis fitted give great control and coped with some slick icy patches exceptionally well. On most skibikes you feel like it's a push bike, but the Lenz Brawler feels like a big motorcycle by comparison.
The only minus points I can find are; the size, weight and sheer momentum of the beast. I can turn my skibikes pretty quickly, sometimes when I don't even intend to, but riding the Lenz within narrow confines or having to make emergency stops on a crowded French piste would be an issue for me. It also gave me the impression that I could get into trouble so easily by going a lot faster than normal without even realising it.
But if I ever have the need to do some back country riding of say Mount Everest, the Lenz Brawler would now be my number 1 choice.

Lenz Brawler - perfect for back country riding at Mount Everest

In the late afternoon Tim and Lesley where tiring and I have to confess I was too, my runs were getting lazier and I even had a couple of falls. There was no point in riding for longer, it had been a great day and I intend to be back again for another pre-season session.

Whether Tim with his new bionic powers will continue as a skier or become a skibiker remains to be seen. Perhaps like myself and Wayne Richards the answer is that; like apples and oranges, you simply don't have to choose between one or the other, you can enjoy both. I feel that for early morning iced over runs there is no substitute for a pair of skis under each foot, but for late afternoon slush or off-piste exploration the skibike is truly the weapon of choice.

Foreign Exchange – Getting The Best Deal Every Time

Is there a right and a wrong way to exchange your sterling for euros when heading to the Alps? The simple answer is yes, but sadly the exact method differs from person to person and resort to resort.

As such, it’s a good idea to weigh up each and every option available to you and see which of the bunch works out best…a little forethought and you can’t go far wrong!

Cash Machines

It’s a given that there will (probably) be cash machines scattered all over the resort you’re heading to, meaning a ready supply of cash and the security of not having to carry it around with you in great volumes. However, whether or not this is a good idea depends on your bank and the cash machine you use.

For example, some banks will not charge you a penny for taking out cash abroad, some will charge a flat fee and others a commission on how much you take out. Some will charge you both! And then on the other end, some cash machines will charge you for using them, while others will be free. So it’s a pretty complex balancing act, but one that’s easy to get to grips with. Check the details with your bank, find a cash machine that doesn’t charge you and after taking out a small sum of cash, check your account online to see exactly what kind of value for money you got.

It’s a bit of a process, but it could save you a fortune and make your trip so easy.

Exchanges At Home

One of the most popular methods of getting hold of cash prior to a holiday is to take cash along to an exchange office before setting off. Now, more often than not this means you won’t get quite as good a rate as you would on the other end of the flight and you’ll also pay some sort of commission – it’s how they stay in business! However, you can still get a decent deal by all means and in most instances this means hitting up a bank or a Post Office, rather than a standalone change office.

Exchanges Abroad

A quick tip – don’t be tempted to change all your cash in the airport while waiting for your airport ski transfer to depart. While you probably won’t get ripped-off in the strictest sense, you’re almost guaranteed to get one of the poorest deals possible in the airport. You might also find that the closer you get to the centre of your final resort, the lower the exchange rate becomes. The best advice is to head away from the main tourist drags and insist on a full conversion before shoving your cash through the window.

Credit Cards

If you have a travel credit card, you might enjoy things like free cash withdrawals, no charges on purchases and loads of other goodies like free insurance. If you own a bog-standard credit card, you might get nothing but a huge fee slapped onto every single thing you use it for along the way. As such, you need to check with your service provider before making your decision.



Article written by Ski Transfer Finder, a simple and quick tool to get you quotes for airport transfers to ski resorts, directly from local transportation providers.