24 January, 2020

ADVENTURE IN THE DOLOMITES

Its hard to choose a destination when you want to plan your new adventure, you always think in somewhere cool, somewhere sunny, somewhere easy to travel, somewhere under crowded, but if you think about this place someone did before and probably all your ideas will be taken by then…

That’s why we chose the Italian Dolomites, and you will think, didn’t you said under crowded? Everyone knows that place, it is famous amongst hikers, climbers and cyclist… and, yeah you are right! But it is not famous amongst enduro or downhill riders so far, no one thinks about it as an ideal destination for their vacation. So that is why we went there for, that is what we like to do, discover new places, and have the most fun.

We left Barcelona in the morning and we slept in a little hotel 2 hours away from Canazei. The next morning we woke up early and we arrived at Canazei. We checked in to the Hotel Cesa Tyrol and we went for a pizza. Even we were a little tired from the drive, we prepared the bikes, and we went for a little ride, it was already late but we wanted to make sure everything was ready for the next day. How many times have you been to an unreal spot but once you are there you realised that it is unrideable? There are no trails or if there are, probably are for hikers and you are not allowed to ride it… Well, this is will not happen in Dolomites.

SELLARONDA MTB

Planning the trip we did some research and we found a marked route called Sellaronda MTB tour. It is a tour around the Sella mountains where the highest mountain is Piz Boè. It is a perfect activity to see the astonishing landscapes of Dolomites. You can do the tour with the bike or hiking. There are some cable cars that you take to complete the tour and we recommend to everyone going to Dolomites. It is around 42 km and you can make it as much difficult as you want because there are tons of possibilities. You can also choose the clockwise way or anticlockwise.

Doing the Sellaronda MTB Tour you will cross 4 mountain’s ports: Passo Pordoi, Paso Campolongo, Paso Gardena and Passo Sella. It take all day so you have to pack the backpack really smart, some food, some water and some cold and rain clothes because the weather is constantly changing. There are some bike parks where you can connect straight away without pedalling but there is some you have to pedal in between which makes the perfect combo for an epic enduro ride.

So that is what we did the first day and it was perfect for us, not only because of the views of the route but because we got more familiar with the area, so the upcoming days we went straight to the bike parks that we liked the most and the unexpected trails we found cruising around.

Val di fassa bike park

The one that we enjoyed the most, it has a lot of different trails that range from, flow trails, rocky trails and very technical downhill stuff trails.

All the trails are kind of spread out all the valley, but as we said we love to discover, you just need a map and good company to figure out where the trails are and which lift to take, but it is definetely worth it! The biggest surprise was when we noticed that one week ago before we get there, there was an EWS going on in the same valley but to be able to ride there you have to take another lift from the other part of Canazei. Those trails were awesome and not only for the riding, the views from there were insane!”

TRE CIME DI LAVAREDO

After 4 days in Canazei we decided to take the day off and drive to Tre Chime di Lavaredo, it was a long drive but it was worth the views.

We took the bikes not to ride but to take some pictures because even there are some bike trails, we were exhausted from the first days and we wanted to rest a little, after all we were only in the middle of the adventure. From the parking to Tre Cime you have to walk about 35-40 minutes and then you see the huge three pics: Cima Piccola, Cima Grande and Cima Ovest. When standing close to the group of mountains it makes you feel really tiny, and if you go further away you can see it overall and it makes you wonder how is it possible that the nature is capable of creating things like this.

THE UNEXPECTED TRAIL

On our way back from Tre Cime di Lavaredo and Lago Di Braies expecting to discover something rideable where there is nothing but good views of insanely cool huge mountains, we found a trail by the road. We jumped out of the car, took our bikes and started riding it. It was super long and flowy and we actually don’t know if its a line of a bike park but we had so much fun and we rode it until it was dark. Sometimes the best things happen unexpectedly!

In Trail Arena bikepark ( located in Val Gardena) you can find a few lines but for all the levels. Starting from some easy and flowy lines to the Freeride Trail, really steep with rock gardens, fast sections and some jumps in the woods. We rode all the lines and the one that we love was the one going from Gran Paradiso (2.022m) to Plan de Gralba (1.800m). It has plenty of jumps and big berms really well shaped that it reminded us the little A-Line in Whistler Bikepark. We kept doing it until they closed the lifts.”

We have to say that if you want to spend your vacation doing party laps with your crew until you get arm pumps, go back to the hotel, take a shower, party hard and repeat the next day with a hangover your not in the best place.

But if you are into new adventures and discover new places this is the place to be without any doubt! There are tons of trails and you can get lost as much as you want always surrounded with the astonishing mountains that characterise the Dolomites.

We have been riding a lot of bike parks and they were really good, we did bike tours, we found unknown trails just driving by the road and this just makes your trip awesome exploring far and beyond. The only thing that make me feel mad about it, is that there are still a lot of places to discover in Dolomites and we always want the first ones!!