The Dolomites are considered the most beautiful mountains in the world. The ski slopes around the Sella massif or under one of the many other spectacular, fossilized coral limestone blocks enjoy a great reputation. The standard work "Freeride in Dolimiti" shows that you can also enjoy excellent freeriding there.
Skiing in the Dolomites is an experience in terms of the landscape alone. However, in a good southern winter like the last one, the possibilities away from the groomed slopes are also extremely interesting. Francesco Tremolada's book proves that it doesn't always have to be traditional ski tours, but that there is also great potential for variants, ski tours with small ascents and even steep gullies.
At first glance, the new edition of this thick volume looks surprisingly fresh. The routes are all individually marked with known information (exposure, steepness, access, etc.) and recorded with several pictures. Unfortunately, the book is written in two languages, so that Italian constantly alternates with English. Although this disturbs the flow of reading, it does not detract from the usefulness of the book.
The title addition "Freeride" leads one to expect piste variants as well as routes with small ascents. The book fulfills this claim excellently and also offers friends of alpine projects a complete overview with the many unique steep gullies. In addition, the individual routes are given in the standard scales of the more common steep face and alpine guides, so that good comparability is guaranteed.
Description of the author, Francesco Tremolada, about his work:
In general I have chosen to describe descents which are found at a distance from the lifts, both because off-piste skiing is often prohibited in the areas adjacent to the pistes, but especially because (in spite of the prohibitions) the slopes closer to the pistes are always more tracked out since they are easily skied on from the lifts. Many itineraries require an ascent, which can sometimes be very lengthy, to reach the point where the descent begins or they present technical mountaineering difficulties; almost all itineraries are on high mountain terrain.