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SpotCheck | South Tyrol

South Tyrol - A freeride mecca for southern winters

by Stefan Siegel 03/03/2014
Professionally, I am lucky, or unlucky, to travel countless miles by plane every year. And sometimes I get to take my skis with me and go freeriding in exotic places. On my return, however, my mother usually gets in touch and asks critically, "Why do you have to fly so far when we have it so nice at home?" Until now, the answer has always been quite simple: because there's usually not enough snow at home!

The Alpine South

I'm originally from Merano in South Tyrol. I first skied there with my ski instructor Franz when I was five years old. At 14, I owned a neon-colored Nidecker Lipstick snowboard and won my first Italian Cup in giant slalom in a silver catsuit. Later, I worked with the local snowboard school. But then the winters in my home country became more and more unreliable and the question of whether there was enough snow became more and more of a lottery. While we still found it fun to jump out of the lifts and cabins, ride through the woods and jump over barns in our secondary school days, in the last five to ten years you could mostly only concentrate on elegant turns on the slopes. Climate change has never been more evident in South Tyrol than in recent years: The Schnalstal Glacier, formerly a summer training area for various national teams, ceased operations for the first time in May. A bleak future is predicted for many ski resorts in South Tyrol, most of which do not reach more than 2,000 m above sea level.

Regular mid-season lows

However, everything is different in winter 2014! This year, my mother is right, and there's no need to explain that to PowderGuide readers. Who knows why? But this time, the lily of the valley is picked in March in North Tyrol and people are powder skiing in South Tyrol. Since 1951, there has never been such heavy snowfall in northern Italy as this winter: South Tyrol, Trentino and the Piedmont region became this winter's dream destinations as a result. In just a few weeks, ski resorts that were known more as family destinations in recent years became absolute hotspots: the smallest villages such as San Martino di Castrozza, Aprica, the Dolomites and the valleys around the Ortler region and the Meranerland have become famous not only for spectacular avalanche videos (and the typical Passiria Valley dialect), but above all for their belly-deep powder snow.

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SHREDDING AT MUM’S

And so, to my mother's great delight, Casa Siegel became the base camp and starting point for our tours. Merano lies in the middle of a variety of ski and touring areas. The local mountain on the Ifinger, Merano 2000, is less than 15 minutes away from the children's room or the Merano spa. A further eight areas can be reached in less than 45 minutes and offer glaciers in Sulden and in Schnalstal (Yes, Ötzi was dug up there!), forest descents in Ultental and spectacular couloirs in the limestone of the Dolomites. And fortunately, skiing has developed differently in Italy than in Austria or Switzerland: you notice this at the earliest when buying day tickets, which remain relatively cheap on average with prices usually under 30 euros. The resorts are also less crowded. When it snows, very few sportspeople are drawn to the mountain and we often wondered whether there were more lift attendants or skiers on the mountain. The delicacy is of course the outstanding South Tyrolean cuisine served in the numerous mountain Inns, and it is all too easy to forget the self-service conveyor belts and après-ski mass events in neighboring Austrian North Tyrol.

FREERIDERS BEING EXOTIC

Freeriding is still something comparatively new in South Tyrol. And therefore an absolute dream without stress for those who practice it there. Whoever is the first to discover a line here can usually ski it stress-free. Only a few winter sports enthusiasts are out and about off-piste, and you will be asked curiously at every cable car about the function of the wide skis, airbags and other equipment. For tour planning, I recommend Sentres, an interactive map including 3D visualization for South Tyrol. And maybe you'll be lucky and find out which dream spots we found in Merano and Environs...?

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