# Cortina d'Ampezzo -> thoughts?



## eric (Jan 22, 2004)

Has anybody done any biking around Cortina d'Ampezzo?

A while ago Bike Magazin had an interesting article on the area, where it _looked_ like the riding would be fun with some spectacular scenery to boot... After I did a little researching this morning it sounds like there's no fun to be had unless you ride trails closed to bikers. 

Anybody care to pitch in?

Thanks in advance!


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## Remedy98 (Jul 19, 2011)

*Cortina d'Ampezzo*

Hi Eric

I'm planning a two week trip around Cortina d'Ampezzo area and have found the following web site useful:--

dolomiti.org/dengl/Cortina/bike_resort/index.html

The riding looks pretty good too, from what I have seen.
You can download an MTB 'Piste' map from the following site too:-

dolomiti.org/ita/Cortina/bike_resort/images/mtb_2011.pdf

The riding looks quite extensive but if you have any other information, please let me know.

Dave


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## eric (Jan 22, 2004)

Hi Remedy,

We've decided to go a bit westward (Wolkenstein) but will probably hit Cortina if we have enough time. Thanks for the link though. I found Turbolince and MTB-forum.it really useful for getting some tracks. Most German GPS sites have a ton of Italian tracks too, but IMHO they tend to seriously overstate the technical difficulty of the given routes.

Hope you have a good trip! If I have time to post anything while there, I will. 

Cheers,
Eric


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## Remedy98 (Jul 19, 2011)

Thanks for the info Eric. If you do ride Cortina or areas around it please let me know what you think.

Dave


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## eric (Jan 22, 2004)

Dave,

I hope this is on time before your trip. I've got a pile of GPX routes that I could pass on soemhwere this week if you're interested. As far as our trip was concerned: it was lots of fun, despite the intermittent rain and low temps. The weather made a lot of the trails a bit slippery as well, but we're used to dealing with this.

Except for the last day, we rode directly out of Selva, on the eastern end of Val Gardena. The scenery is really spectacular ('classic' Dolomites landscapes). Due to the afternoons being filled with showers we generally took lifts up to 2000 m to save an hour or so of climbing on gravel roads. Lift access is pretty good, and in Val Gardena the majority of lifts don't charge extra for taking a bike.

The tourist office and various GPS sites have recommended routes (a booklet of 25 is available for €9 or so), which for the most part are gravel roads (although some quite rough) interspersed with some neat singletrack. In general the routes prioritize on spectacular scenery, not spectacular descents, so we ended up modifying the routes a bit to increase the amount of singletrack. Most of our riding was in the direction of Val Duron, on the southern edge of Peuz-Geisler park, and Alpi di Siusi. 

As the place we stayed gave us free guide access, we did the Sellaronda lift-assisted tour as well. It's a wake-up-early group ride with one or two guides, and takes about a day. The clockwise route (from Selva to Val Badia, Arraba and back up along Fal di Fassa and Canazei) is the more interesting variant. The last day we'd planned a ride from Arabba to Cortina and from there a traverse of the Senes-Fanes park. I'd been there before and it's a wonderful riding spot. The ride started with that perfect combo of technical trails and mind-boggling scenery, but we had to cut the day short after what initially appeared to be a serious fall. I'm pretty sure the remaining portion would have made for an epic ride in all senses of the word.

On a couple of days we had lunch at a mountain hut - although far from cheap the food and service are generally very good, and nobody objects to you walking in covered in mud. You do need to take care with hikers, though. Although very friendly for the most part, the sheer volume of them means you absolutely cannot go full throttle.

Also, I'm used to getting a topo map and picking out the singletracks. For some odd reason the Italian Tobacco brand maps aren't as suitable as the IGN ones I used in France. Sometimes 'gravel roads' ended up in brutal tracks, while 'narrow hiking trails' almost felt paved over. If you have the opportunity to get a guide for free as we did (or at least at a decent price), give it a try for a day or two!

Happy trails,
Eric


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## Remedy98 (Jul 19, 2011)

Hi Eric

Thanks a lot for the up date. I was contemplating changing to go to Selva but in a complete U-Turn i've decided to go to Morzine and ride around the Portes di Soleil.
Even though the Dollies look amazing the riding appears to be a bit tame which you have pretty much confirmed. I've managed to get a few maps already for the bike park areas in Morzine and Les Gets and i've also now got the IGN 1:25k Maps of the Alps for Memory Map so I should hopefully be good to go.

Thanks again

Dave


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## eric (Jan 22, 2004)

Well, hope you have a good trip!

France absolutely rules when any form of riding is concerned (unless you want easy - then you're out of luck ;-)).


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## jseav19 (Dec 8, 2011)

So did anyone end up riding Cortina d'Ampezzo? Is it worthy of its "Epic" status at IMBA?


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## eric (Jan 22, 2004)

Well, we did only one ride in that direction. The first descent was pretty spectacular, but my buddy ended up wiping out with a mild concussion, so we headed for the car before we even made it to Cortina.


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