Colder conditions and Carnivale celebrations made for a jampacked February.

Winter Walking in the Dolomites

The end of Carnivale was celebrated by a torchlit descent on the Santa Croce run. This was brilliant fun involving darkness, flares and all the local ski instructors! The second half of the month has seen milder weather, which made for lots of sunny stops outside gorgeous Rifugio’s whilst taking in the views with a Bombardino or two.

The Italian holiday period was a busy one on and off the piste. Guests enjoyed a night-time ski show in Corvara where ski jumpers, skiing stilt walkers, extreme para-gliders and brilliant costumes combined for the entertainment of the whole town.

Snowshoeing with Collett's

As for our days, guests have taken part in a new snowshoe for this season in Antermoia, whilst the classic route, Cinque Torri, has been blessed with glorious sunshine for the last few weeks. The first week or two was bitterly cold as the Siberian front that gripped most of Europe swept through Italy. But the groups wrapped up warm and braved the cold weather with plenty of hot chocolate stops along the way.

February Snow and Skiing

There were lots of skiers out in the Dolomites over their British half-term, and the chalets put on several more ski itineraries to make sure there was something for everyone. The piste conditions are being kept stable by the fantastic effort the Italian piste wizards put in, and they’re surely looking forward to the forecast snow next week.

Sunset over the Alta Badia

Snowshoeing, Skiing and Winter Walking in January and February with Collett’s Mountain Holidays

There has been fresh snow over the last week and some new snow over the last 48 hours in the Dolomites making conditions on the piste even better than they were and conditions off piste for the snowshoeing and winter walking perfect!

Snowshoeing in the Dolomites

As the torch lit procession steamed down the mountain at Santa Croce in Badia, guests in Haus Valentin welcomed in the new year with another of Rainer’s famous 6-course dinners! Everyone at Haus Valentin had a lovely evening and toasted the new year with Auld Lang Syne and a tasty glass or two of prosecco.

Snow in the Dolomites

Fireworks went off left, right and centre around the valley at midnight a fitting finale to Dan’s fire show earlier in the evening! Life in the Dolomites has been pretty busy since new year, we have many guests visit the Dolomites, with some enjoying a 10 day break in early January. Snow fell with great gusto last week; just over a foot, and made for some great powder on top of the pistes. A day out at the Hidden Valley, was topped off by crystal clear views and a ride on the ever-novel horse tow… hold on tight, it’s not your average button lift!

Skiers taking a well-earned rest

The wind picked up a bit mid-week, but guests continued to have some fabulous days out, including a snowshoe on the Pralongia Ridge Ramble and skiing on top of the Marmolada. Our guests in early January arrived after a four day mini-break following new year. This was a slightly quieter time in the chalet and guests enjoyed relaxed ski days and snowshoes along with a foot of snow, which fell a day before their arrival. This was to the sheer delight of all the staff!

An Enrosadira - Pedraces Badia - 18 February 2012

The pistes performed gloriously afterwards, with everyone reveling in the new snow on the Hidden Valley, including the horses who towed us back to the main ski area!

Hidden Valley Horse Tow

A new cross-country skiing day was trialled last week at San Vigilio, which received great feedback from everyone who went. The downhill skiing was also great, everyone skiing was of a very similar standard, making for some quite epic ski days!

The month ahead has promise of a double Sella Ronda ski day… Tiring?! Yes. Fun?! Oh Yes! We will keep you posted on the final verdict!

Winter Availability 2012

We still have some availability for the end of the winter season in Haus Valentin, Pedraces Badia for the following dates – We are already taking many bookings for Winter 2013 and our prices are available at the link below.

Haus Valentin – Pedraces Badia – 25^th  March – 1^st April

Half Board, en suite £513 per person per week (based on two people sharing a room) including transfers from Venice*

Chalet Verena – Corvara – 25^th  March – 1^st April

Half Board, en suite £558 per person per week (based on two people sharing a room) including transfers from Venice*

Haus Valentin – Pedraces Badia – 1^st – 8^th April

Half Board, en suite £570 per person per week (based on two people sharing a room) including transfers from Venice*

Haus Valentin – Pedraces Badia – 8^th – 15^th April

Half Board, en suite £570 per person per week (based on two people sharing a room) including transfers from Venice* 

*See all our travel and transfer details here

Prices for 2013 – Click here

Mountain Flowers - The Dolomites

At last! A good, superbly illustrated, inexpensive and user-friendly reference book for flower enthusiasts visiting the Dolomites. Collett’s has teamed up with our longest-standing and popular flower walk organisers, Cliff Booker and David Charlton, to produce a handy-sized, ring-bound pocket book, which can only enhance the experience of anyone visiting the Dolomites to enjoy the magnificent and diverse flora. Using a minimum of technical language and featuring stunning photographic close-ups, ‘Mountain Flowers – The Dolomites’ is available exclusively through Collett’s Mountain Holidays. You can buy a copy at £9.95 (plus £1.65 UK P&P) using our order form here. We aim to follow up this book with versions for the Picos de Europa and the Pyrenees.

Eastfield Lodge guests enjoyed 3 excellent days of walking in The Yorkshire Dales over New Year and what great company they were! It was great to see some old friends again who celebrated the New Year with us on our Walking Break in 2010/2011 and even better when we made more friends who we hope to see again here at Eastfield Lodge Bed & Breakfast in the years to come!

New Year in the Dales is a great time to get out walking after the indulgence of Christmas and we shared our walks only with each other and the Shetland Ponies on Penn Hill. There was even enough snow to have a snowball fight on the top!

Walking in the Yorkshire Dales

We were however also treated to a little mud on our fantastic walk at Semerwater, Yorkshire’s largest lake and there was a lot of fun and banter on return as our walking boots were cleaned of mud and returned to their former glory!

Winter Walking Breaks in the Yorkshire Dales

Informal celebrations, a toast and a few rogue and badly aimed party poppers helped us see in the New Year together and a later start on New Year’s Day set us up for our walk straight from the door of Eastfield Lodge along the infamous Leyburn Shawl. The weather got the better of a few who returned to enjoy the comfort of our cosy roaring fire, cake and tea (Kanga, our dog, I think, was the first one to turn back to Leyburn!).

Winter Waterfall

Well it was 4 days filled with merriment, chatter, fun and friendship with superb scenery, hearty home cooked meals and tempting cake and tea. Thank you for making our New Year such a great one, the pleasure was all ours!

Pol, Dave, Kanga!

To join our next walking break – click here

Christmas Carols, lovely food and great winter days out made for a very festive Christmas

Christmas Skiing Holidays

The chalets celebrated Christmas in style with special renditions of classic Christmas carols accompanied by Dani on the trumpet. Classics including Jingle Bells and Away in a Manger topped the bill at Haus Valentin, before Dani headed over to Chalet Verena for another hearty performance.

Alan got fully into the swing of Christmas dressed as Santa whilst he snow boarded down the ski slopes in between preparing dinner courses with Rhi on Christmas day. Over in Arabba, everyone enjoyed a full Christmas dinner at a local restaurant after a long and fantastic day’s skiing.

Snowshoeing in the Dolomites

Superb food and 6-course Christmas dinners followed some awesome out days; Santa went on a Collett’s snowshoeing day at Cinque Torri and guests flew around the Sella Ronda on their skis. The sky was clear, the air crisp and the atmosphere perfect for a Christmas day spent in the Italian Alps. It couldn’t have been more idyllic, that was until… Dan Dan the fire man gave a spectacular fire-breathing show outside Haus Valentin with his fire staff – Much to the terror of Rainer and rapturous appreciation from the staff and guests alike!

Christmas Rifugio lunch in the Dolomites

Later on, some guests made their way over to midnight mass in Pedraces Badia, whilst others headed to bed with stomachs full of food and heads full of merriment.

Fantastic ski tours were had at Kronplatz and on the James Bond run at Ortsei later in the week. Cross country skiing proved popular once again, as guests and staff got into the Norwegian spirit on the ski tracks at Armentarola.

Christmas Snow in the Dolomites

With snow now falling in the Italian Dolomites and more forecast for the next week, New Year promises to be a special welcome to 2012 at all the chalets in Arabba, Corvara and Pedraces Badia.

All of us at Collett’s Mountain Holidays would love to wish our guests a Happy New Year!

Wonderful snow fall creates an exciting first week of Collett’s winter season in the Dolomites, Italy

The Italian Dolomites did not disappoint at the start of another winter season. We had a large helping of snow two days before we opened our chalet doors to welcome our pre-Christmas guests. So everything was more or less perfect.

Snowshoeing with Collett's

This great start to the Winter Holidays continued throughout the week as guests signed up to many of the 15 snowshoeing, skiing and winter walking holiday activities on offer. Our snowshoers had a great treat as they hiked over Cinque Torri and the Pralongia Plateau (above Corvara). Whilst the skiers took in the best of the local delights in Corvara and Colfosco, some ventured further afield to Kronplatz. A surprise favourite for the week turned out to be the cross-country skiing day at Armentarola! This gave novices a chance to improve their gliding as well as pop back to the centre’s Rifugio for a Glühwein or two.

Skiing in the Dolomites

Returning to Haus Valentin after a full day's skiing

Glitz and glamour in the shape of the Italian ski team came to town when the FIS Skiing World Cup started. Several of our winter guests headed down to watch the professional skiers on the Super G and Slalom on the local Gran Risa ski run above La Villa. Hannah at Corvara was truly ecstatic when she thought she had come face to face with Bode Miller, only to be bitterly disappointed to find out it was a course marshal!

Wonderful views in the Dolomites

The Sellaronda ski tour is now fully open, much to the delight of the Arabba team who took their guests out for a hosted ski day on the anti-clockwise route. This was a pretty chilly affair, as temperatures plummeted to -19 degrees Celcius… brrrr! So make sure you wrap up warm for the week to come!

Snow Angels!

More snow is forecast at the end of the week making it a truly white Christmas in a winter wonderland for Collett’s Mountain Holidays guests and staff.

All of us at Collett’s Mountain Holidays, home and abroad, would like to take this opportunity to wish our guests – past, present and future – a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

A winter wonderland in the Alta Badia

Thanks to Felicity from Haus Valentin for the latest blog.

Snowshoeing in the Dolomites

There has been considerable snowfall in Italy yesterday and overnight in the Dolomites, with much more forecast for Wednesday and Friday this week.

Skiing above Pedraces and Corvara in the Dolomites

We woke up this morning to the winter wonderland scenery we expect in Arabba, Corvara and Pedraces Badia, three of Alta Badia’s best ski resorts. This is superb timing for Collett’s as our skiing holidays and snowshoeing and winter walking holidays start tomorrow.

Snow Cats worked overnight to groom the fresh snowfall in the Dolomites. Superski Dolomiti has already done superbly to open so many ski pistes prior to our fresh dump of snow. Prior to yesterday’s snowfall, constant snow cannon activity and occasional decent coverings have allowed us to ski much of the Alta Badia and Val Gardena area. In both the Val Badia and the Val Gardena the locals are also busy preparing for the first World Cup Skiing events of the season. On the Gran Risa ski piste above La Villa, near our own catered chalet base, Haus Valentin in Pedraces Badia, the slope is being prepared for the traditional Men’s Giant Ski Slalom and for the first time this year, the Special Ski Slalom Challenge.

Snowfall in the Dolomites - Pedraces Badia - 13 December 2011

The Collett’s Mountain Holidays staff team, busy with their final preparations for the winter skiing, snowshoeing and winter walking season, are itching to get out and enjoy the area with their first guests for our traditional pre-Christmas ‘early-bird’ skiing and snowshoeing week. With fresh snow on the pistes to carve through and undisturbed trails amidst snow clad trees and towering massifs to explore on snowshoes, the winter delights of this idyllic area await us all.

Snowshoeing in December 2011

And who knows, there may even be time to stop at a mountain hut for a hot glühwein at the end of the day!

Haus Valentin - Pedraces Badia

A wonderful time was had on our Nov Walking Break here in the Yorkshire Dales. Winter has been creeping in on us and we were blessed with crisp (albeit a little windy) days, with a small shower on one of the days which was nothing to stop any of our hardy group!

Walking Holidays with Collett's

How quickly we all became friends as we took three fabulous walks, all displaying the gems of The Dales. We started with a varied day that takes in Penhill Summit where we had our encounter with the ponies, Templars chapel ruins and Redmire Force.

Walk to Redmire Force

Alan and Ellie treated everyone to their walk at Semerwater and our final day took us to the old mine ruins at Gunnerside and then following Swinnergill to Crackpot Hall, my favourite so far.

Old mine ruins at Gunnerside

Ellie and Alan spoilt us with an array of cakes, (good job we did plenty of walking!).

Special thanks to Jack, Mick, Veronica, Jeffrey and Beth, Marion and Robin and Anne. We hope to see you all again soon.

Pol x

Join us on our January Walking Break in the Yorkshire Dales – Click here for more information.

Snow has fallen in the Dolomites overnight. Dolomiti Superski will be updating their open pistes list today with their snowcats making the most of the fresh snow and making more pistes ready for the upcoming winter season.

Collett’s Mountain Holidays staff, already in the Dolomites, have been working hard to get our Chalets ready for our winter skiing, snowshoeing and winter walking season. They have also been out looking at the snowshoeing and winter walking routes in preparation for the first week.

Snowfall in the Alta Badia from Haus Valentin

We are looking forward to our first guests arriving for their pre-Christmas winter holiday.

A short walking holidays slideshow for a group planning to take a trip to the Alta Badia next summer, staying at Haus Valentin in Pedraces Badia and joining our easier / moderate organised walks program.