If you long to venture off the beaten track and make your own trail on the fresh snow, and if the silence of the snow-covered peaks and valleys is for you, then you are going to love the mountains that surround Val di Sole, a vast and breathtaking area for your ski mountaineering adventure.
After the hard work of the ascent, there is nothing more satisfying than breathing in the crisp, highmountain air, as you contemplate the pristine white panorama all around you. It is a perfect moment of peace before the adrenaline rush and the profound sense of freedom that comes from skiing down through fresh snow.
Practising
Before
ANIMALS OFF PISTE... RESPECT THEM TO PROTECT THEM!
SOME INFORMATION ABOUT HOW TO ENJOY WINTER SPORTS WHILE RESPECTING THE LOCAL WILDLIFE Winter is a very difficult season for animals and the disturbance that we create, as people, can affect their very survival. Food is scarce in winter and often low in energy. The shorter days mean fewer opportunities to forage, while movement is hindered by deep snow, which depletes their strength. The temperatures (-10° C at an average of 2000 m above sea level) force animals to conserve energy carefully. There are various strategies used by different animal species, but the most important, shared by them all, is the choice of area where it is possible to find suitable food sources while consuming the least possible amount of energy, and where there is protection against disturbance, danger, and predators. Red deer, roe deer, ibex and chamois have developed: • a winter coat that is both dark in colour and insulating; fat reserves that, for chamois and ibex, can reach up to 1/5 of their weight; reduced energy needs, rumen capacity, and therefore, the amount of food they can eat. Capercaillie, black grouse and wood grouse, and ptarmigan are characterised by their:
• insulating plumage, in two layers, with feathers up to their tarsi; ability to dig holes in floury snow, where they spend more than 20 hours a day at temperatures close to 0°C;
they cannot accumulate fat reserves and the capacity of their crop, in winter, can barely provide them with sufficient energy to arrive at their next feed.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AN ANIMAL IS DISTURBED IN WINTER?
• Their flight makes them consume energy; stress burns up other resources and prevents the animal from feeding regularly;
• trying to escape forces them into places that are unsuitable for feeding; their energy loss cannot be made up for because they cannot digest more than the normal amount they need. The consequences of all this are difficulty in reproduction, weakness, death due to exhaustion or predation.
SIMPLE RULES FOR RESPECTING WILDLIFE WHILE ENJOYING WINTER SPORTS:
• keep to marked trails, which the animals are used to; do not enter areas where animals shelter, and respect the prohibitions;
• do not follow animal prints in the snow;
From the church, follow the signs to Valpiana, ascending a steep road up to the end of the village. At this point, you
