Snowboarding with Vayla at Frontignano

Almost since I arrived in Italy, Vayla and I have been talking about going snowboarding together. Until recently though, he's been busy studying for his ship captain's exam. Last Thursday he finally took the exam, and passed. He is now officially Captain Vayla and can drive (pilot, sail, maneuver?) any boat up to 20 meters in length anywhere in the world. Except off the coast of Somalia. There are pirates there. With the test out of the way and the weekend free, we planned a trip for Saturday.

As incredibly poncy as this sounds, this was the first one day snowboarding trip I'd taken in Europe. Everything else has been multi-day stays at various resorts. It felt familiar to be packing gear for just a day, meeting at seven, stopping for a quick breakfast along the way and changing in the parking lot. Could have been Meadows except instead of the Johnsons or Heinrichs or Ash I was with Vayla. The cronies may have changed but the scenery was similar. With new snow recharging the area on Thursday and Friday and relatively mild weather Saturday this timing was fortuitous and the day fantastic.

Frontignano is a little resort near the little town of Ussita in the Apennine Mountains (not spelled like it sounds but spelled like it looks) about 130 kilometers and 2 hours from Ancona. It's a bit bigger than Skibowl and a little smaller than Meadows. It has one quad, two singles (which I'd never seen before) and a few other doubles.


As fun as it looks.
The overall terrain is relatively intermediate with some offerings of good steepness and tree sections. For a day area it's plenty entertaining, the crowds are small and relaxed, the tickets are cheap and they have a sandwich at lunch that was amazing - big slices of crusty bread toasted over a coal fire with fresh grilled sausage from the same fire and thick slices of cheese slowly melting over the top, all made to order. The Bombardino I had for the mid-afternoon was lethal and delicious.



More please.

Slip sliding away.

Just another day hanging out in Italy.

Gratuitous Scenery Shots



Heads-up that this will be my last post for a few days because tomorrow morning early I board the train for Courchevel, France to visit this vision in pink:


I can't say how excited I am to see her even though she'll probably kill me for posting this picture. It's worth it. I just hope I can keep up with her.