We loaded the chair around 10:30 a.m. and followed a new local friend, Luke, into a wild pillow-stacked gully. That first run showed us exactly how deep and perfect the snow really was. I lapped the chair twice more before noticing a sign saying another, higher chair would open at noon. It was 11:24 a.m. Perfect timing. I headed over to wait for the Marquise chair, which rises above treeline into mellow, rolling alpine terrain.
An intense storm system is hammering the region, dropping significant snow on top of an already fragile snowpack. So far, up to 30 cm (12 inches) of fresh snow has fallen in the Pre-Alps above 1,500 meters (4,900 feet), while the Dolomites have picked up around 15 cm (6 inches)-with much more on the way. The fresh snow is falling onto a poorly bonded surface layer left over from last weekend, which itself sits on deep, persistent weak layers made up of angular crystals-a classic recipe for avalanches.