Le snowshoeing, better known with the traditional term of "ciaspole", allow you to walk on the snow easily without sinking. Once used by mountain populations as a "means" to be able to cross the valleys in the middle of winter, they have now become one of the most interesting activities that can be carried out in the snow in winter.
After years of oblivion in which snowshoes were used only as historical relics hung on the walls, in recent years they have been rediscovered and reinvented to adapt them to the needs of sportsmen and tourists.
After the boom in skiing and snowboarding, it seems that snowshoes are regaining their deserved place in the tourism and winter sports scene.
A simple walk with snowshoes allows you to escape everyday life, abandon the frenzy of the city to become one with nature. An ideal opportunity to reduce stress and give space to new reflections and ideas. You "navigate" in nature and gaze at the wonders of the area, the sounds are muffled by the white of the snow and you can breathe the crisp winter air. An oasis of peace that allows you to completely relax, leaving behind the frustrations of modern life.
Every snowshoe excursion becomes a small adventure in search of simple but fascinating places, unknown mountain corners that offer a thousand surprises, beauties unknown to many, set in natural and uncontaminated places. It is easy to come across fawns that come down from the woods in search of food, or in a race between hares that seem to fly on the snow cover.
"Snowshoeing” does not require particular knowledge or special skills and is therefore an activity for everyone, from children to the elderly, for sportsmen and non-sportspeople. This is precisely one of the reasons that brought this activity to the fore. Unlike skiing and snowboarding, snowshoeing does not require specialized training to learn the technique. However, it is fair to remember that there are more and more winter tourist resorts that organize courses, often even free, which aim to teach (not so much the technique) but the important safety standards to be respected in the mountains in order to protect oneself and others hikers.
If you want to bring the risk to zero then the ideal is to contact the local Alpine Guides, they are highly specialized experts who know the area well. In addition to guiding us in complete safety on the snow, the alpine guides can help us discover the unknown beauties of the place, panoramic points that are no longer known and not marked in the guides, teach us to admire nature by observing the animals that come out of their dens in search of food. Furthermore, always with the alpine guides, it is possible to organize real multi-day tours, to discover new mountains and new beauties; such as excursions on full moon nights with dinner in a refuge and torchlight procession.
Discover the best offers to spend a snow vacation the best Alpine Chalets and Huts of the Dolomites, the best immersed structures in the heart of the Dolomites in typical Alpine style
Discover the best holiday offers at the foot of the Dolomites in Val Gardena, holiday packages at advantageous prices in hotels and apartments in Ortisei, Santa Cristina and Selva di Val Gardena
Venture with the snowshoeing off the beaten track it allows you to admire the winter landscape in all its authentic beauty, fascinating and solitary, stimulating and peaceful at the same time. One of the places that gives more space to the world of snowshoes is the Alta Pusteria, north of the Trentino Alto Adige, here you will find several dedicated routes all cataloged according to length, height difference and travel time, a real guide complete with maps. Walking in the valleys of theAlta Pusteria you can admire dream landscapes with a view of the most important mountains of the Dolomites, among the numerous tours one cannot help but mention the one that leads up to the Locatelli refuge, with a fantastic view of the "Tre Cime di Lavaredo".
Thanks to the widespread diffusion of this discipline, more and more ski areas and mountain tourist areas are equipped to offer hikers the best resources, from snowshoe sales and rental points to guides and GPS tools so you never lose your way. Of no less importance is the winter reopening of the huts and shelters once abandoned during the winter season, thanks to the "snowshoe hikers" even the shelters far from the slopes and more isolated come alive during the winter season becoming refreshment and meeting points for true mountain lovers in winter.
The crescendo of this activity is the symptom of a renewed sensitivity towards the environment, excursions with snowshoes have zero impact, in fact they do not require ski resorts, or other means of transport if not your own legs and a great desire to discover new places. This allows a return to simplicity where it is the territory and not the technology that is valued, an excellent opportunity for all those places which, due to their geographical position or lack of economic resources, have ended up in the shadows obscured by the great ski resorts.
Snowshoes become an instrument of reconquest with which to relaunch healthy and environmentally friendly tourism, rediscover the values of the past, the traditions and tastes of the typical products of the territories where local agriculture is still one of the cornerstones of the life of everyday
Photo credits: Alta Pusteria Tourist Board/K. Peterlin
There are no comments