Book Review

Ski Touring and Snowshoeing in the Dolomites

ISBN: 978 1 85284 7456, January 2017, Published by Cicerone Press www.cicerone.co.uk

50 Winter Routes (1st Edition, 2017) Written by James Rushforth. Review by Dave Brown.

The Italian Dolomites: A UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the world's most popular ski destinations. This is a place of beauty, breath-taking scenery and the all-important snow. The Dolomites attract winter sports enthusiasts, climbers and mountaineers from worldwide and in their thousands. So, this first English language guidebook to Ski Touring and Snowshoeing is greatly welcome, detailing 10 areas of the Italian Dolomites.

The premise of this excellent guidebook appears to be to 'have your cake and eat it!': come to one of the most beautiful and busiest winter sport destinations in the world, but escape the crowds and explore the peaks, ridges, couloirs, faces and valleys that the Dolomites has to offer. This guidebook offers to show you those places and whet your appetite for adventure in the northern territories of Italy.

There's nothing quite like the search for fresh tracks and James Rushforth's book opens the door to the hidden backcountry of the Dolomites, from easily accessible areas such as Cortina, Arabba, Cor- vara and Canazei. There are details of how to get there, the logistics whilst in the country, safety, insurance, ski passes and background information on the region's rich history and cultural heritage, as well as a guide on how to use the guidebook.

The guidebook uses the popular grading system with alpine grading for ascent and the volo/toponeige for the descent: the routes vary according to difficulty and range from 5km to 18km, providing a good range of routes for all abilities and interests from the snowshoeing enthusiast to the ski touring aficionado.

There are detailed route descriptions, which are accompanied by 1:50,000 mapping, complemented by topos showing the line of the route, all presented alongside the author's own inspirational photography, for which James has won over a dozen inter-national photographic competitions alongside a nomination for the Banff Film Festival Book Award for a previously published book.

The routes allow you to discover quaint villages and enchanting mountain vistas whilst on a relaxing snowshoe trek along a tranquil winter valley or get your adrenaline fix whilst on the thrilling descent of a steep couloir in the mountains. The Dolomites of winter boast off-piste adventures at their best and memories that will last a lifetime.

Appendices offer useful planning information that include contact details for local ski schools, mountain guide offices and sports shops as well as glossaries of place-names, terminology and simple translations.

This is an excellent resource that provides information to an area previously guarded by local language guidebooks, now made accessible to English speakers.

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