My tip: at the top, slide one or both feet underneath the footrest and lift it forward and up with your boot, opening safety bar and weather hood together. (Legs are stronger than arms and you get better leverage.)

Wendy,
yes, I particularly enjoyed your Dolomites articles having been to Canazei myself, and skied most of the sectors you described.

Without a car I didn’t go to San Pellegrino. I noticed that the maybe similar Passo Costalunga (which is on the local map hence presumably the Val di Ffassa local pass) was do-able by ski bus from Pozza di Fasso, but the connections from Canazei made it not worth attempting.

Nor did I get up Marmolada; the queue for that chair above Arabba put me off. I did go there again one lunchtime and sampled the first blue along the way. How close to Arabba on the way back is your photo of the crowded, soft, mogul slope? I can think of two candidates.

One thing that really struck me about the area was the number of restaurants, cafes and refuggios: even that little gem Ciampedie has three (or was it four?)!

regards, Richard

In memory of Wendy King (“Chococat”), here is one of her last posts, originally second in this thread, 22 March 2012 (having been accidentally deleted once before, I’d taken and saved a copy of the thread)

Ahhahh ... you saw the difficulty I had in the dolomites recently? I tried all manner of hands and feet combinations to push the thing up, and it wouldn’t budge.
But even a lady in despair couldn’t get the sympathies of the lift attendant - although he did lift me off the thing as it was making its return journey (as I dangled three feet or so off the ground!)  First time it has happened, although I have come across stubborn hoods on other chairs; usually get them to pop up at the last minute though.
Wendy