 Poster: A snowHead
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Time for another rambling, overly wordy trip report with the odd hidden gem (perhaps). I wasn't going to write one but this trip is a bit different for us so maybe worth the effort.
We (me, Mrs_mg and mini_mg) are off to Sestriere in the Via Lattea, with friends we met in Croatia last summer. It's the first trip with mini_mg for several years (too busy having fun at uni, chucking a disc around) and also the first for Mrs_mg in even longer (although she's not skiing this time  ). Oh, and possibly it coincides with a landmark for me.
Sestriere chosen because...it's where it friends were going. Crystal because that's how they were going (and the hotel is operated by them). And this week because again it's when our friends were going, plus it worked for mini_mg. Of course, given our disparate locations, it's not "just" Crystal and this first instalment comes from Munich airport, en route to Turin. Mrs_mg and I are celebrating her birthday in a cafe (dean&david) which is a bit hot and not overly comfortable. But at least we'll get to Turin at a sensible time, having left home at a sensible time. Gothenburg was plastered by the biggest snowstorm in 30 years Weds/Thurs, so that's a result in itself. Mini_mg sets out at 01:45 tomorrow morning, to catch the Crystal flight from Manchester and meet us in Turin mid morning. From then on it's Crystal all the way. Transfer bus to Sestriere, stay in the Hotel Principi di Piemonte, take it from there. If we're really lucky we might see the (winter) Olympic torch in Sestriere as we arrive.
More to come later, once I remember how to post the weather wigglies etc.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Weather. Looks to be fairly settled to start with, and temperatures not as low as the past week or so.
The Norwegian forecast from YR.NO is perhaps easier to read! Not the most exciting forecast, but let's see what happens.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Following with interest 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Following with interest.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Oh, the pressure! Now there are people to let down 
Flight from Munich to Turin was delayed by about an hour for no obvious reason, but we've arrived safely at our hotel and Mrs_mg has a celebratory glass of wine. We're staying at the Jet Hotel which is a 16th century monastery a kilometre away from the airport. Once you get past the daylight robbery of the 20 euro taxi fare and the extremely cold floors, it's a decent place for an overnight stop. Tomorrow will be a relaxed breakfast before we head back to the airport, to confuse the poor Crystal rep who won't understand how a couple of people have managed to get through baggage reclaim before they plane has even landed.
In the meantime, here's a pic of Munich airport in the snow.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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"Transfer" day. We woke up to a beautiful clear morning, and snow capped mountains 
After a so-so breakfast (not the hotel's strongest point) we headed back to the airport to meet up with the rest of the crew. Well over half of the flights coming in to Turin this morning must have been Crystal, but it wasn't too busy and the UK contingent made it through passport control and baggage reclaim surprisingly quickly. We were directed out to our coach (which was so far away it just actually have been outside the airport) and off to Sestriere by mid morning. Easy journey, not much traffic and despite a slightly chaotic swap to minibuses at the end (the full size coach can't get up the road to our hotel) all worked out and we were installed in our room by 13:00. Mrs_mg is happy with the view, one of the better ones we've had.
The hotel itself is quite eccentric: lots of curves and odd angles, varied decor plus additional guests on the stairs.
We grabbed lunch in the bar (random assortment of ciabatta-type things) then mini_mg and I walked down the hill into Sestriere proper to check out the town. It's pretty much like most other purpose built ski resorts, except that lots of the buildings are round. Now we're waiting for dinner, then early night (especially for the UK based crew who got up at 01:45). Tomorrow morning we have an absolute beginner to get down the hill to lessons. Walking or the shuttle bus are not acceptable options 
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Day 1 skiing. I have someone acquired the reputation (within the group we're with, who we've never skied with before) as a first-lift-to-last lift addict who never stops. It may not be too far off the mark, but the rep took a bit of a beating when mini_mg and I were a few minutes late this morning. My cunning plan to reuse Sälen lift pass cards was a good one, except that the Via Lattea app was on go-slow and it took a good 15 minutes to get the cards loaded. Grrr.
The Hotel Principi is a bit above Sestriere, so you cross a road and climb up a short path to get to a cat track that leads down to the Fraiteve gondola and a veeeerrrrrrryyyyyy ssssslllllllooooooowwwww chair (Garnel). We took the latter, then skied down red 1 into the centre - a good start - then up the main Cit Roc chair (a 6 seater) and down red 3 back to the centre again. After meeting up with our never-never, who'd taken the shuttle bus from the hotel and done a couple of runs in the magic carpet with his girlfriend, we left him at his lesson and spent the morning lapping chair 19 (Nuova Nube). I think we did most of the runs off this chair, aside from a couple that were closed. Decent snow, a bit thin in places but not terrible and not icy, and pretty quiet.
Most of the group peeled off mid morning for a drink stop, but mini_mg doesn't really do that so we carried on for a few more laps.
We regrouped for lunch at 13:00, at the Igloo cafe in the centre (decent selection of food in the food court). After lunch it was a mix of laps round the button Baby DX and blue run next to it for our (no longer looking like a) never-never, quick exploratory runs to see if anything else was feasible (Sestriere is not over-burdened with blues suitable for an absolute beginner) and the odd longer lap.
Mini-mg called it a day around 15:00, and I did a few more times before finishing around 16:30. A good start.
Mini_mg after remembering that actually she's a pretty tidy skier:
Looking back to Sestriere from Bimbo Alta (I think). Our hotel is out of sight off to the left.
Nearly time for dinner now
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Sounds like a fab first day! I'm also a first to last with as few stops as possible.
Beautiful views!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@mgrolf, with you on first out, last in (as long as the knees can take it )
We used to just lap 3 bus and 3 blu, bit of a leg burner to go top to bottom.
Can recommend the eatery at the top of the Nube Argento chairlift, great pizzas and burgers, really well priced.
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@Specialman, thanks, will see if we can give it a try. Our first timer is handling easier reds now so our choice of lunch locations may expand.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Day 2: lifts, lots of them. TL;DR don't try to ski to Claviere.
This morning I left mini_mg revising in the hotel (she has uni exams next week) and headed off to see how long it takes to get to Claviere. The answer is, 5 minutes of skiing the best part of an hour of lifts! The gondola up out of Sestriere took 12 minutes, then it was a quick 1000m vert blast down 79 and the Olimpica pistes (both very firm reds) to Sansicario at 1700m. Below this the pistes are all closed, so the route was download on the Cesana-Ski Lodge gondola (a lonely 14 minutes, no one else mad enough to be going that way so soon) into Cesana Torinese (1354m). A quick change into the old, slow 2 man Rafuyel chair got me going up again; then next was the Sagnalonga chair, a more modern and faster 4 person detachable which goes up into the Claviere area proper. The top of this lift was the bottom of the skiable slopes; one more lift (Sagnalonga Bercia) to the Colle Bercia (2293m) put me in a position to ski again.
Colle Bercia
At this point, it's 10:18 and I need to be back in Sestriere by 12, so I turned around and headed back. Two quick reds to the top of Sagnalonga and then the fun begins. Download nr 1: skis off, hold them across your lap (max 2 people per chair) and dangle your feet. The lift goes along a bit, then the mountain drops away precipitously, for a long time. Lessiere in Val d'Isere simply does not compare - it's something about not having skis on that makes everything feel way less secure . Against the odds, I managed to not fall off, and at the bottom, it's skis on for the download on the slow 2 man chair  . Then off again for the gondola up to Sansicario. And on again for the Ski Lodge- La Sellette chair. You get the idea. A short run (black, chock full of back seat cowboys who really should have turned left onto the red instead) and finally a long button up to the top of Mont Fraiteve.
View from the top
And back towards Sestriere
I had just enough time to check out the blue off the top (narrow, scraped, not worth it) and enjoy another old slow lift back before heading down the gondola to meet mini_mg for lunch at the Igloo again.
The afternoon was quite like day 1, this time lapping the Trebials chair and 3 blue with the larger group, before mini_mg and I did a couple of top-to-bottom laps of Cit Roc and red 1 at a decent pace. This left us at the bottom of the Garnel chair at 16:32, watching the lifty pull the chains across to close it. We thought it ran till 17:00, oops. So the day finished with a quick skate up to the magic carpet, brief entertainment watching very small kids in ski school sliding on one ski, and a short boot pack up to the hotel. All in all, another good day with wall to wall sunshine  even if I spent too much time on lifts this morning.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Skis OFF on a downloading chair? There's a story there about someone's skis falling off into the abyss, I'll bet.
We had a skis off chair in Rauris, in Austria. You can't ski to the chair. You ski to the gate and then walk the rest of the way, hand your skis to the lifty, who puts them on the chair behind yours. It was our very first time skiing, and it's the only chair in Rauris. We were very confused.
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| Quote: |
| This left us at the bottom of the Garnel chair at 16:32, watching the lifty pull the chains across to close it. We thought it ran till 17:00, oops. So the day finished with a quick skate up to the magic carpet, brief entertainment watching very small kids in ski school sliding on one ski, and a short boot pack up to the hotel. |
So the hotel is ski in, as long as you jump off at the Garnel chair intermediate point in time!
My mate was to busy waffling on about something he ignored the ski's up sign and us telling him to lift his skis and poles up, and ended up snaping a pole on the first lift of the hols! Cue embarrassed return to the ski rental place <30 mins after leaving it.
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You know it makes sense.
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@mgrolf, that drag lift up to the top of Fraitive is soooooooo long. And it's proper rickety, I got almost thrown off a few times when we skied there. The queue was manic for it as well. It definitely needs replacing with a chair to ease congestion, especially at the end of the day when everyone is trying to get back to Sestriere.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| Specialman wrote: |
| @mgrolf, that drag lift up to the top of Fraitive is soooooooo long. And it's proper rickety, I got almost thrown off a few times when we skied there. The queue was manic for it as well. It definitely needs replacing with a chair to ease congestion, especially at the end of the day when everyone is trying to get back to Sestriere. |
We once nearly missed it because of lingering over a Bombardino in the hut at the bottom of it, luckily the queue was still there so we joined the back of it and were fine. The other year we went, there was more snow so run 82 was open so we took that from top of Rocca Rotonda chair and skied all the way down to Sestriere.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@Warrell1, spa is good, but you have to book a 90 minute slot each morning. Mrs_mg has gone at 14:00 twice, and had the place pretty much to herself. On the other hand, 17:00 is very popular. There's a decent sized pool, jacuzzi (not that warm), 2 saunas and steam room, plus a relaxation room. There's a gym as well, we've not used that. The hotel runs a shuttle bus into Sestriere 9-12 and 14:30-19:00. A few of the lifts are pedestrian-accessible including the Fraiteve gondola and Garnel chair, both of which have cafes at the top. These two set off from a place that's about 5 minutes walk down from the hotel (and the shuttle bus goes there). You can buy return trip tickets from the machine there too.
Food is good, there's been fish options every night so far (in the starters and mains) and an extensive salad/veg bar. Much better than the average french Alpine offering, for sure.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Day 3: Sauze d'Oulx. Another sunny, warm day (it really isn't right to be sitting outside for lunch and peeling off layers mid January, but hey, it's nice). After the usual faff/warm up first thing, the majority of the crew piled into the Fraiteve gondola to try out Sauze. View from the top is stunning, both ways, but it was a bit windy down towards Sansicario so we turned right towards Sauze. The first blue was forgettable, apart from the view (narrow track with a steep ish drop to the right), and the first proper runs down from here were (very) brown in places. The team nearly turned around after 1 lap, but I persuaded them to go a bit further into Sauze, and we were rewarded with much better conditions and some really nice runs. There were still brown patches, notably at the top of the Chamonier chair (the entrance to the poster right next to this would have been full on combat skiing, if we'd tried it) but overall the snow was good. Highlight was top to bottom on red 11, down through the trees to Clothes - really long, varied run without too many other people and great snow).
The return to Sestriere featured the slow 2 man chair that is the only link back up (see Monday). I wouldn't want to do that one in proper January conditions. Finally we downloaded on the gondola, and I peeled off to meet mini_mg at the hotel.
A few runs later, lessons had finished and the whole group reunited for some runs above Borgata. We had lunch at the cafe where 8 (red then black) crosses Bimbo (blue) which isn't marked on the piste map. Ok but not great burger; the pasta pesto looked better. Apparently it does excellent hot chocolate, but they'd sold out by the time we got there around 14:00 so I can't confirm this.
Lunch
And the view from lunch
After lunch there was time for a few more runs, and the rightmost black (skiers right), Standard, above Sestriere had opened so mini_mg and I plus 1 other from the group nipped up to do this (short, reasonable wide, grippy snow - not a bad intro to blacks at least in these conditions) which was fun. The traverse across to it was less fun, given that it crossed the race pistes (women's FIS European Cup GS last Friday and Saturday) and was covered in solid ice death cookies .
We finished a few minutes before last lift (no repeat of yesterday) to round off another excellent day. Now for dinner.
Sun going down in the mountains (from the bar, before dinner)
Last edited by Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see? on Wed 14-01-26 19:47; edited 1 time in total
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Warrell1, no (apparent) evidence of the fire now.
Here are some pictures of the starter/salad/veg bar from tonight.
Labeling of the food isn't great, so your OH will need to be careful, e.g. tonight there were breaded olives, stuffed with meat. Not obvious from the outside.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@mgrolf, thanks for the Intel. Your photos are great. Everything looks fab. Have a great day tomorrow. Heavy rain and a team building day in the office for me 
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Day 4: a significant day (more on that later). But first, the skiing - Sansicario. The weather is on the turn, and we woke to clouds around the hotel. A fairly spectacular inversion, as it turns out, which hung around on and off all day.
We've settled into a comfortable routine: warm up laps until lessons start at 10, then off exploring. Today's goal was to revisit the Sansicario side that I'd blitzed through on Monday. It's fair to say that I'd rate these as some of the best runs in the domain: long, varied and the snow was much better than Monday morning. The cloud top was at the base of the Roccia Rotonda chair so the logical thing to do was to go back up - but there was a technical fault and the liftie helpfully told us to get a bombardino. I don't drink...! Instead we carried on down to Sansicario itself and returned from there. By the time we got back to the Roccia Rotonda it was spinning again, so onwards and upwards we went. A couple of laps of this chair later it was time for the long drag back up to the Fraiteve gondola. On Monday I'd dropped over towards Sauze, so I hadn't done the final challenge: skis-off carpet. This has multiple obstacles. First, a quite steep ramp up to the tunnel (this claimed one victim), then a carpet with minimal grip (another victim, and at least 2 near misses). If you survive that, it spits you out straight into the exit from the gondola i.e. into groups of people staggering slightly in the snow who are looking at the view, not the missiles emerging from their left. Someone wasn't thinking straight when they laid the lifts out .
View from the top of the Fraiteve gondola, towards Sansicario.
We times the download perfectly to meet Mrs_mg and mini_mg at the bottom, ready to tackle the joys of a pedestrian ride on the Garnel chairlift for lunch.
More to follow but it's dinner time for me now.
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Part 2. Lunch at the Rifugio Alpette, at the top of the Garnel chair which allows pedestrian access up and down (18 euro round trip) so Mrs_mg could join. It was a bit of a (failed) palaver trying to get me, mini_mg and Mrs_mg (no skis) on the same chair so in the end mini_mg went separately and endured an awkward trip up stuck on the end after the other 2 people on her chair got off at the jumping off point part way up. It really is a jump off!
Over the course of a couple of hours several coffees, lunch (reasonable selection, but felt a bit expensive at 55 euros for 3 meals plus 2 soft drinks - the price of being accessible) and the odd bombardino were bought. All bar the bombardino were also consumed; the bombardino feel victim to the stealth step on the way out of the restaurant and was redistributed into the drinks tray. Oops.
Mrs_mg and I spent time watching the clouds come and go, with twinkly crystals alternating with bright sunshine, whilst the rest of the group came and went.
View up from the rifugio
Then it was time for Mrs_mg to download and I skied on ahead to take photos. All went well until the dismount, when a combination of lack of comprehension of Italian and misunderstanding about the point to get off, left Mrs_mg having to run rather more rapidly than ideal for someone with creaky crackly knees. No long term harm done though. I caught back up with the group for a few last runs as the sun and air temperature went down, rounding off a very satisfactory day.
Which just leaves the significance of the day. This is how I was woken up this morning:
Hard to think of a better way of celebrating the half century, than a day with family and friends in the mountains.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@mgrolf, €55 for 3 meals and 2 soft drinks is great value. If you think that is expensive you should avoid France and Austria.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| mgrolf wrote: |
Over the course of a couple of hours several coffees, lunch (reasonable selection, but felt a bit expensive at 55 euros for 3 meals plus 2 soft drinks - the price of being accessible) and the odd bombardino were bought. |
Expensive? You ski Scandinavian do you?
And Happy Birthday!
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@Chicko, @ster, compared to the other meals we've had this week, the ones from Rifugio Alpette "felt" expensive, yes - small portions, not as tasty as other places we've eaten here at a similar cost. I mainly ski in France (and a bit in Scandinavia), so I'm not unused to high prices - it's about the value, not the headline cost.
To be fair to the Rifugio, the coffee was excellent and only 2 euros (as it has been everywhere) - no comparison here to France or Scandi-land
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FAQ
My non-sking OH and I will be in the same hotel in a few weeks. Is Mrs_mg finding the pool and spa Ok? Any hints and tips to help keep my OH happy? She's also a pescatarian so any views on the amenities of the Principi would be handy. The ski Navi tips are much appreciated too 
