 Poster: A snowHead
|
Hi all,
I am checking the piste map and it seems that there are loads of drag lifts in Bacrdonecchia (which is putting my OH off - me too). They are usually over 1km in length.
For those who have been there before, it it enjoyable to stay only in the area covered by chair-lifts?
We are keen to go there (15-22 Jan) as it seems that it has had the best snow so far in Italy. However drag-lifts are a pain.
Comments are much appreciated.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
The brilliant restaurants in the village make up for the draglifts! It's a good resort with decent off piste too - snow permitting. If the lifts are a drag then Sestriere is a short drive!
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
|
I have to say it is the worst significant ski station that I have ever been to and I've been to over 100. When I was there it had been rather windy and the drag lift tracks were strewn with twigs and small branches - nothing was done about this until just before the weekend when the locals were expected. The lift operators were the most inattentive I have encountered. As HTL says there are some nice restaurants, but in my view little else to recommend the place.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
Not a huge area, and to make it worse the week we were last there a few years back the local ski Club had exclusive use of the main downhill slope all week. There is a bus to another more open area but its a bit of a faff. As noted if there is snow in area then head for Sestriere.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
I enjoyed my trip there a few years ago but my OH was a beginner then so the limited skiing wasn't too much of an issue. Yes there are a few quite crucial drag lifts and a couple of long ones, so if that's important perhaps look elsewhere but otherwise quiet slopes, cheaper prices and two mountains made it an agreeable place to spend a week.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Oh how disastrous after a strong winds twigs and small branches strewn over the drag lift tracks 
There is a lot of skiing in the Bardonecchia / Melezet / Jafferau area - and there are plenty of chairs to use, just study the maps, and it will be way emptier than French resorts.
For sure if you are on a week's Tour Op then it might not be worth the faff of going to Jafferau however you are in the mountain and weather can be a tad inclement at times so drags are way better than chairs which will often be shut due to high winds, but there again you'll have the twigs and small branches getting blown on to the drag track
The off piste potential of Jafferau is superb it's like a mini St Foy we will be going back when conditions warrant it even if it is a 50min drive!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@weathercam, I have no issue with acts of nature, but when the tracks remain totally unmaintained Monday to Thursday and lifties concentrate on topping up their tan from their deck-chairs offering no assistance to struggling low-level skiers leaving the job to un-associated others I find that pathetic service in any resort that wants to be taken seriously. The OP was also asking about the nature of the drag lifts, so valid to comment on that aspect I hope you would agree.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
We skied in Sestriere a couple of years ago and Bardonecchia is on the same lift pass, so we went there for a day. It was April, but the piste management was good, with skiing still down to village. It is a small area though and I think you probably need to use the drags to get the most out of it. The bus to the other area (Jafferau) didn't take too long although it is more exposed and not that large.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
If you look at the small print on the lift pass it says that in off peak periods some lifts will be closed between 13:00 and 14:00 such is skiing in Italy.
Italy does have it's issues but there are many advantages too and in any season I might ski the equivalent of ten days over in various parts.
Like I say I've only skied Jafferau over there and the drags are of the cable variety and if not used to those you might have an issue if no one is there to help you, but there again the chairs pretty well covered the area.
Today good case in point as to how drags have their place, I'm looking at nigh on all the chair lifts / gondolas closed due to high winds and only the few drags working.
@Ski lots, sounds like you're better off in the ski factories likes of Tignes with the hordes if you can't cope with a few twigs
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
I must apologise to fellow Snowheads. I thought that Snowheads was a forum to ask questions; gain advice and share information on snow sports. A forum where someone who had been involved in snow sports for over 30 years (down- hill, XC, snowboarding). A forum where if someone asks a question about a ski station it might be useful to get a range of opinions from those who have visited said resort and are in a position to compare with say 200 others, perhaps across 3 continents. A forum where people have been continuously instructing for 25 years including in the likes of Glencoe, might be in a position to comment on the running of ski stations in the rather easier to manage Italian resorts.
You can imagine how foolish I feel now that I realise the forum is apparently simply a place where others can make fatuous comments about the opinions of other people who were genuinely trying to assist, just because they don’t match their own view of the world. Silly me.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
I went in February a few years ago with a couple of mates. Skiing wise it's not the best but by no means bad. Theres a good selection of pistes, and we were able to ski off piste anywhere we liked even though the snow wasn't overly deep. Couple of parks, one of which is a wooden 'stash' style park which is good fun. Pretty much all the off piste we skied was untracked all week it was that quiet, other than under some of the chairs.
Jafferau is worth getting on the bus for, we went over there 2/6 days which I think was spot on. Theres a red down from the restaurant on Jafferau which is one of the most fun pistes I've ever skiied, super twisty, narrow and with loads of natural kickers, jumps and powder pockets to play in. The runs from the top are quite fun as well, fast and well groomed when I was there. The off piste above the tree line was crusty but good fun, I imagine it's often like this as its out in the sun.
Nightlife is non existant, we did find a bar that didn't know what a Jagerbomb was so we ended up finishing a bottle of Jager every 2 rounds as they kept making it with the ratio the wrong way round!
Overall not too bad a place, I personally would only go back if it was super cheap but I don't really have anything against the place.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
hi all, I really appreciate the comments left in the thread. I am taking away all advice provided and apologise if there were some divergences.
We are still checking the snow forecast to try and find the best deal. Bardonecchia is definitely in the short-list.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
@Ski lots, FYI I've been skiing / snowboarding for way more than 30 years and in that time I've visited many resorts across various continents even Glenshee which I have to say was dire compared to rest of Europe, but I just put that down to being in the wrong place at the wrong time and would never critique the mountain based on my one or two trips there (brother lived in Aberdeen for seven years).
Visiting a 100 or it seems to have gone up to 200 does not mean you are an expert in any given resort, just that you happen to be a visiting "tourist" when you are there, and can not seriously begin to understand the pros and cons of a resort's infrastructure as to how it might be run over the course of a season especially as each season might differ dramatically due to conditions.
I've been in the La Grave, Serre Che, Via Lattea area since 97 now in my fourth full winter season, prior to that used to do 4-5 weeks at a time, plus a couple of months each summer hiking and cycling exploring new routes.
Case in point being this substantial off road ride last summer https://www.strava.com/activities/657415159 where I doubled up a tough ride with sussing out Jafferau after a long conversation with a local, and mission accomplished.
There are still so many areas to explore, not least I probably do more hours out of resort ski touring than I do on the piste, and do you know what, I've never been bothered by some twigs 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
Yet you so clearly are by a little taste of your own patronising attitude - literally sticks and stones and all that.
By the way thanks for helping us out with our game of bingo here in the 'factory' with the predictability of your responses - I scored 4 out of 5 on the last one.
TTFN - I'm sure you won't forget to write.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
@Ski lots, so is it a 100 or 200
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
|
|
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?
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
@weathercam - great now we can have some real fun.
Forgive me if I do not answer your question directly, but you will find the answer in my earlier posts, if you read them carefully (which you of course should have done in the first place). Also note that my post of 19:31 on 4/1, was specifically not aimed at you and not about me, although the person described does share some similar experiences. You of course assumed both - as was of course predictable, pride and vanity can be such evil fellows. I could have added about the person that they had: worked as a ski model; advised governments on the development of snow-sports; been publicly recognised for their achievements; and been responsible for the introduction of the Tibetan turn.
Now before we take this fascinating long distance tete a tete further, which has at its heart the impact of arborial rubbish on the drag-lifts of a second rate Italian ski resort, you may want pause for a moment and consider. You have already fallen into two traps that have carefully laid for you - others are out there. I'm very happy to engage at length in a trial of whit, I am sure you are a far better skier, you being the intrepid explorer and I of course a mere mortal who is apparently afraid of twigs. However, you will find that I am a master of tugging the chains of others, as a friend recently put it "to the point where the victim ends up chocking themselves". We could of course choose to publicise the debate further - are you familiar with the rules of backgammon? The sad thing is that if you and I actually met we might even get on - perhaps a common passion for macramé or the works of Chaucer, who knows. Over to you.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
I rest my case.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
@redbaron51, I enjoyed my week skiing in Bardonecchia some years ago staying in hotel Campo Smith.
Local train station means it is simple to take a trip into Turin.
I liked the town and there was so much apres free food in the bars, hot and cold, you could actually do without evening meals!
All the Italians were v friendly and helpful.
I don't recall being bothered by drag lifts.
I do remember it being v cold and windy the day we skied Jafferau - I was literally the coldest I've ever been on a ski slope. Even with a hat on it felt like an ice cold knife was slicing into my forehead, the pain was incredible.
There was plenty of snow when I was there and pistes were in great shape. Jafferau in particular was icy.
Nb. Perhaps I am easily pleased. 🙂
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
. We went up to the Jafferau area a couple of times as a group and we were the only people there.
