Sauze D'oulx lifts and links to Claviere/ Montegnevre

A snowHead

Hi,

I'm staying in Oulx (rather than Sauze d'oulx) for 5 nights in February and am a bit worried about some of the resort reviews that I've seen on Tripadvisor about slow lifts, lift queues and lift closures.

Can anyone tell me how much of an issue this is likely to be? Our first days skiing will be the tail end of UK half term (Thur 20 Feb), in case this will have a big impact on queues.

We are considering hiring a car so we can easily reach Claviere and other neighbouring resorts, but this will limit our intake of vin chaud (or whatever the Italsians have instead!) and be generally more stressful. We are staying near the bus stop in Oulx but not sure how reliable the bus services are... Claveire bus is quite infrequent, but Cesano looks easier to get to.

Do we need to hire a car or am I worrying unneccesarily about getting stuck in Sauze with massive lifts queues with ski access to other resorts closed??

One final question, can you do a ski day in Montgenevre if you don't have a 6 day lift pass? Would that mean paying twice for one of the days ( paying for a one day pass in Montgenevre whilst having a current Sauze pass unused for that day?)

Any help much appreciated.

A snowHead

I was there (Sauze) last half term and it was not that busy tbh. Many of the lifts are slow / low capacity but we never queued for more than 5 mins. There are some advantages if you know you have to get the bus in a place like Sauze /Oulx:
- you can get the Jouvenceux chair into the ski area for Sauze which is IMO the best option anyway (avoiding the slow CLotes chair in the middle of Sauze and rather unpleasant cobbled waking in the town itself; or you are avowing the long gondola from Cesana)
- the Cesana chairlift towards Claviere is slow, but the area you reach is very quiet but pretty and fun area with quite a lot of variety (Claviere itself was relatively busy compared to anywhere else and the runs funnel into the village)
- if you going to get the bus anyway eg towards Cesana you have the options to go direct to Sestriere or Montgenevre -its not much more effort and means you get a good go at those areas (both are worth a visit but usually take a long time to get on skia)
I don't think the buses are that frequent, but you could budget for a taxi if you need one - there are plenty of bars to stop and wait anyway eg at the Cesana lift "junction"
Ski passes - I don't think you can - you could just get 2 days for each side (ie Sauze & Sestriere / Claviere & Monty) - where you are in Oulx makes that option work well

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Thanks so much for your reply- I'm feeling very relieved about the Jouvenceux lift queues being shorter! Perhaps I'm overthinking the need to get to other resorts- I'm sure Sauze will be more than adequate. We've decided against the car hire and will have day trip elsewhere by bus if we feel the need.

Help!!

Sauze D'oulx lifts and links to Claviere/ Montegnevre

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