Mid March from Milan

A snowHead

Considering a short break in March around 15 th for a few days. Going to wait before deciding as it sounds like there is a lot of iffy snow around just now.
Will probably go to a small to medium sized resort that I have not skied before with piste rather than off piste being the attraction will be with my wife and don't want anything to extravagant I've been twice already.
Thinking of Monte Rosa or Saas Fee as possibilities . Had thought of Livigno but snow depths there look awful just now. Any other suggestions that might have good snow but where I haven't been and will do five day breaks..
Edited I have booked flights to Milan

A snowHead

I’m looking at Valmeinier/Valloire for a similar time slot. 150km of piste and Valmeinier is at 1800 so the height will help. Also a 2hrs 5 mins drive from GVA makes it reasonably accessible.

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Some great reports from Monterosa recently. Easy drive from Turin, if you can get there. Or Cervinia.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Not a huge selection of hotels, but a couple of nice residences seem to be comfortable with short midweek breaks.

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If you wait for a few days you'll be able to see if the weekend's forecast retour d'est comes to much. If you are lucky, Via Lattea or even Monterosa might get a decent fall (though currently looks like they might be a bit far north).

Otherwise, options aren't great around Milan just now. Geneva is probably the better option, and head for the usual high Tarentaise suspects?

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Sass Fee will be good. Might be a bit more troublesome to find accommodation.

Monterosa the pistes will probably be just fine. And I would guess easier to get accommodation for less than a week. There are plenty of hotels and quite a few worthwhile restaurants in Champoluc. It is a pleasant place! Gressoney and Alagna are quieter but also worth a look (particularly Gressoney as convenient location for the area).

After all it is free

Just checked calendar and its around the 21st we will be going so a week later than thought if we go. Not keen on high Tarentaise, done them too often before and want somewhere new. Monterosa is decently cheap both flight and accommodation wise but a little concerned about how late it is. Which way do the slopes predominantly face?

I have booked flights to Milan will hold off on where to go until the snow conditions are a bit clearer but open to suggestions.

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Well it looks like there have been some reasonable falls of snow since I first posted here, however they appear to be mainly in the Western alps though with differential reporting it is hard to be certain.

I will be flying a week today initial thoughts are La Thuile because it looks like that area is where there has been reasonable falls and is northish facing.
Less keen on Monterosa because of direction it faces.

Was thinking of somewhere new but we will be piste skiing and want a reasonable sized area with decent pistes . I have skied La Thuile before but not for about 7 years when we went for a day or about 18 years since I last stayed there. However if there are other suggestions I would be interested. Might get the Aosta valley pass and have a day in Pila and possibly Monterosa.

Has anyone any other suggestions that I have not thought about?

How long will you have, @T Bar?

You know it makes sense.

Cervinia might be worth thinking about.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Will be skiing for 5 days going on Wed back on Tue.
I have skied Cervinia several times from Zermatt but not stayed there. I can't say it was a fave when I did ski it but that may be just a memory last time I skied it was probably 25+ years ago.

A snowHead

You might find your choices constrained by availability of mid-week accommodation unless you're prepared to do a fair bit of driving.

A snowHead

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@T Bar, I would choose Sass Fee. I always do at this time of year. And have never been disappointed.

NB some hotels have an automatic bar on stays less than 5 or 7 days on their online booking systems. But I have found that if you call you normally find they are happy to accept less closer to the date. Always worth a try.

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We don't hear much about Sass Fee on SHs - would be interesting to have some trip reports and photos. Quite a drive from Milan!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@T Bar, north of Milan, Livigno could work. They picked up about 30cm over the past couple of days. Perhaps with an outing to Bormio or Santa Caterina. There is a pass that covers all three (though might be cheaper to buy them separately).

But overall I think your Aosta Valley idea is better: La Thuile, Pila, Cervinia, Courmayeur should all be quite good now. You don't necessarily need to the expensive, full valley pass. Most of the local passes allow one or two away days elsewhere in the valley depending on duration of the pass.

What about La Thuile, with outings to Courmayeur and perhaps Pila?

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@pam w,
I put Saas Fee in my opening post as Geneva was a possibility for flights buy Milan was so much cheaper and I quite like Italy. Saas Fee isn't actually a ridiculous drive from Italy and had there been blisteringly hot conditions and little snow elsewhere I would consider it, but Aosta looks a better bet from Milan.
@denfinella, Yup I've got a good looking B&B in La Thuile at a reasonable price E640 for the two of us, so have just pulled the trigger. Not sure which lift pass to go for , it will depend a bit on how much driving my wife wants us to do. I'd like to have a day at the Monterosa area but it is 1hour 20 mins away apparently and my wife has done a day there on a previous visit we had to Courmayeur when I was doing the VB. The La Thuile pass for five days only gives a day elsewhere and I would certainly like to ski Pila which I have not done and possibly Courmayeur again but it is around 50 euro more expensive for five days for the valley pass. Decisions, decisions.
@zikomo,
Cheers plenty of availability in Saas Fee but it is a fair bit pricier with a longer drive. I will try it another time with luck.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

I found we had limited appetite for driving up and down the Aosta Valley. On the motorway it's expensive and off the motorway quite slow, with endless (and often completely inexplicable) changing of speed limits which most locals seemed to ignore. I was grateful that my daughter did a lot of the driving. I am impressed with @denfinella's stamina on his multi-resort touring holidays!

After all it is free

@T Bar, what about a 4 day La Thuile pass (with day trip to Courmayeur), then buy Pila separately? (I think Pila is cheaper than Courmayeur)
@pam w, my OH does all the driving when we are abroad wink

The speed limits in the Aosta valley were indeed very annoying!

@denfinella,
Could do. It would force Pila onto the first or last day I guess, will keep an eye out for the weather forecasts.
@pam w, I've not driven much up and down the Aosta only into and out of and between Courmayeur and La Thuile, I will bear that in mind.

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I'm driving down the Aosta Valley at the end of the month - en route from Calais to Genoa. It will be motorway all the way, with my new "bip and go" whizzy ticket.

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@pam w, yep, usually update from the passenger seat while heading back to the Airbnb!

Which BB have you booked, if it’s the Du Glacier it’s really nice, Suzanna the owner will ring and book restaurants for you in the evenings, I was there in Jan and ate in Lo Tata which is a five min walk.

[quote="denfinella"]@T Bar, what about a 4 day La Thuile pass (with day trip to Courmayeur), then buy Pila separately? (I think Pila is cheaper than Courmayeur)
I would do this, it’s 25-30 mins to Courmayuer park and use the Dolonne lift free parking and less crowded, and about an hour to Pila, if the main road up to La Thuile from Pre St Didier is open, it was closed in Jan due to a landslide, the alternative route from Morgex was a lot slower, although I was in a transfer bus, if you do go to Pila the toll charge was approx €8 in 2020 it won’t be much more, and it’s alot quicker and easier than the rural route, and get there by 9 to avoid the bused in school kids who get there about 9.30 for ski school at 10. They disappear on mountain and aren’t a problem, allow 20 mins or so for the gondola up from Aosta to Pila, if the car park is busy there’s loads of free space in behind the supermarket opposite.

You know it makes sense.

The toll from Turin airport to Pila was about 16 euros.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@geoffknight,
Cheers for the info. We are in a place called La Niche, reviews looked decent and it was very reasonably priced.

A snowHead

@T Bar, No problem, have a great trip, I’m off to Canazei in the morning Toofy Grin

A snowHead

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

For those interested I am just back from La Thuile.
Slightly mixed holiday.
We chose it as it had very good snow coverage about a week or so out.What we hadn't really anticipated was the weather forecasts which were a bit variable .
People at the resort reported excellent skiing when we arrived. Unfortunately our first day was warm and muggy and produced a very slow sticky surface which was apparent at pretty much all levels. Skiing was a bit so so but had an excellent lunch on the mountain.
The weather deteriorated thereafter the following day was raining and warmish with light rain up to the top of the area and we decided a visit to the roman ruins at Aosta was a better use of our time though it was wet there for much of the day it was a good town to visit.

Fortunately over the next couple of days the rain turned to snow and we were skiing again though much of the resort was closed and visibility limited with significant wind above the tree line, we had rather a short duration of skiing then. The weather improved thereafter and we skied the second last day on excellent fresh snow though high winds again limited the skiing significantly. We had to get to Milan on the last day for our flight so only managed a couple of hours or so ,The pistes were once again in excellent condition though when we left the area you could ski in was still very limited I'm not quite sure why as the wind no longer appeared to be a problem.

The food and friendliness of the resort were first class and I will probably return though our last two visits to the Aosta valley have been beset with bad weather with a couple of days of lift closures on our last trip to Courmayeur.

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@T Bar, thanks for reporting back. Sounds like you made the most of some tricky weather conditions. Sticky snow is really annoying. Our March 2022 also had weather problems - for us, it was consecutive days of thick fog, followed by Saharan dust, the latter of which also created problems with sticky snow. Did you ski anywhere other than La Thuile in the end?

I don't think the Aosta Valley (Cervinia aside) is particularly prone to bad weather compared with the Alpine average, so I hope that doesn't stop you returning.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

When we spent many weeks in the Alps every winter I was very laid-back about half a week of grotty weather - it's different when you just have a week though. Hence the tendency to go out and hack around in atrocious conditions. I'm cured of that.....I spent a lot of time with the price lists last week working out whether to buy passes for a whole week for my family trip but it made no sense. "Discount for quantity of days" or "family discounts" were very measly and for little learners, and less-than-fanatical grandmothers, points passes made better sense, especially when nice long breaks in restaurants were on the itinerary. The bullying drum-beat of "I've bought a pass so I'm going to get my moneysworth" will go in one ear and out the other.

After all it is free

@denfinella,
We didn't ski anywhere else as the weather forecasts were no better for the other areas. I'd really wanted to ski Pila which I haven't skied and also missed out on the top lifts at Courmayeur due to weather on the last trip.

On the weather front I have heard that La Thuile has a bit of a reputation for attracting wind and possibly a bit more snow as the weather gets funneled between Mont Blanc and Ruitor. The actual snow coverage was excellent, apart from the sticky stuff on day one the snow conditions were good just the overhead made it a bit unfavourable.

I would certainly return I have skied La Thuile quite a few years ago and enjoyed it then and found it very reasonable price wise this time. Our B&B was very pleasant and the owners lovely.
@pam w, I'm definitely a bit more of a fair weather skier than in days of yore. My wife even more so, she has more sense than me. Laughing

Help!!

Mid March from Milan

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