 Poster: A snowHead
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When I was researching a trip to this area I didn't find much information on it here so I'll try add to the general pool with a report from our week there from the 18th to the 25th of Feb.
First up we are a family of five, kids are 14,12 and 8 and have all had a weeks skiing in Finland in 2022 so very much on the beginner end of the spectrum. Priorities for us were nice place to stay with two bedrooms, in a nice town or somewhere reasonably interesting for my wife who is not a dedicated skier for a number of reasons, around 2 hour transfer from airport, self catering, direct flights from Dublin.
Flew Dublin to Turin as the flights were cheap with Ryanair. Booked a car through Ryanair (Tipo estate for €300), which I cancelled later on and rebooked for a bargain of €70 for the week. In the end they were offering a golf rather than a jeep renegade so upgraded to a tipo estate at the desk as the snowboard bag wouldn't fit into the golf easily, which put the rental cost up to €140 for the week  Still a bargain. No issues with the car at all, had a few dents around the body but marked on the agreement. We used Italy Car Rent, and no issue with them at all. No hard sell once I told them I had my own excess policy.
Transfer time was 1h30 easy motorway driving, with a stop in Mondovi to stock up in a large Supermarket, plenty of choice there - aldi, lidl, etc
We booked an apartment through Airbnb in Frabosa Soprana, which is the lowest of the three linked villages, the other two being Prato Nevoso and Artesina. The apartment was brilliant, cosy, warm and two big bedrooms, one with a large double and the other with two sets of bunks. Full kitchen and plenty of space for lounging. Gift bottle of wine from the hosts (which was delicious) and an evening in their apartment upstairs drinking grappa and eating peach tart - a fantastic welcome! Total cost was less than €600 for the week.
Note, a car is kind of necessary to get to shops etc. There is a ski bus that links the three towns, but we didn't use it as we had the car. In Frabosa Soprana there are a few restaurants, a small food shop and one or two other small shops.
The kids were booked into ski school in Frabosa, about a five minute drive from the centre of town. There is a magic carpet lift for the small beginner slope, and a chair that takes you up a tricky enough red/blue with a few steep sections, a little narrow and way off camber approaching the bottom. In town there is another slope that has a button, a two seat and an ancient single seat chair. The single chair was not open and the button was open on Sunday but closed by Wednesday due to the snow underneath melting.
We rented skis for the kids from M2 sport beside the lifts in town - Mario was really helpful and nothing was too much trouble. This might have been because one of the people i was drinking grappa with the previous evening had phoned him to ask him to look after us 6 days for the kids and three for my wife was €270. All beginner level kit. He had no problem changing a pair of boots after the first morning cause one of the kids was very uncomfortable. Two of the kids got brand new skis, and there was no issue returning with two bent poles.
Ski school was a bit chaotic on the first morning, and the older two were but in a total beginner group, but quickly moved, and then moved twice more in the next few days to find a group that was challenging but not too much so. The youngest was left with the beginners, who she was a little ahead of on the first day, but all were progressing really well so she was happy to stay in that group for the week. They all progressed to the bigger blue in town by the end of the week. The instructors were all very friendly and quite enthusiastic.
We drove to Prato Nevoso for three afternoons, and Artesina for one. Prato has way more slope options, but was a bit busier, not manically so at any stage though. Artesina was higher but we saw it in the fog and didn't really warm to it.
I took the lift connection from Frabosa to Prato one morning while the kids were in school, three chair lifts, took about 30 minutes, then tried out a few new runs in Prato and found a fast four man chair and a gondola. Unfortunately it was really foggy and I couldn't see in front of my face so had to ask directions a few times to get back to where i needed to be. I made it back to Frabosa ten minutes after ski school finished, luckily my wife was there to greet the kids!
Weather was wall to wall sunshine on Sunday to Tuesday with temps up to 18 degrees. Wed to Fri were cooler, falling back to around 6 degrees with lots of foggy conditions, no wind at all. Snow cover receded throughout the week, with Frabosa closing one button lift. Prato seemed to be fine being higher and Artesina the same. The pistes were well groomed but I found them a bit hard first thing in the morning, positively scared the pants off myself on Thursday morning sliding down a hundred meters of icy hard corduroy on my face  However, half an hour later a bit of thaw had softened up the top layer and I regained my composure and had a lovely few laps on the same run. It was quite slushy and bumpy by the afternoon and that was when i really started to enjoy it, just seemed more fun for my level of intermediate snowboarder.
Tried a few restaurants - the Spozzenove one at the ski school in Frabosa had really good pizza and pasta, reasonably priced. Rododendro in Frabosa was recommended by a few local people and we tried that out, it was delicious and very reasonably priced. Got takeaway pizza and foccacia in a little place in Prato twice too, and it was delicious.
Ski pass - €175 for an adult for 5 days and €125 for the kids. Wife got two one day passes - €48 at the window and €40 online.
We would go back to the same apartment again but most likely try ski school in Prato to give the kids more route options while in school. The driving between the villages was fine, a few hairpin bends but not much exposure. Might be different n snowy conditions with chains on?
All in - worked out really well for us. 90km of pistes between the three linked villages according to the maps and at our level we covered about 40 of them, if even that. I would make more effort to visit everywhere on the map if we go back, but was happy to work on my technique and enjoy the runs that the kids could do this time..
Total trip cost for the 5 of us was €3300.
Something just occurred to me and i thought it was worth noting - the skiing in general was very relaxed, with no crazy hooning around that i saw and no rescue ski / snow mobile action seen at all. I recall from a trip to France (Combloux) years ago that that we saw the rescue guys in action two or three times a day!
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Wed 1-03-23 15:47; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Nice report - thanks
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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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Thanks, nice report. I see Crystal Ski are now offering this resort as a package from Dublin too.
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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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That's cool
Cheers
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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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Thanks for the report , never heard of this area before.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Good report.
The Mondolè ski area is in Italy and consists of three resorts -- Artesina, Frabosa Soprana, Prato Nevoso -- with ~130km of trails.
Good for beginners and intermediates. Mostly blues and reds.
It is located in an unusual spot, south of Turin, northeast of Monaco.
More info here.
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Tempted, my tour op is offering Flights, Transfers, S/C and Lift Pass for £665.00pp from Dublin at Christmas.
@Whitegold, It's southerly location always intrigued me. Wonder how it fairs for early snow?
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@johnboy, that part of the Alps is feast or famine with regards to snow. More often famine in recent years, and quite a lot of the ski area is quite low (though above Prato Nevoso is OK). I've occasionally perused the lift / piste status and have never seen the area close to 100% open.
They generally pick up the most snow from a retour d'est sort of weather pattern - but that is often a relatively mild direction too, hence the worries about the lower slopes.
I'd avoid making a non refundable booking there, especially in early or late season.
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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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@denfinella,
Yeah, I agree, I wouldn't be depending on anything lower than Prato Nevoso.
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I was in Prato at Half Term on a School Trip. Oink sums it up well. Main runs down to the resort are a red and a blue which are served by a fairly old 4-person chair that broke down a lot. Beginners are well served but the (blue) ski-school struggled a bit with numbers and our group didn't progress as well as expected. Anyone looking for challenging skiing will struggle in PN as there's only one black run of note but intermediates should be OK for a week. Night skiing on the main slopes is fun. As far as snow goes, chatting to an instructor, she told me that the last few seasons have been quite bad for snow with less that 2m all season in 21/22, certainly at half term it was very warm and the slopes were showing the strain and that's even after a mini retour d'est a week or so before!
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