 Poster: A snowHead
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TR 11-14 Jan 24 Champoluc Monterosa
Arranged a DIY long weekend with my (adult) son.
Flights were BA, Heathrow to Malpensa, hire car through Budget - add onto to flight as that was cheaper as “BA holiday”.
You can also fly to Turin with Ryanair or Easyjet, which is marginally closer and Ryanair do a slightly earlier flight from Stanstead, but for ease and convenience, return flight time and not ripping you off with extra cabin bag charges BA won the day.
Accommodation was a little B&B call Vieux Rascard in Champoluc, 15 mins walk to the gondola and 5-10 min to restaurants etc.
I bought lift passes online in advance https://monterosaski.eu/ and ski rental with Tako: https://skirentalchampoluc.com/?lang=en just by the Gondola and they have their own heated boot pegs and ski storage, making the walk to and from accom a synch. Before lunches and dinners it was £500 a head, which I was quite pleased with for 3.5 days skiing.
We had an hours delay on the flight out but still pulled into the village car park at 2pm and had collected gear and taken 2 lifts up by 2.30 pm and planted ski’s on snow. Would have been 1.30 pm with an on-time flight. Last uplift was 4.30pm so we got in 2hs and a bit skiing on the Thursday. We skied down at 3.30pm on Sunday, and had showered and were on the road by 4pm, allowing an extra hour for the traffic heading back to the cities vs the journey up, which was pretty much exactly what it took. Car hire pick up and drop off was very slick, and no attempt by Budget to seek out fictitious scratches or damage, a quick check of the fuel, tap of the app and away.
We were lucky with the weather, it snowed most of the week before we got out there finally stopping on the Wednesday and the sun came out for our arrival. It stayed fair bright and sunny throughout, although Sunday am was a little overcast to start with. Snow was pretty good throughout on piste, (we don’t ski off piste so cant comment on that although the side piste and skiing down the side of the lifts etc looked like it was getting a bit more tracked out by end of the weekend). Noticeably it was below freezing throughout so conditions stayed good and no sign of thaw/ freeze icy bits etc.
Saturday was noticeably busier than Thurs or Friday as the good weather and recent snow brought the day trippers up from the cities, but Monterosa copes well with them as the runs are well spread out and most of the uplifts pretty fast. Gressoney and Alagna seem to get a bit more crowds due to access to the Punta Indren lift for the main off piste. A larger party might want to go all Italian and reserve a lunch spot, but as a pair we managed to get sat in a sunny spot at the first place we tried every day. All good standard we visited Punta Jolanda, Morgenrot and Belvedere, mid morning coffee at Stolemberg a couple of times and Retsignon, afternoon bombardinos at Soleil and Edelweiss. We both really liked the sense of travel over the linked areas, quick lifts, lack of queues and long long pistes with some great verticals and a nice mix of high altitude stuff and down thru the trees runs. An intermediate paradise.
Friday & Saturday was quite lively in the village, but its not a massive apres scene. We went relatively cheap and cheerful for evening food, Pizza Churen – really good, excellent burgers at Sans Souci (doesn’t do reservations but you can have a drink at the bar as you wait) and Café du centre which delivered a lot more than it promised, friendly staff and great value food. Il Golo was visited as conveniently on the way between restaurants and B&B. Also went to Sante for pre-dinner drinks which was very nice – good snacks with your drinks.
All in all a top trip.
webcams: https://webcams.windy.com/webcams/stream/1667951641
https://ski-champoluc.com/webcam/
piste map / lift status https://monterosaski.eu/in-tempo-reale/skirama/monterosa-ski-3-valli
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Thu 15-02-24 10:30; 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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@t44tomo, thinking of Champoluc next year so this is helpful, 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 for this. Very informative about an area I’m keen to explore.
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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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Thanks, doing almost exactly the same in march but thurs-monday and to gressoney so this is super helpful.
As an aside I've booked a group b lancia, if you know 80s rallying you know I'm going to be disappointed....
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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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| hobbiteater wrote: |
Thanks, doing almost exactly the same in march but thurs-monday and to gressoney so this is super helpful.
As an aside I've booked a group b lancia, if you know 80s rallying you know I'm going to be disappointed.... |
very very disappointed...
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Great report, thanks @t44tomo,
I'm heading to Gressoney for the GnarliBuG and this report has definitely whetted my appetite.
[My sister in law used to drive a Lancia Integrale. Mental car, but she was a good enough driver to really get a lot from it. Scared me half to death being driven through central London one time when she was in a bit of a hurry]
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