 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi all - new to the forum, so bear with me!
I'm an early intermediate skier (3 ski-weeks experience) planning a trip for next season for 2 of us of similar ability. Having previously skied in New Zealand and Switzerland (Wengen and Laax), I thought I would try Italy this time around. After extensive trawling through reviews and websites, I've narrowed down my choice to Cervinia or Champoluc (Monterosa) and would love people's opinion on the relative merits of both, especially for someone of my ability.
The key requirements for us would be: good snow conditions (likely to go in March), good lift access (esp as few drag lifts as possible), convenience, small lift queues and uncorwded pisters, great scenery, variety of slopes and appropriate level of pistes (on our last trip, we found the slopes in Laax ideal - a great blend of fast, wide, easy blues, reds that varied from confidence-boosting to challenging-but-not-impossible and a couple of easier blacks that we managed without difficulty). Nightlife is not a factor, but nice restaurants for the evenings would be a bonus.
When comparing the two resorts, Cervinia seems to have easier slopes, especially for improving technique. However, there seems to be a lot of 'motorway' slopes. Ideally, I'd like a few of these, but not all of the pistes to be wide and flat. For those that have been there: are the Cervinia pistes a bit 'samey'? Also, I love woodland runs, and it seems that the Monterosa area has more of these. However, I'm a little worried that the Monterosa ski area would be better suited to those of a higher ability, and that I should look to go there after a few years more experience. What do those who've been think?
As we're likely to go in March, I'm a tad concerned about the snow conditions in the Monterosa area - is that a valid concern?. Cervinia's altitude means there shouldn't be any problems, right?
Apologies for the rather wordy post. All comments, suggestions and recommendations would be most welcome (plus for alternative resorts that I may not have considered)
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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suggul, welcome to 
You are right that Cervinia is more uniform. Champoluc has more variety, and feels "biiger montain" although the runs themselves are generally towards the easier end of their grading (not the red into the village however). As for time of year, you will be fine in either, the snow tends to accumulate more slowly in Champoluc over the season, but sticks well having 4000m peaks to provide cool air from above overnight.
Cervinia town is not to my liking, feeling a bit tatty, and typical of a newish high mountain resort. Champoluc on the other hand is a high mountain village with old chalets, and gnarly old mountain folk walking around in clogs. It has good restaurants and is only busy at weekends when the Turin & Milanese come up to ski a little and passagiata a lot.
Mountain restaurants in Champoluc are rustic, but a bit samey with Paninis and simple pasta dishes being the staple, you will have more variety in Cervinia.
There are good English instructors in Champoluc who you can hire to guide you around for a day if you want to explore some of the more testing skiing.
For me it boils down to rustic charm in a big mountain area not dissimilar to Wengen (Champoluc) or more uniform and standard skiing in Cervinia but perhaps without the charm.
Hope that helps?
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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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If you want more variety from Cervinia you can always go over to Zermatt also.
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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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suggul, as long as it's cold enough Monterosa snow should be fine as pretty much all the key pistes are cannoned. I find Cervinia (from limited experience) a tad dull and concur that the town is not so very pretty. Monterosa much more interesting.
Champoluc mountain restaurants are better then described as long as you know where you're going...town restaurants include some excellent examples. i.e. Le Sapin, possibly the best tagliata in the world.
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