 Poster: A snowHead
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What are the closest/decent resorts to Milan?
Need a resort with intermed/advanced skiing and some off piste capabilities.
I saw Cormayeur might be good but it's the other side of Chamonix and last time I was in Chamonix, it was ridiculously overpriced.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Courmayeur is not really ski-linked to Chamonix. I believe it is a bus-ride away. Courmayeur is good value, but not a huge resort piste-wise. I am told the off-piste is great, but that is above my pay grade.
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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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both the skiclub resort reviews and a site called (I think) jet2ski.com allow you to search resorts by proximity to airport, knock yourself out
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There are several resorts in the Aosta valley, closer to Milan than Courmayeur (the furthest point of the Aosta valley). Pila is above Aosta itself but is a small resort. La Thuile is near Courmayeur and is connected to La Rosiere in France, so has a larger area. I've not been to any of the other resorts myself.
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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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I would recommend the Monterosa Ski area which is also in the Aosta Valley. I spent a week there last February having flown into Milan and found the transfer reasonably quick and pretty cheap. The area is famous for its off-piste skiing but also offers a decent amount of on-piste to keep intermediate skiers happy. The only draw back is that the apres ski is pretty quiet if that is something that is important to you. Prices in the resort and on the mountain were very reasonable especially compared to some of the better known french resorts I have been to in the past.
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Courmayeur is at the head of the aosta valley. It's not liftlinked to CHamonix, but you can go up the Helbronner to do the vallée blanche, you can also ski back down to Courmayeur from the helbronner. There's plenty of little bitsof of piste in the resort, and a couple of nice runs down Val Veny and one down to the road up to La thuile. The ski area is small though, you can skii every run in a single day, and at €212 for a 6 day pass when we last went, not cheap. That does give you a couple of days worth of skiing at any other resort in the aosta valley though, and a day in chamonix.
Before you reach Courmayeur up the autostrada though you have, as said, Pila, La Thuile and Gressoney / Alagna - never been myself but that latter is supposed to be excellent for lift-served off piste
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If you have a car and head to Aosta Valley I reccomend staying in Aosta and buying the Aosta Valley Pass (VDA) all the resorts mentioned above plus Cervina can be reached in less than an hour are can all be skied on that pass. Depending on your ski level there is also Passo Tonale whihc does have glacier skiing. Livigno is not that far either.
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I flew in to Malpensa, and was in Champoluc in under 2 hrs (IIRC) which is in the Monterosa Ski area. As pmercer says it's quiet but great. Really easy drive too (I had a hire car), but lots of Italians use the autostrada at weekends, so Saturday and Sunday evenings getting back can be slow.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| GordonFreeman wrote: |
What are the closest/decent resorts to Milan?
Need a resort with intermed/advanced skiing and some off piste capabilities.
I saw Cormayeur might be good but it's the other side of Chamonix and last time I was in Chamonix, it was ridiculously overpriced. |
http://www.j2ski.com/ski_resorts/Airports/Milan_Malpensa.html
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I depends what airport you fly into. I flew to Milan Bergamo in Feb for my birthday and visited 4 resorts in 6 days! Even got skiing on flight arrival day for half a day in amazing powder. Where I went:
Day 1 Barzio Piano de Bobbio, this was only an hour from the airport just off the side of Lake Como. A small resort really set up for Milanese day trippers. Empty when we got there but heavy snow made for amazig powder with every piste like a powder field and about 20 people skiing in the whole ski area! Seemed to be set up for locals with cars, wouldn't recommend for more than 1-2 days skiing.
Days 2-4 Madeismo, this is a resort at the north end of Lake Como very near the Swiss border. Not the biggest resort but a cheap place to stay. Some good on-piste here and tree skiing and some decent off-piste possibilities including a lift served off-piste freeride area. It was all powder when we were there so had a great time but it's popular with the Milanese so had good lifts and on mountain dining. We stayed in Campodolcino and the hotel was right beside the funicalar up the mountain, €45 each half board mid Feb!
Day 5 St Moritz, Not that far from Milan either but might be tough on the wallet. Didn't ski on this day as was over to see the White Turf, the horse racing on the frozen lake. One problem getting to St Moritz in a hire car fro Italy is not having winter tyres, this is breaking Swiss law.
Day 6 Valmalenco, this is on the road to Livigno turn north at Sondrio and up from the valley. A small resort with mainly intermediate pistes, some easy off-piste also available. Good for a few days, reasonable sized village although quiet. Probably best thing about resort is its world cup standard half-pipe.
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