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Independant review on Pila, Aosta Valley, Italy
 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead

My favorite small resort article shows exactly why I like it so much.

Alf Alderson, an award-winning ski and surf journalist who writes for a wide variety of UK and overseas publications has just been skiing in Pila, had lunch at The Chatelaine and was clearly impressed by what he saw.

http://welovepila.com/2012/01/28/amazing-review-of-pila-by-award-winning-ski-journalist-alf-alderson/
snow conditions
snow conditions
 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person

I went round the 3 Valleys of Champoluc, Gressoney and Alagna of Monte Rosa, Pila and Cervinia/Zermatt two weeks ago.

Pila has a 18-minutes gondola connected right to a large free car park at the Aosta town centre so it is very convenient for skiers to visit it. Thus the piste condition can suffer accordingly by above-average number of visitors competing the below avaerage small 70km piste domain. It is only one of the 10 resorts I visited in the trip that had very small patches of gross exposed in the middle of a run while snow was epic in the Aosta Valley.

I am not in disagreement that Pila is a nice resort but so is Courmayeur (100km piste) and La Thulie (linked with the French La Rosiere offering 140 km piste) in the same Aosta Valley if one want something small.

Personally I prefer the larger Aosta resorts like the 180km piste of Monte Rosa and the 350km piste of Cervinia/Zermatt. Take Cervinia/Zermat for example what's wrong with 3883m altitude, able to take a train to the top of the run, highest groomed piste in the Alps, 2.3km vertical drop, powder snow....?
snow report
snow report
 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?

I like Pila too. In fact Mrs Axs and I learned to ski there (a few years ago!) and it was where I took 'the boys' on their first ever ski trip. I've been there about 5 times over the years and it will always be 'special'.

However, I agree with saikee, that it can suffer from overcrowding, particularly on the end of day run back to the gondola, and Cervinia, where I took the boys last year, offers more space and more variety of slopes with the same Italian 'ambiance' and less skiers (proportional to km available).

Even the reviewer admits Pila 'can get busy' at weekends, but then praises it for being quiet on a 'Wednesday in January'. IMHO It's no quieter than any other resort in the area and it doesn't take much to make it busy.

Nice Bombardini in the yeti bar though. Madeye-Smiley
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latest report



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