 Poster: A snowHead
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Every year we try to have a weekend skiing, usually this is to the French Alpes, but this year for a change we went to Gressoney in the Monte Rosa ski area.
The Monte Rosa ski area consists of 3 valley containing Champaluc, Gressoney and Alagna and the pistes basically cross between them. Choose east facing in the morning and west facing in the afternoon to catch the sun.
Though there is a lot of piste they all felt very much the same. The majority were reds, some of the gentler ones were marked as blue and the steeper ones black, but there didn’t really feel much difference what colour you were on. They were all bashed very very smooth and suited fast blasts everywhere. Indeed almost all the skiers on piste skied at an incredible speed. This may because a lot of the skiers are the local skiclubs from Milan, Turin etc and this is what they have come for. Disappointingly there are no on piste mogul fields. The off-piste potential of the area is very good and we could watch the helicopters dropping in for clients at regular intervals. One lift only gives access to off piste areas.
The lifts are good and we experienced none of the queues that were there during our last visit. The linking lifts are prone to closure due to high winds and there were warning notices all over telling you to return as quickly as possible to your home valley. This must happen quite often because on our last afternoon, a Sunday, we saw the connecting lift to Champoluc closed and a couple of piste bashers with cages on the front appeared and started taking skiers up the hill. Is this what they mean by “cat accessed off piste”? The Saturday was very quiet but on Sunday morning all the coaches arrived with skiers from the valley and it got busy but no excessively so.
It snowed the night we arrived so there was some powder snow to play in, but the overall snow conditions were very good.
We stayed in the hotel Gressoney in Gressoney st Jean. The hotel was very good and the staff very nice and helpful. Gressoney st Jean is a very beautiful village but there is absolutely no night life. It is perhaps the quietest ski resort I have ever stayed in, but then it isn’t really a ski resort. It is a real village with a bus to the skiing. Incidentally the bus runs every 30 minutes and takes about 20 minutes to get to Stofel where the two main ski lifts cross the valley. The bus costs 1.6 euro each way.
The logistics of doing a weekend trip were quite simple:
17:40 flight from Luton to Milan on Friday night, return at 21:50 on Sunday. Since Gressoney is only about 2:30 from Malpensa we were able to ski all day on Sunday before heading back. The cost was about £80 each including luggage but no skis. Oh car parking at Luton was £40 for the weekend. We were met at Malpensa and driven upto the resort for free and got there about 23:30, which oddly is exactly the same time we would get to Les Arcs for a weekend skiing.
2 nights B&B in the hotel, one evening meal and drink was 150 euro each.
Ski hire was 50 euro each for the 2 days and the lift pass about 60 euro.
Eating at the airports and on the mountain added another £20 to the cost.
I will consider this option again for next year, but ideally look for somewhere closer to the skiing.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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It is perhaps the quietest ski resort I have ever stayed in, but then it isn’t really a ski resort. It is a real village
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An interesting distinction. People often say they want to go to a "real village" but they probably don't really mean it. 
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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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pam w, roflmao
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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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Sounds like a good idea for a weekend. Very economical which I appreciate with a non-skiing wife. I find the transfers as being the awkwardness/cost of a weekend. Who did the free transfer... The hotel?
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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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Who did the free transfer... The hotel?
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No my wife. She is working in the vicinity.
Hiring a car from Malpensa is the only alternative.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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About £70 for a small car. Good weekend trip.
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