Tag Archive for: Saint Vincent Aosta Valley

Jon Weisberg

Reporting From the Italian Alps

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Italy’s Aosta Valley: Gateway to great skiing

Italy’s Aosta Valley is rich with history; even richer with places to ski. The Romans used the valley as a route to Gaul. In the intervening centuries, more than 100 castles were built. Starting in the early 1930’s, the Italians, the Swiss and the French started building ski lifts. They haven’t stopped.

The valley provides easy access to some of the world’s greatest ski resorts. At one end is Courmayer on Mont Blanc. Drive up a side canyon and you’re in Cervinia, on your way by lift and ski to Zermatt. Another short drive, and you’re at Monterosa.

We’re in centrally located Saint Vincent, a scenic and charming walking town, where every day we journey through scenic alpine villages to a different resort. 

Centrally located Saint Vincent

It’s only the second week of March, and Saint Vincent is beginning to bloom. We’re staying in the aptly named Hotel Bijou, a gem of a hotel overlooking the town’s central plaza. The main street is lined with colorful three and four story buildings housing attractive stores and restaurants specializing in Aosta’s regional cuisine. Just a few blocks in either direction are an elaborate mineral bath complex reached by funicular and a sizeable casino.

After a full day of skiing, we don’t have energy for either.

We’re here with the owners of Alpskitour, a local guide service and SeniorsSkiing.com advertiser. Mauro Cevolo has taught and coached skiing in Italy, Austria, France, New Zealand and the US (Mammoth). Andrea Jory teaches mostly at Cervinia and Champoluc. He was on Italy’s national bobsled team and competed in the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics. Both are magnificent skiers and highly enjoyable companions. They’re intimately familiar with the many resorts in and around the Aosta Valley, including the best places to ski and where to stop for a gourmet lunch in an authentic surrounding.

The author with world speed ski champ, Simone Origone and Andrea Jory, Alpskitour

Wherever  you go with them they’re warmly greeted. At lunch the other day, they bumped into Simone Origone who for 12+ years held the record for the world’s fastest man on skis (about 157 mph!).

An important benefit of staying in Saint Vincent over one of the resorts is the ability to decide, last minute, where to ski. The other day, when high winds had forced many of the resorts to shut down, we drove to the city of Aosta, boarded a gondola and climbed the mountain into magnificent mid-winter conditions at the Pila resort. Accustomed to Rocky Mountain resorts, Pila was a big surprise…emphasis on big. But it is small, relative to where we’d be going over the coming days.

La Thuile in Aosta Valley

The next day we drove past high-perched castles, ancient stone villages, and up a series of hairpin turns to reach Espace San Bernardo. We started at La Thuile, and after a gondola and a chair entered a landscape of endless peaks and glaciers. Following several long runs and more lifts, we crossed into France and descended to La Rosiere, another sizeable resort. After a few hours of skiing, we rode two long Pomas, crossed back into Italy and skied to Maison Carrel, where we lunched on regional cuisine in a modernized 19thCentury stone barn. I had cabbage soup topped with a thick layer of Fontina cheese, one of many Aosta Valley products exported across the globe.

Combined, La Thuile and La Rosiere have 39 lifts servicing something like 7800 acres of terrain, mid-sized for the Alps. Nonetheless, it’s size is slightly less than Whistler Blackcomb, North America’s largest.

Monterosa’s Champoluc-Frachey

The story gets better. Yesterday we drove to Monterosa’s Champoluc-Frachey and skied two of its three massive valleys. We started on a super-steep, rail funicular and throughout the day used cable cars, gondolas, and a variety of open and bubble chairlifts. This place is humongous. Looking up into remote snow fields were tiny specks skiing gondola-accessed backcountry. We stayed on trail, at one point dropping down a long and steep sun-drenched trail…my kind of skiing.

The West won this season’s snow lottery. Last year, that prize went to the Alps. Coverage is adequate at the moment and skiing is a lot of fun. If it were deep powder, I’d be able to enjoy a handful of runs before calling it a day. We’re probably skiing 15,000 – 20,000 vertical.

Today is a self-imposed rest day. We’ll visit some of Saint Vincent’s treasures and drive into the city of Aosta to see its Roman ruins. Tomorrow we’ll be back on another mountain. Which one is a decision Mauro and Andrea will make in the morning. One thing I know: it will be big, beautiful, and interesting. That’s what defines skiing in and around the Aosta Valley.

More on this fantastic ski experience next week.  

Jon Weisberg

Dreaming of Skiing the Alps? Follow Warren Miller’s Advice: Don’t Delay.

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Warren Miller has been gone for less than a year, and his wisdom about not postponing your next ski adventure has been on my mind.

There’s one experience in particular that beckons. It is based in the beautiful ancient village of Saint Vincent in the Aosta Valley in the western Alps, close to Mont Blanc, Zermatt, and Monte Rosa.

Organized by Alpskitour, clients stay in their choice of five- and three-star hotels. The village serves as hub, and every day, they join their guide and a few other people to explore trails and slopes on the highest peaks in the Alps, crisscrossing between Italy, France and Switzerland.

The groups are mostly European-based intermediate and advanced skiers, with the occasional American, Canadian, New Zealander, or Australian. The guide and group ski together for five days, always riding different lifts and exploring new terrain.

They stop at quaint mountain refugios for lunch. Forget burgers and fries. This is on-mountain dining in beautiful settings.

The landscape is incredible. Dramatic peaks. Trails snaking through magnificent rock formations. Slopes that descend through scenic hamlets.

The dreamlike experience is what I remember from the Warren Miller films of my youth and from ski trips to the Alps in the 60s and 70s.

Then, wrapped up in family and career, I skied closer to home, exploring Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia.

The skiing has been great, but the dream of the Alps was always there.  My wife and I booked with Alpskitour for mid-March, 2019. We’re looking forward to returning to the roots of modern skiing, enjoying its history and culture; its  exceptional beauty, and hospitality.

Alpskitour has been advertising with SeniorsSkiing.com since last season. Their website explains the group’s unique concept and is filled with wonderful images of what to expect. I’ve been emailing with Gerry Walsh, a Brit who has booked with Alpskitour for several family ski holidays. He wrote glowingly about the guides, the hotels, the scenery, and the outstanding hospitality.

I know that the exchange rate isn’t optimal. We could wait until it is. And the flight to Milan will be a few hours longer than if I were traveling in the U.S. And committing this early has some risk regarding snow levels.

But forecasters tell us this will be an El Nino year with higher moisture and warmer temperatures and southerly snowfall.  And wherever you go, lodging and skiing tend to add up.

I’ll ski a few weeks in the West this season. Might even catch some warm corn days in New England. But come March, we’ll be in the Aosta Valley with Alpskitour.

Warren Miller had it right. Don’t put it off. If you love skiing, try something different. This will be my 65th consecutive ski season. We’ll be celebrating in the Alps.