J2Ski Holiday 11th January 2015 Sauze d'Oulx

In seriousness

Sauze

Your hotel
Near a night club called Banditos. Very busy and noisy Fri - Sun when new guests arrive (brits) and the Italians
OK for a budget hotel
Skiing is very easy in all the milky way - looking for a challenging black (or even a solid good black), cancel and go elsewhere
Apres ski is not as live as everyone seems to think it is. Good or bad? Depends on what you think

Clotes lift
I have been there the past 2 years. The runs too resort have never been closed. This year it was about 13C in resort and the run was still open - bit like fisherman's ice, but still open. Take any comments about it being closed with a pinch of salt!

Paddy's
Avoid, unless you like smelly places that you stick to the floor. Go to Miravello instead

Sestriere - longer runs. Temp is a bit lower. Do the mens downhill

San cisario - It is low down so it can struggle with snow. It had plenty this year but was slushy in places

Overall

It is good, there's some great restaurants. Hotel food seems to be average. It will be cold in Jan, but isn't everywhere cold?

I would normally go away that week in Jan. Will not be there in 2015 ;)

Thanks Icy, that was all very helpful :)

I will bring some ear plugs with me, in case the hotel is noisy at night ...

Tony_H wrote:For those who have not been to Sauze, I can recommend the ski area highly, its really good

For someone that has skied a lot of places i must admit to surprise at hearing you say that, maybe i skied a different Sauze or maybe you're not the skier i imagined you to be.
I found the skiing there to be really timid and all in all a bit 'boring'. I had a good week there but that was down to the company and the lovely weather and not because of the variety of terrain.

Whenever i have been away skiing i always felt i had learned something new or developed my skiing in other ways. The milky way didn't do that for me. There was not one part of that place that had me up at dawn and all excited, i will be skiing somewhere with a bit more bite in the future.
Sauze is firmly for early intermediates.

According to this website, and several other sources, the ski-ing/boarding in the Sauze d'Oulx area is suitable for all levels :)

J2Ski says:
Sauze d'Oulx in brief
Sauze d'Oulx Ski Resort is:
Very good for Expert Skiers.
Excellent for Intermediate Skiers.
Very good for Beginners.
Good for Snowboarding.

There's a very good short article on it here:
http://www.onthesnow.co.uk/news/a/105434/skiing-the-milky-way--a-resort-for-everyone

This article says
Basically Sauze is only one of 6 resorts that make up the Milky Way, which are all lift linked and cover an area of 400 Km piste.

The villages are:
Claviere at 1,750 - quiet and good for beginners and intermediates.
Montgenevre at 1,850 - in France, good for snowboarders, beginners and intermediates.
Sansicario at 1,700m - between Sauze and Sestriere, very varied ski-ing from sunny beginner slopes to Olympic black runs and hence suitable for everyone.
Sauze d'Oulx at 1,500m - boisterous night life, best suited to intermediates with wide open pistes and long cruising tree-lined runs.
Sestriere at 2,035m - good for experts who enjoy north-facing terrain and steep snowsure slopes - has the most challenging runs and best snow record in the Milky Way.
Cesana at 1,350m - pretty, ancient village, 8 minutes by gondola from Sansicario, good for families, nice and quiet.

For anyone wanting to ski/board with us, and not wanting to stay in the Sauze hotel or travel with Crystal, the Stella Alpina hotel is only 30 metres from the Sauze, right by the Clotes piste, and is available with Neilson at £556 per person for a shared twin/double for 11th January including flights. This hotel gets excellent reviews.

Here's the piste map (from the J2Ski website):

I am speaking from experience from being there 2 years on the run. Unless they have changed the runs since 15 March this year - it is not great for expert skiers. There is one long black in Sestriere, the mens downhill - that is nice and long but I would not say it is hard. The hardest part of it is the steep drag that takes about 5 minutes.

I am not knocking your planned holiday as it is great that you are going. Just dont think the skiing is as suitable for experts as the websites say it is.

Boisterous nightlife in sauze? Not at all (it was about 5 years ago, but is not more family friendly), one night we went out on a mission to have a late one. 1am we went home as everywhere was dead and had been for about an hour :roll:

Alpina is a great hotel, not near Banditos. If you want it quiet, head for the old town ;)

AllyG wrote:Here's the piste map (from the J2Ski website):

That piste map needs a serious update/redesign. It really is rubbish.

Tip, if ur planning on skiing Montgenevre then get a bus there. Skiing there is slow and involves downlifting at points.
Tip, take a book or your kindle for some lifts, esp clotes.

Thanks Snapzzz and Icy :)

If you have time, could you let us know the worst mistakes on the piste map, so that we don't get lost etc. ...

Do you know anything about the buses between the villages? Do you have to pay for them?

I was reading the Leader's report from the Ski Club of GB today, for Sauze, and they skied over to Montgenevre and got the bus back from Claviere:

Perfect blue skies (combined with yesterday's new snow) meant conditions were perfect for our planned trip to Montgenevre. We made good time on the Olympica run down to Sansicario before catching the sequence of gondolas and chairlifts to Col Bercia where we found ecellent conditions on the wide Red 93. Crossing over into France we found great sunny sliing on the wide red runs down Les Anges before we took the (steep!) drag lift over towrds Rocher de L'Aigle which provided great skiing in a spectacular, high Alpine environment. After a steep run down Black 100 we had a latish lunch on the sun terrace at Rifugio Gimont before heading down to Claviere and finally the 15.50 bus back to Sauze. A great day!