1st Timer To Italy

Hi there, looking for some advice.

I've been lucky enough over the past 7 years to do all my skiing in Canada and the USA but am now looking to start coming over to europe and in particular Italy and the Milky Way area.I just don't really know what to expect with regards to crowds and lift and gondola queues as its something I've never experienced before and also snow conditions. We generally ski the last week in January so is this a good time?

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Theres a few of us on this forum who have skied at Sauze and other parts of the Milky Way. Its a good ski area, plenty of miles, and nice varied terrain too.
I stayed in Sauze twice, its a nice little town, has a reputation for being rowdy but it never was when I was there.....I think thats a legacy from the 80's.
The skiing in Sauze is lovely....nice cruising runs, wide and flattering, and a few more interesting ones through the trees. It all interlinks well, and end of Jan would be a great time to go. Its never been busy early Feb or mid March when I went, we didnt queue anywhere for a lift, straight on and off.

I'd recommend going over to Sestriere, the skiing is higher and steeper, and you can do the Olympic Banchetta run. Theres also a nice area further across near the Olympic Village.

You can also have a day in Montgenevre which is just over the border in France. It was busier there, because its more compact, and the small lift queues we had there were far more aggressive, but thats France for you. Lovely bowl over the back with lots of opportunity for off piste in the right conditions.

I liked the area a lot, and would love to go back to ski it after a large dump of snow, as we didnt have much when we were there both times, but they do a fantastic job preparing the pistes and are used to having to make snow as the area is notorious for missing out on the big dumps that hit the nearby areas.

Cheers Tony sounds like it's definately worth a visit. Funny you should say the queues in France can be more aggressive, that's one of the things that has concerned me about Europe, particularly when you have a wife who's a red head!!

Hoolio wrote:Cheers Tony sounds like it's definately worth a visit. Funny you should say the queues in France can be more aggressive, that's one of the things that has concerned me about Europe, particularly when you have a wife who's a red head!!

Haha. She'll give as good as she gets then. Just have your poles at the ready, they come in useful in French lift queues.....

In Italy it's usually the British youth who have a problem queueing!

Sauze can be almost deserted late in the season. Seems to have gone out of fashion. One day we skiid for an hour before seeing another skier! (Late March)

andymol2 wrote:In Italy it's usually the British youth who have a problem queueing!

Sauze can be almost deserted late in the season. Seems to have gone out of fashion. One day we skiid for an hour before seeing another skier! (Late March)

My guess is informed skiers avoid it because it has the erratic snow record.
I had a week in March 2007 and the slopes were virtually deserted. It was superb.

We've just come back from Bardonecchia. In the week there were no queues for the lift, except at 10am for 10 minutes (due to ski schools) although it does get busier at the weekend. Snow was great, nightlife not so great. You don't have the whole of the Milky Way open to you but you can get a bus over there if you wish.

Tony_H wrote:

andymol2 wrote:In Italy it's usually the British youth who have a problem queueing!

Just got back from another week in the Dolomites (Hochpustertal\Alta Pusteria - BTW cracking good skiing and cheap too) and was pleasantly surprised by the etiquette shown in the queues and on the pistes. Even though it was school hols and very busy the Krauts and Eyeties (not many English speakers around) did not show much queue pushiness at all. The odd exception were bunches of kids in lessons but that is fair enough IMHO as the instructor needs to keep them all together. Anyway, that only happened on the crappy small chairlifts so didn't really affect us.