Sauze D'Oulx

Everything I read says it's closed for the season

What a pain! After careful planning for your group for it to change. Can't believe it is because of the death of the girl , found out it was quite a few weeks ago, she crashed into a windbreak she was skiing with her father and wearing a helmet. Tragic. Heartbreaking news but pistes following an accident are not usually closed for that long.

According to a report in Corriere della Sera https://torino.corriere.it/cronaca/19_gennaio_04/morte-camilla-sequestrate-quattro-piste-sci-sauze-d-oulx-1c039cac-103d-11e9-979d-2767d72e669d.shtml 4 pistes have been closed by the public prosecutor after he carried out an inspection of the wooden windbreak that the little girl crashed into. There was a similar incident last season when a 31-year-old male also died after crashing into one of the wooden windbreaks. Four of the lift company managers are currently under investigation for manslaughter.

It's unlikely that the runs will be reopened until the after the completion of the investigation and maybe not until after the trial if the managers are charged.

andymol2 wrote:The black is pretty easy as they go - no hidden horrors. Not for first week skiers however we took my future son-in-law down it on his second week on the snow and he was elated.

The snow was late season pudding, a few steepish bits but relatively wide and would probably be labelled a red in some resorts.

I don't know the black in question but given the circumstances, it seems to me that it could be a nightmare for nervous skiers simply down to numbers using it. Your group may be well able to ski the piste in normal conditions but it can be very tricky if less-experience skiers are taking it on and falling all over the place.

The run off the top of the Hohe Salve in Soll is a classic example of this. It is a pretty typical black but because it provides an important link to other parts of the resort, it attracts a lot of people who are not really up to it. The problem is then not about your own ability to ski the slope but the numbers of people sliding down out of control after falls or skiing into you as they cannot control themselves in the conditions.

I would also echo the earlier comment about the video - apart from any limitations of the value of the video if it was shot in perfect conditions, videos tend do to understate the steepness of the slopes.

Don't dispute that at all - conditions be that snow, visibility or numbers make a huge difference to the real appreciation of a slope and who can safely ski it.

At least it is called a black - what annoys me is blacks labelled as reds and reds labelled as blues so that resorts can claim route is accessible when it's anything but the sort.

Well I think the real problem is the massive over-grading if runs in many resorts. Summer roads which should be greens are now blues etc. Nightmares for people to ski on.

Ski pistes in Italy are graded in accordance with the Italian standard: UNI 8137:2003 Segnaletica specifica per piste da sci – Caratteristiche (Specific signage for ski slopes – Characteristics)

They are graded blue, if the longitudinal or transversal slope does not exceed 25%, except for short stretches of open terrain.

Red, if the longitudinal or transverse slope does not exceed 40%, except for short stretches of open terrain.

Black, if the steepness of the slope exceeds that of a red piste; they represent the most difficult slopes suitable only for expert skiers.

Austria, France, Germany and Switzerland also have grading standards.

If the "Max pitch" of those black runs in the video was 40% they would only be red runs. On a nice sunny day with decent snow conditions a decent intermediate skier like the guy in the video shouldn't have any trouble getting down them, but if they were moguled and the visibility wasn't too good you would want to have some better skills in your toolbox.

To cut all that short. Does it mean the black is a red? All slopes vary according to conditions, so that's consistent.

James in the video is more than a standard intermediate. There's plenty of tools in his box, if you know what I mean.... :oops: