J2Ski Holiday 11th January 2015 Sauze d'Oulx

Icy, the wind was pretty cold especially at the top where it was very windy all the time we were there. In Val Thorens on Thursday the sign said it was 5 at the bottom and 50 at the top, and the weather forecast said it was gusting 75!

And on Saturday, the day we went to Sestriere, it was very cold as well as windy and I nipped into a cafe in the Sansicario ski area for a hot chocolate to warm me up whilst the others did another quick circuit.

And thinking about that cafe, do you know it's not marked on the piste map?

It's the one by the double drag lift.

Another thing I haven't mentioned is the horrid blue track along a cliff edge that you go down to get back to Sauze from Sansicario. I went down it the first time with the Ski Club of GB on the Wednesday (the first day they opened up up the extended area) and it really scared me :shock:

It was very windy and bits of frozen snow were being blown at me so I couldn't see properly, it's a narrow track anyway and we could only use half the width as the snow had been blown off the other half and it was like crushed tarmac, and there's a huge vertical drop the other side. I don't mind admitting I snow-ploughed all the way down it! Maybe in normal snow conditions they have a snow bank along the edge of it or something, but when we were there it was just a straight drop over the edge!

I think there's a red run as an alternative to this but some of the others went that way and said it was even worse! :(

Ally - As we are going to Sauze in March, we really appreciate all the time and effort you are putting into providing some feedback and information on the area - thanks!
When going to Sestriere from Sauze - it appears on the piste map that there is a couple of runs down into Sestriere - are these ok to take or is it best to just take the Gondola?

Gondola is the quickest route. If you ski there's 2 options. Get the wrong one you end up having to walk through the village - not a short walk! The correct one, just remember half way down the red turn left under the bridge.

I did the gondola mainly as it is quicker and I get to sit down

Ally - you skied with SCGB? You should have said......

We went over to Sestriere twice from Sauze and took the gondola both times. There does seem to be a way down, certainly to the first station but we couldn't see a way down from there to the village. If Icy says it exists then it must do but we didn't risk it. Most people take the gondola, so there must be a good reason for that. Plenty of excellent skiing in Sestriere when you get there tho :-)

The most important thing about that gondola down to Sestriere is not to get out half way by mistake! We were sitting with our backs to Sestriere, so when it stopped we assumed it had reached the bottom, but the piste patrol guys in the gondola with us laughed and told us not to get out!

It may well be that the runs down into Sestriere from the top of the gondola weren't open when we were there on Saturday, as I didn't see anyone ski-ing down.

We went down in the gondola, then up the chairlift which seems to be number 28, looking at the piste map now (we didn't bother to look when we were there) and then we skied down a red which seems to be number 3 and ended up at the meeting point we'd arranged with some of the others (mobile phones are very handy on ski slopes) in the Borgata area which is where that big B is on the piste map, next to the lift home number 21.

I hung around to co-ordinate things on my mobile and the others went up the chairlift number 17 which goes pretty much up to the top and then they came back to me down the red 9. And in the meantime I'd managed to meet up with Felthorpe and her husband, Ian W and his family, Brooksy, Far Queue, and Piste Paul and his son. After lunch I'm afraid I bullied them all into having a group photo taken outside the cafe (Piste Paul's photo). It's only half the group (14 people) but it's the highest number we managed to get in one place at the same time (not counting supper in the hotel!).




After that some of us went up the chairlift 17 (first time for me) and then a couple of them went up to the top to do the black down and 4 of us skied down the red 8. This was steep, with icy patches, and quite lumpy - not an easy ski! And at the bottom of the steep bit you have to turn right at the wooden sign post - I could see it was labelled Borgata so I thought that was the right way to go, and we skied back to the starting point down the blue.

Then we went round again only not altogether, and it was at the top here that one of us (not me) got blown off the edge of the piste and was lying on the very steep slope hanging on to the wooden fence with his ski stick before he got rescued by another member of our group (ski-ing in groups is an excellent idea I reckon!). The piste was a very narrow icy track at this point.

After that nasty scare we skied down the 9 this time which comes out right opposite the cafe we were in for lunch. I thought this run was actually easier than the 8 we went down before, but I have to confess that I'm not too sure we were on 9 all the time - we just kept ski-ing down and we weren't too bothered about which piste we were on!

We went back then, and I confidently said the chairlift there, number 21 was the correct route home. I seem to have become rather relaxed about pistes and lifts and not bothering to look too carefully at piste maps (especially when it's windy and cold and I don't want to take my gloves off!).

And at the top of the chairlift we had a quick look around and I could see which mountain we wanted to get up to so I told the others to ski straight down to where I assumed the gondola was. However, we couldn't see it, but after looking at the sign post and asking people, we realized it was a few yards further along a flat blue - it's a very well hidden gondola back up to the top of Sansicario!

I had two nasty scares that day, because it was in the morning that one of our group who was sitting next to me on the chairlift got his rucksack strap stuck on the chairlift and couldn't get off and I had to leap off and yell 'stop stop' to the lift operator! Maybe I should learn 'stop' in Italian for future group holidays ...
And the lift guy stopped the chair and rushed out and the poor guy fell off the chair and landed flat on his back in a pile of powder which was luckily right under him, sinking into it like in those old Tom and Jerry cartoons when they crash through concrete. And the lift guy took his skis off for him and got him up and we slunk away, saying 'Grazie' (about the only Italian I know) and 'sorry' (because we didn't know the Italian for that).

That's why you are asked to take rucksacks off. They are dangerous

Yes I know that Icy, thanks, that's why I always take mine off and I had in fact lectured the group on this very point already ;)

But I can't very well insist that everyone else in the group takes off their rucksacks, can I? According to the person involved it was because he hadn't done up all the straps so there was a loose dangly bit that got caught on the chair :(

And it was very unfortunate for him that I happened to be the one sitting next to him on this occasion, although I didn't go on about it because I'm much too nice to do that ... :)

Mind you, I can't afford to be too smug anyway, as the same guy who got stuck on the chairlift very kindly skied back round with me in Val Thorens on Thursday when I accidentally left my rucksack in the restaurant where we stopped for elevenses!

Piste Paul's photo of the bottom of the Clotes piste, with his son standing by their skis which are leaning on the fence.

You can see the travelator/moving carpet in this photo, on the right of the nursery slope. We could go up this in the morning, to save us walking up the hill to the chair lift, and then ski across to the chair.

I bought a one day lift pass from the Clotes lift station for the final Sunday, and it was slightly annoying because it didn't have a 'chip' in it so I had to manually stick it in at the turnstile. I was wondering if I'd get an extra day because of only ski-ing for 5 days (as we were in Val Thorens for one day) on the 6 day lift pass I got from the Sauze hotel, but I didn't so I had to buy an extra day for 35 euros :(