J2Ski Holiday 11th January 2015 Sauze d'Oulx

acarr wrote:

AllyG wrote:
Tea = 5 euros
Cafe allonge (watery coffee I think) = 2.50
Capuccino = 5.20
Hot chocolate = 4.50
Blueberry cake = 9 euros per slice

9 Euros that's 7 quid for a piece of cake! Yowza :shock: I think I'll move over there and open a cake shop...
Am loving reading your posts about the trip Ally.

Well, I had no intention of indulging in cake when I went in there, but one of the others succumbed, and then 2 more of us followed suit! Mind you, I didn't look at how much it cost before I ate it, but it was really yummy! :)

It was called 'tarte myrtille' and it looked something like this (from Google Images)


I didn't want to waste time trying to split the bill (as I wanted to get ski-ing!) so 2 of us paid for the 6 of us and then we sorted it out when we got back to the Sauze hotel. It's one of the problems with eating in restaurants in non-family groups when it's waiter service. It's fine in self-service.

How much did the toilets cost?

Here's another lunch photo from Val Thorens, this time from Ian W. Judging by his face he doesn't think much of the prices in VT ;)
His daughter is sitting beside him, and next to her is a J2Skier friend who came with us for the first time this year, although her husband has been with us each time. She was the smartest and spent least on her lunch out of all of us - 4 euros for a waffle and she went and got tap water for free from the staff! :)

And no, Icy, I don't think any of us had to pay for toilets in VT, although I have had to do so in a restaurant up on the Grande Motte in Tignes.

Good work writing all this up Ally. I have to say you are a proper "glass half full" person as those conditions (quite common in Sauze) would have really upset me!!!!

I think Ian W is pulling his face because you made him go to France and spend loads of money at their ridiculously priced cafes!!!!

Those conditions early in your week are typical of what I have experienced in Sauze in March and April, warm and sunny in Feb but we had good snow then, but bare mountains and strips of snow for pistes are sadly not uncommon - that's why I was surprised you chose it as a destination for the trip.
At least that sprinkling of snow midweek made the skiing better. Its only a few miles as the crow flies to VT but it proves what an odd place Sauze is when other close areas (Serre Che for example) got battered with nearly a metre of snow while you had a light dusting to freshen things up. At least you had that to make things better.

I liked the skiing over in Sestriere - more aggressive and steeper slopes. But Sauze is a chilled place on the slopes and some nice cruises around the area. I'd go back if I could get a last minute deal just after a big dump of snow, but just wouldn't risk booking in advance again.

Anyway, glad you made the best of it all.

Just wondering - have they built a new wing on the hotel Sauze, as I don't remember any "huge" rooms or bathrooms? ;-)

I've been 4 times over the last 5 years in mid Jan and there has always been tons of the white stuff and great conditions all over the Milky Way.

I guess it's really down to luck, I had awesome conditions in mid March in Sauze.

Hey guys! How do you find most of the red runs in sauze? Would you say the majority are easy or pretty much a standard red runs?

Ben88 wrote:Hey guys! How do you find most of the red runs in sauze? Would you say the majority are easy or pretty much a standard red runs?

Apart from the fact that they were generally very icy when we did them I would say they were very easy. And I really liked the red runs in Sansicario, which is just over the top and out of Sauze itself.

I thought the red runs I did in Sestriere were much steeper and harder, although that was partly because they had lumpy snow as well as ice on them.