Sestriere

Hi folks, thinking of returning to Sestriere in mid January, haven't been there for about 10 years, has much changed?

Wouldnt know so much but id check how to get out of the sestiere area if the Sauze link is closed, which i would think it susceptible to high winds..we had to be bussed in and out.

There has not been a huge investment in the lift system. I think the biggest change is that 10 years ago there was a very old and small gondola connecting the Sauze side with Sestriere. If you were looking at the map, it created a loop. This gondola was retired from service but not replaced so now there is no quick way back from Sauze to Sestriere if blue 46 is closed.

We visited Sestriere in February 2018 and found a fairly new large gondola that was built for the 2006 winter Olympics and takes you over to the Sauze side and back. So the old one mentioned in another post has been replaced and is a high-speed gondola, and you don't have to rely on Blue 46 being open as you can just hop on the gondola. Some of the lifts on the Sauze side are a bit old, especially the two seater which takes you back up from the Sauze side to the Gondola but most on the Sestriere side are fine. We loved skiing San Sicario side of the mountain, especially down toward Claviere as there are some amazing tree-lined red runs.