J2Ski Holiday 11th January 2015 Sauze d'Oulx

The worse one is most probably the one back down into Sauze because of the use it gets but those with less confidence can always get the lift back down to Sportina and ski bus back into the village.

elovabloke wrote:The worse one is most probably the one back down into Sauze because of the use it gets but those with less confidence can always get the lift back down to Sportina and ski bus back into the village.

If you mean that red run that goes down between the nursery slope at Sportinia and the Rocce Nere lift up to the top, which seems to be piste number 11 on the piste map, then I would second that!

The top part of it when we were there was generally a sheet of ice in the centre section and pretty much impossible to turn on.

I went down it on the last Sunday at the end of the day, after everyone else had gone and after my morning lesson, and it was really terrible :(

I was side-slipping down a sheet of ice and I saw a tiny tot out of control on his own. He looked about 3 years old and he sat down and fell over with his miniature skis all tangled up. And I couldn't see a parent or instructor anywhere near, so I stopped to help and got a 'Grazie' from someone flying past but I think they were just saying thanks for helping someone else's child.

The little kid looked at me with his big eyes and didn't cry whilst I untangled his legs and his skis and got him up so he was standing in a snow-plough. And I didn't know what to do then, so I left him standing there whilst I skied very slowly away and then his mother appeared over the brow of that fairly steep slope and said 'Grazie'. I explained that he'd fallen, in French because I don't know any Italian, and then I skied off.

But I've been wondering since how did such a small kid come to be on his own on a really hard slope like that? Maybe his mum fell over and he couldn't stop on the ice.

There were loads of Italians on the slopes of Sauze on that last Sunday, with their families. My ski instructor said they were 'locals' from Turin, attracted by the snow and the sunshine.

That's the one.

elovabloke wrote:That's the one.

Thanks :)

another successful trip. well done ally. all the hard work paid off. as ally has already put up, as we had a car and me being a boarder the first impression of sauze was 'im outa here' so we found orelle and we travelled there for the first half of the week. conditions were amazing.we did get stung in VT in a restaurant called The Yack. the food was absolutely fabulous and very reasonably priced at 13 euros for steak,chips, roasted onion and salad including a nice pepper sauce. we were so pleased with our find that we celebrated with two crisp beers only to find out on the bill they were charging 8euros a pint.a sting in the tail. needless to say beware the yack. in all fairness we had a great week and thanks again ally.x

8 euros a pint......in france?

Standard fare.

This is me, having a little rest on the red Asters piste down into Val Thorens. And that's Piste Paul to the right, in blue, and 2 of the other guys below me.

Piste Paul's son took this photo. He skied across to me, and I thought how kind of him to ask if I was OK, only to discover that all he was interested in was getting a photo of me sitting down on the piste (!) ;)
Oh well, that's youngsters for you ... ;)

I'm pretty sure that's the mountain restaurant, Le Caribou, in the distance - the one with the yummy but very expensive blueberry pie. I suppose they do have some excuse for their prices, because they are in the middle of nowhere so getting supplies must be fairly difficult. It was 11-30 by the time we got to that restaurant, definitely time for elevenses seeing as we'd had nothing since breakfast at 7-30 !


I had 4 falls during the week, but luckily each of them just involved over balancing and a little gentle sit down on the piste without my skis coming off.

I haven't exactly done a spreadsheet of who fell over when and where and how badly, amongst the group, but I know one of the boarders had a nasty fall although with no permanent damage, one of the skiers fell and sprained his ankle and missed ski-ing on the last day, a couple of people fell and hit their heads but got over it, however other than that I think we were all OK :)

I think a lot of other people got hurt though, judging by the number of 'blood waggons' I saw during the week :(

Here's Piste Paul's photo of the rescue helicopter in Sansicario (I think) on Wednesday. I heard it and saw it in the distance.

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

That's why I haven't been back to 3V since 2007 (although liked skiing there very much)
In Madonna di Campiglio on the mountain 13-30 Dec 2014:
Tea - 2-2.50 euros
Coffee - from 1.10 euro (espresso) to 3-3.50 euros, real thing
Hot chocolate - 3 euros, with cream 3.50
Big slice of cake - 5 euros
Freshly made pizza - from 8.50 to 12 euros.

And M.di Campiglio is considered to be quite expensive resort. Shame that French just want to make lots of money out of skiers :(