Sestriere Olympic Piste vs VDI Face

LOTA wrote:Have to disagree about Val D'Isere's gradings, Andy. Just off the top of my head, there are some blues off the Glacier and Cugair chairlifts above Solaise that are more like reds. That's just two I can think off.

However, it's a must do resort for all skiers (take note, Tony H!) before they hang up the planks!

The blues off the Galcier chair are all Ok I'd say - down to the "scare chair" station and beyond is all fine - my wife learnt to ski on theose runs after the Madeleine beginners slope

The Cugnai(?) chair has one run and that is graded red?

I think that "Henri" or "H" as its sometimes marked is not really blue - cuts up badly and gets very busy at times

Skied Le Face at 4.30pm again and later in the week at 9.30am. The difference between the two times is remarkable.

Late in the day, the main piste is a bit of a mess with icy scraped patches and heaps of soft snow. Picking your way through this lot takes a level of skill that is still beyond me (although I can get down with plenty of pauses and deep breaths). The early morning run was really enjoyable and not too tricky for an intermediate skier like moi.

Can't really comment on either piste but the comment about time of day and conditions is spot on. Any run can be horrendous at 4pm when it is full of tired inexperienced skiers trying to get home - this is not a grading issue :shock: In my experience, either get down early, leave it very late when it will have cleared out or else take the gondola down :lol:

When it comes to skiing steep runs to the resort, around 10.30/11am is often the best time to take them on - perfectly groomed and nobody on them :lol:

As regards grading, it is my view that nearly all the big resorts try to hit a profile of pistes that fits broadly into 40:40:20 Blue, Red, Black. This is designed to attract the greatest number of skiers. No large resort wants to be branded as an expert-only resort - this eliminates beginners, families, etc. Similarly, no resort wants to be dismissed as being too easy. So they try to shoehorn the runs that nature has given them into the profile above. This can mean that runs are graded up or down depending on what is needed :evil:.


The worst I have seen is St Anton where there are several blues that would be red anywhere else. But if they did this, then the profile would be thrown out and they would be discouraging large numbers of potential visitors :shock:

Well, just back from Sestriere and had a great time. five out of six days were wall to wall blue sky and sunshine.

Even though they hadn't had snow for a while, the piste conditions are as good as I have seen in any resort ever.

All in all, a fantastic resort and the Milky Way is super. I used to be a huge fan of the Espace Killy area, but MW is now up there.

On the question I originally asked on piste grading - I think it is fair to say that as I suspected, the runs in France (in particular EK) are graded completely differently in the MW. I would say that there is generally a FULL grade difference - A red in MW would be a blue in France. Most blues in EK would be similar to most reds in MW. There are very few real blacks in the MW - mostly these would be red elsewhere I have skied.
The olympic runs in MW are nothing like the Face in EK - MUCH easier (and therefore nicer for the intermediate).
This all suits me perfectly.