Sauze d'Oulx, Part 1

It is winter once again, time for skiing then.  I did go to Morzine on the coach again last month, nothing really new to write about there though.  Now I am off to Sauze d'Oulx in the Italian Alps for a few days, I've never been here before so it should be interesting.  Hopefully a little easier to get to than Morzine as well... after a night at the Holiday Inn, Stansted (surprisingly decent food) I get an early flight to Turin, pick up my hire car and head out onto the Autostrada.  Navigating through Italy is a little tricky, I miss one turn and end up in Turin rather than heading towards the Alps, but still I get to Sauze easily enough.  Turns out to not be the best place to drive about - it is essentially built on the side of a mountain, so there is a maze of very steep cobbled streets covered with snow, which my front wheel drive fiesta doesn't enjoy much.  It all adds to the fun of locating the ski hire shop, and then my hotel right back at the bottom of the village.

The scenic Via Lattea.

Still, I am on the slopes by 2pm, and it is certainly nice to be able to ski straight from the Hotel Edelweiss down to the Jouvenceau lift - which is very long indeed, that seems to be a feature here, long lifts and long runs as well, for instance the Gran Pista which leads back to the hotel is fully two and a half kilometres.  Seems to be mostly reds too, probably not the best resort for beginners.  I have fun though, the weather is good and there is an awful lot of snow.  Rather miss my boots though - I only took hand luggage to avoid delay at the airport and Ryanair charges, the hire ones do not feel very comfortable.  Back to the hotel for a beer or two, plus some freshly baked snacks which proves to be a daily thing - very convivial.

Taking a breather.

Of course I have to check out the night-life of Sauze d'Oulx (pronounced something like 'Sohzy Doo' it seems) - sadly this does mean a fifteen minute slog up the slippery hill from the hotel.  Apparently Sauze has a reputation as the 'Magaluf of the Alps', can't say there is much sign of this on a Thursday night, the first few bars I look into are pretty empty, though I at least manage to get a decent pizza.  Eventually I find the party at Enoteca Il Lampione, where there is beer and live music.  Still not convinced it is much like Magaluf, not that I would know.

Sauze as seen from the Gran Pista.

Friday morning and time for a full day of skiing - unfortunately the weather has turned for the worse, there is a lot of snow coming down.  Not only is visibility very poor, but in fact there is so much powder that I'm finding it hard work to ski.  Still, maybe if I move to a different valley - Sauze is part of a large ski area, the Via Lattea - 'Milky Way' - which is comparable to Portes du Soleil in size, indeed you can ski into France - maybe tomorrow.  For now I head towards Sestriere in the hope of finding better weather there.  No such luck though... and worse is to come as I try to ski down into the village.  If the weather hadn't been so grim I'd have checked my map, and noticed that you can't ski all the way down.  I follow a sign labelled Sestriere but the piste dwindles away to nothing with the village still below, OK, following some tracks takes me through some hairy off-piste action and I at least get to a road.  But it is level, and perpendicular to the gondola cables that stretch off into the fog below me, so, I push along in the hope that the road will turn downhill and I'll be able to ski down it - sure is enough snow.  Sadly, while it does start to slope downwards, it also turns away from the village and slowly turns into more of a bridleway than a road.  Eventually I find myself at the edge of some woods with no real idea of where to go...

Photos to go with this post can be found here.