Where to Ski And Snowboard -

Staying up the mountain

30th March 2012, by Dave Watts

The pistes of the Monterosa region were very quiet – this was taken at 1.30pm Friday

I write this blog at 7pm on Friday and the terrace of our hotel is still bathed in warm sunshine. The Hotel L’Aroula, situated at 2020m, high above Champoluc in the Monterosa ski area opened in February and is a beautifully renovated old ‘rascard’ (traditional, ancient farmhouse built of wood and stone) that has only four rooms – each extremely comfortable with lovely wooden interiors and smart bathrooms. And the food is top-notch – we have had wonderful pasta with venison and sliced steak with juniper berries among other things. There are still external signs that the place is not fully finished yet – like the cement mixer on the terrace and wires trailing round the exterior – but the interiors were fine.

There is, however, no internet connection – hence the late filing of this blog.

It was great to stay high up on the mountain and ski down a deserted, well groomed piste to meet our guide at mid-mountain and be one of the first up to the top. The pistes were (unsurprisingly) rock hard first thing but softened up when we hit those that got the early morning sun on the way down to Gressoney. We then hit yet more soft slopes on the way down to Alagna (though the bottom part of the run down was closed due to lack of snow). On the way down, it was sad to see the ruined remains of Rifugio Guglielmina, one of our favourite mountain restaurants in the area, which was destroyed by fire earlier this season (complete with its splendid wine cellar with stock worth over €1 million).

The remains of Rifugio Guglielmina which sadly burned down, complete with its wine cellar worth over €1 million, earlier this season

Then it was back on to the (by then) softened slopes above Champoluc – with lovely spring snow at the top at around 1.30pm and deserted pistes everywhere.

We were advised against trying the off-piste from the high point of Punta Indren at 3275m because of poor snow conditions and big moguls in the two main couloirs involved in the descent towards Gressoney. So we’ll just have to come back and try the runs in better snow conditions next season.

Our stay was organized by Champoluc specialist Ski 2 (www.ski-2.com) who offers a wide variety of accommodation and whose prices include transfers from any of six nearby airports, lift passes, vouchers for light lunches and a free morning’s ski guiding. Ski 2 also runs its own ski school and ski rental shop and offers excellent service, including driving you around the resort in its own mini-bus. And next year they plan to offer special multi-week courses (including schooling) for youngsters with ambitions to become racers – an idea inspired because one of Ski 2’s owners, Simon Brown, who runs the Champoluc operation personally has three kids who are keen racers. The oldest, 12-year-old Ryan, has been picked for the GB ski team and is competing in the British Children’s Championship in Méribel this week. Good luck Ryan!

Now Mr Gill and I are off up the Val d’Aosta for a day skiing the slopes of La Thuile, then on for a couple of nights in Les Carroz to ski the Grand Massif before heading for the Channel in Gill’s VW Tiguan. We’ll doubtless do an overnight in Burgundy before going on to another slick Channel crossing via the Eurotunnel Le Shuttle service.

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