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Re: Why only ski Europe?
MoonMan wrote:
> Dymphna wrote:
>
>>The Alps are small compared to the Rockies.
>
>
> But the resorts are so much smaller in the rockies! I'm just back from "the
> biggest resort in the Rockies", Lake Louise and it has 10 lifts, how many
> lifts has Tigne for example got?
>
>
Lake Louise is indeed a tiny resort, but Whistler, (which IIRC is also
in the Rockies) is much larger and would consitute a mid sized resort,
such as Les Sept Laux, in Europe.
When I visited Lake Louise only 7 lifts were actually running. So you
did 43% better than me! If it did not have one of the most impressive
hotels in the world no one would have heard of Lake Louise.
As the other posters have pointed out teh number of runs mentioned at
Candadian resorts is a bit of a joke. To me it appears that if you are
skiing down a run and there is a tree in the middle of the piste then
the parts to the left and right will have different names and signage.
But it is different and it is fun - and you get plenty of time to read
on the bus.
John
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On 26 Mar, 12:57, Perdita Stevens wrote:
> ParalyticSkiCrazie =A0writes:
>
> =A0> My son is instructing for Interski this week in Courmayeur. Please be=
> =A0> aware that they do not do lessons for children under 7 in any of the
> =A0> resorts including Pila.
>
> "They" meaning Interski, or the local ski schools? If Interski doesn't,
> that's irrelevant to us: we wouldn't be going with Interski. If the ski
> school there doesn't, that would seem extraordinary, but yes, it would be =
a
> fatal flaw in the Pila plan...
>
> It hadn't occurred to me that that might be a problem. It had occurred to
> me that, since the resort is mostly used by Italians (and British school
> groups who have Interski instructors, a separate system), the instructors
> might not speak much English. I don't think that would much faze my son,
> oddly enough: he has a little Italian (more to understand than to speak,
> but at least he'd follow basic instructions without needing them repeated
> in English). I see that the online booking form for the Aosta valley ski
> schools, while it doesn't let you specify the age of your child (which is
> what I was hoping), does let you specify English as the language, so at
> least they _claim_ to have someone who speaks English (and honestly, these=
> days it would be surprising if any instructor in Italy had no English at
> all).
>
> We are now thinking to go over New Year, rather than at half term, mostly
> because it lets us do the journeys in two days rather than one, which is
> more fun (we like to travel independently and do something enjoyable on th=
e
> way, in this case, probably see a bit of Milan). Fewer school kids, more
> Italian holiday-makers; but really, since we want somewhere convenient to
> get to anyway, there are going to be crowds at NY to some extent wherever
> we go.
>
> =A0> My son visited Pila yesterday and he was surprised at two things, the=
> =A0> first being the lack of green runs and secondly the age of the lifts.=
> =A0> But on the plus he says that the food is wonderful.
>
> This is one of our major reasons for preferring Italy for next year - it's=
> been too long...! (The other is the language.)
>
> =A0> in WTSS Courmayeur gets a good write up for the village ambience.
>
> Yes, but "tiresome walk and cable-car journey between village and slopes"
> rules it out for this year. (Yes, I did look at the hotel very close to th=
e
> cable-car station; but even so, walking a bit, queuing carrying skis - no,=
> still serious drawback.)
>
> We did go back to the drawing board a bit after the negative comments abou=
t
> Pila, but I think we may end up going there anyway. Considered Oberlech
> seriously, and will probably go some day, but it's twice the price in the
> end, and Austrian food/language/ambience doesn't appeal to the same extent=
> as Italian! We really want something other than a French purpose-built
> resort, but with the same level of convenience and good snow-sure-ness -
> that's evidently a tall order. More suggestions still welcome :-)
I know it's been a long while since the thread was live
but I have a couple of things.
I was in Aosta for 3 months, skiing every day at Pila
a while back (BASI/Interski Gap year thingy).
As you know Pila is a very small village, there is
no part of it very far from a Ski lift. I did not
explore it thoroughly but there is not much to explore.
There are quite a few appartments but I doubt that there
will be too much choice in the evening eating department.
One of the Hotels was definately ski in ski out.
Although the resort is small by any standard
there is a decent amount of skiing for beginners
and intermediates with some difficult enough
places for experienced skiers.
If open, there is an enormous bumps run
that certainly kept me happy for quite a while.
When I was there (4 years ago?) there were a
new high speed detachable lift (6 person chair) and
other similar lifts and while some of the lifts are a bit
elderly I must say that I do prefer them (Leitner?) to the
usual Dopplemyer ones in France. Very safe for
beginners, children and the inattentive (me).
There will be a number of English speaking instructors
in the local Ski School (Italians, to be clear) but possibly
at peak times they will all be working for Interski?
Pila is north facing and holds the snow very well
however when I was there it did not snow very much.
No idea if this is the usual pattern or not. For sure
Courmayer was closed/unpleasant due to weather
(blizzard - i.e. snow) more than once and we were open
with fine blue skies as usual. The end result was
plenty of snow on piste and blue skies for months
on end even though it hardly snowed at all apart from
a big dump at the end of January.
At new year the sun will rise/set quite late/early.
I was there over Easter and I certainly don't recall much
of that terrible queuing sensation familiar to those
who ski in Scotland at the weekends. It is especially
reasonable in the morning since it takes a while for the
Aosta based and the visitors to get there. Interski also
didn't start lessons 'til 9:30.
There were several decent mountain restaurants but I
did not visit them much since I was tied to Interski
pre-paid ones mostly. That reminds me it was near
the best restaurant that I saw the woman with the
small furry animal sticking out from under her
coat. Ferret, kind of thing but sort of lush looking.
Mink?
The views from the mountain are stunning with both Mont
Blanc and the Matterhorn in view on the other side of the
Aosta valley.
Altogether if you think you can get a decent meal there
and if you think the snow will be there at New Year I
would do it in the situation you describe.
If you want to be on a different piste for every
run go somewhere else.
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