We were on the move after each of our first two ski days and quite exhausted. I was barely able to update my ski spreadsheet and did not get around to looking at pictures.
We are spending the nights of Jan. 24-26 in Cesana Torinese. Cesana is a local town with high quality and reasonably priced Italian restaurants. From the Via Lattea map it looks centrally located among the sprawling interconnected resorts.
The reality is that the connection among the 3 Italian ski areas is at the 2,701 meter peak Mt. Fraiteve. Sestriere is south, Sauze d’Oulx north and Sansicario west. So from Cesana Torinese you are taking 4 lifts to that peak before getting to either Sestriere or Sauze d’Oulx. If staying in Cesana you definitely need a car.
On Monday a localized storm from the Mediterranean hit these areas along the French – Italian border. A follow up to that was predicted for Wednesday, and it was dumping as we drove the 1km to Cesana’s lift base.
Sauze d’Oulx has a strong reputation for tree skiing, so I was disappointed to hear that the connection there was closed for wind. Liz remarked that maybe there would be enough in Sansicario to keep us happy. For various reasons that turned out to be true in a big way.
From the #39 gondola there was a100 yard walk, partially uphill to the #37 chair. Riding that lift we saw a few tracks near the liftline and in the trees, but the terrain had a lot of deep gullies. We continued up chair #36 and were pleased to see the weather easing off as the top quarter of it was above tree line. We knew what to do with that top quarter.
This was our first piece of luck. The follow up storm had blown through early, and while the late morning was overcast, visibility was adequate. We ran two more laps on chair 36, finding some lines through the subalpine.
View down to Cesana in the clearing weather:
The two day storm total was 18 inches and it was very high quality, the best I’ve skied since Mustang in 2020.
A poma lift ascends to the peak at Mt. Fraiteve. We of course skied to the right of the piste coming down.
Sunny break views up there were impressive.
It was not sunny consistently so we decided to descend piste #21 to the Sansicario resort base. We saw the #21 Media section closed. There was no way an intermediate piste below tree line had an avalanche threat so we went for it. We discovered the next day at Sestriere that some pistes are partially groomed, leaving an unpleasant surface with firm chunks. However this particular piste had just been buried in 18 inches and at 1PM ours were not the only tracks there. At the edges of the run occasionally the trees would space out for some extra deep turns.
We took a break at a chalet above the Sansicario base.
We rode the sequence of lifts up to Mt. Fraiteve around 2PM. We noticed a few tracks and skiers in the bowl under the gondola connection to Sestriere. The map showed a #82 piste going to the gondola mid station from halfway down the poma and a #46 piste winding around behind the peak toward Sestriere and Borgata. We inquired from a patroller. He said the #46 piste was exposed to avalanche from above, and that while #82 was marked closed, it was not so exposed and we could ski that if we understood it was off piste.
This was our best score of the day.
Some of the people were skiing that bowl from the top of the gondola, so that was my next plan. Liz was unsure, and it would have been vertigo if the clouds had closed in. I had some flat light at the very top but it was fine after that, so I went for round 3, this time during a sunny break. I traversed a bit to find a slope sufficiently pristine for even the former admin of FTO.
View down from same spot:
These 3 runs were what I call a 99th percentile ski experience. That bowl faces due south, so you need several requirements.
The bowl we skied is down a short ridge to left of Mt. Fraiteve’s antennas. The cliffs under the peak are an obvious avalanche hazard, and presumably piste #46 is in the drainage below those cliffs.
Coming down at the end of the day there was still some powder next to the poma run and angling down toward piste #21. Liz was taking a break at the Soliel Boeuf. We skied from there to the gondola and downloaded to Cesana. Partway down that gondola is the 2006 Olympic bobsled course.
Total was 17,700 vertical, 11K of powder. These stats are similar to Pajarito in 2019. Pajarito was more deserted but it was 5 inches new not 18, so I have to rate this one better. This was still a “James ski day” IMHO. The Via Lattea complex may be too industrial for his tastes but:
We are spending the nights of Jan. 24-26 in Cesana Torinese. Cesana is a local town with high quality and reasonably priced Italian restaurants. From the Via Lattea map it looks centrally located among the sprawling interconnected resorts.
The reality is that the connection among the 3 Italian ski areas is at the 2,701 meter peak Mt. Fraiteve. Sestriere is south, Sauze d’Oulx north and Sansicario west. So from Cesana Torinese you are taking 4 lifts to that peak before getting to either Sestriere or Sauze d’Oulx. If staying in Cesana you definitely need a car.
On Monday a localized storm from the Mediterranean hit these areas along the French – Italian border. A follow up to that was predicted for Wednesday, and it was dumping as we drove the 1km to Cesana’s lift base.
Sauze d’Oulx has a strong reputation for tree skiing, so I was disappointed to hear that the connection there was closed for wind. Liz remarked that maybe there would be enough in Sansicario to keep us happy. For various reasons that turned out to be true in a big way.
From the #39 gondola there was a100 yard walk, partially uphill to the #37 chair. Riding that lift we saw a few tracks near the liftline and in the trees, but the terrain had a lot of deep gullies. We continued up chair #36 and were pleased to see the weather easing off as the top quarter of it was above tree line. We knew what to do with that top quarter.
This was our first piece of luck. The follow up storm had blown through early, and while the late morning was overcast, visibility was adequate. We ran two more laps on chair 36, finding some lines through the subalpine.
View down to Cesana in the clearing weather:
The two day storm total was 18 inches and it was very high quality, the best I’ve skied since Mustang in 2020.
A poma lift ascends to the peak at Mt. Fraiteve. We of course skied to the right of the piste coming down.
Sunny break views up there were impressive.
It was not sunny consistently so we decided to descend piste #21 to the Sansicario resort base. We saw the #21 Media section closed. There was no way an intermediate piste below tree line had an avalanche threat so we went for it. We discovered the next day at Sestriere that some pistes are partially groomed, leaving an unpleasant surface with firm chunks. However this particular piste had just been buried in 18 inches and at 1PM ours were not the only tracks there. At the edges of the run occasionally the trees would space out for some extra deep turns.
We took a break at a chalet above the Sansicario base.
We rode the sequence of lifts up to Mt. Fraiteve around 2PM. We noticed a few tracks and skiers in the bowl under the gondola connection to Sestriere. The map showed a #82 piste going to the gondola mid station from halfway down the poma and a #46 piste winding around behind the peak toward Sestriere and Borgata. We inquired from a patroller. He said the #46 piste was exposed to avalanche from above, and that while #82 was marked closed, it was not so exposed and we could ski that if we understood it was off piste.
This was our best score of the day.
Some of the people were skiing that bowl from the top of the gondola, so that was my next plan. Liz was unsure, and it would have been vertigo if the clouds had closed in. I had some flat light at the very top but it was fine after that, so I went for round 3, this time during a sunny break. I traversed a bit to find a slope sufficiently pristine for even the former admin of FTO.
View down from same spot:
These 3 runs were what I call a 99th percentile ski experience. That bowl faces due south, so you need several requirements.
- A real dump like we had, not just a few inches over what would likely be an unpleasant subsurface
- Enough visibility to see, but
- Not any sustained period of direct sun that would turn the snow to mush.
The bowl we skied is down a short ridge to left of Mt. Fraiteve’s antennas. The cliffs under the peak are an obvious avalanche hazard, and presumably piste #46 is in the drainage below those cliffs.
Coming down at the end of the day there was still some powder next to the poma run and angling down toward piste #21. Liz was taking a break at the Soliel Boeuf. We skied from there to the gondola and downloaded to Cesana. Partway down that gondola is the 2006 Olympic bobsled course.
Total was 17,700 vertical, 11K of powder. These stats are similar to Pajarito in 2019. Pajarito was more deserted but it was 5 inches new not 18, so I have to rate this one better. This was still a “James ski day” IMHO. The Via Lattea complex may be too industrial for his tastes but:
- Sansicario is the smallest and least known of the Italian Via Lattea areas.
- The link to Sauze d’Oulx being closed undoubtedly limited the number of people in Sansicario though some people came up the gondola from Sestriere.
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