For our final 3 days, we decided to stay in Courmayeur two nights, skiing the first day there. As noted before, we knew Feb. 1 would be cloudy, so Courmayeur was the best option for skiing with a compact layout and very unlikely to ski off piste.
If there was going to be any winter snow, it would be high up so we ascended two gondolas and the antique Youla tram to 2624 meters.
It holds just 20 passengers and was built in 1961 per James. Note employee jackets are in both French and Italian in Aosta.
Views are impressive even if Monte Bianco is hidden in the clouds.
Those who read ChrisC’s reports a year ago know that Courmayeur has big time off piste. But too big time for current conditions as they are all 4,000+ vertical runs to the valley floor. Off the back of Youla is the view down into one of the routes ChrisC skied last year.
The broad area at center would be good now but not the narrow couloirs lower down.
Liz descending the 21 piste from Youla:
Light was flat on this first run but better when we returned around noon.
The north facing Gabba chair had packed powder with quite the view while skiing its pistes.
Zoom of hanging glacier:
We moved slightly lower to Bertolini, where fresh groomed pistes were in good shape in the morning. The lowest north facing sector Zerotta was hard packed, but again we were early enough to avoid scraping. It also helped that Courmayeur was rather quiet on a Thursday with almost no sun. View from Zerotta piste up the Val Veny:
From top of Zerotta here is the view of the main east facing core of Courmayeur.
These runs were firm but smooth. We again benefited from the wide runs, good grooming and lack of traffic.
By noon we had skied nearly all pistes, so we went back up top to Youla and Gabba for encores with the best snow. Liz got a good pic of the Youla trams passing in mid flight.
Looking down at the glacier I found this view unusual.
The horseshoe shaped sector with trees was probably completely surrounded by the glacier a few decades ago.
Around 2pm we come down to Plan Checrouit for a snack and some Bombardinos.
We acquired a taste for these in the Dolomites in 2017.
We skied to the bottom as it was only 2:30 so we knew the pistes would not be chewed up.
With all cruising we skied 22,700 vertical.
Liz is always up for her Italy fix on these Alps trips. This was the amuse bouche at one of the Courmayeur dinners.
If there was going to be any winter snow, it would be high up so we ascended two gondolas and the antique Youla tram to 2624 meters.
It holds just 20 passengers and was built in 1961 per James. Note employee jackets are in both French and Italian in Aosta.
Views are impressive even if Monte Bianco is hidden in the clouds.
Those who read ChrisC’s reports a year ago know that Courmayeur has big time off piste. But too big time for current conditions as they are all 4,000+ vertical runs to the valley floor. Off the back of Youla is the view down into one of the routes ChrisC skied last year.
The broad area at center would be good now but not the narrow couloirs lower down.
Liz descending the 21 piste from Youla:
Light was flat on this first run but better when we returned around noon.
The north facing Gabba chair had packed powder with quite the view while skiing its pistes.
Zoom of hanging glacier:
We moved slightly lower to Bertolini, where fresh groomed pistes were in good shape in the morning. The lowest north facing sector Zerotta was hard packed, but again we were early enough to avoid scraping. It also helped that Courmayeur was rather quiet on a Thursday with almost no sun. View from Zerotta piste up the Val Veny:
From top of Zerotta here is the view of the main east facing core of Courmayeur.
These runs were firm but smooth. We again benefited from the wide runs, good grooming and lack of traffic.
By noon we had skied nearly all pistes, so we went back up top to Youla and Gabba for encores with the best snow. Liz got a good pic of the Youla trams passing in mid flight.
Looking down at the glacier I found this view unusual.
The horseshoe shaped sector with trees was probably completely surrounded by the glacier a few decades ago.
Around 2pm we come down to Plan Checrouit for a snack and some Bombardinos.
We acquired a taste for these in the Dolomites in 2017.
We skied to the bottom as it was only 2:30 so we knew the pistes would not be chewed up.
With all cruising we skied 22,700 vertical.
Liz is always up for her Italy fix on these Alps trips. This was the amuse bouche at one of the Courmayeur dinners.
