ChrisC
Well-known member
I added a stop in Monterosa since I was making my way to Cervinia to meet up with friends.
I had relatively low expectations before arrival:
However, I thought it would have to be better than my previous visit to Monterosa Ski (Gressoney / Alagna / Champoluc, Italy): February 1, 2023, when the off-piste was very rocky and mostly unskiable. Great snowmaking, groomed pistes, and scenery, though.
Below is the Snow Graph for mid-mountain Gressoney: Valle d'Aosta Snow graphs - Historical Data LINK This snow depth data extends 5 years back with record low and record high in the last 100 years. Unfortunately, it does not include any sites for Courmayeur or La Thuile. (The sites appear to be at dams/reservoirs in Aosta).
One can see a series of storms for Monterosa beginning in mid-March, with a particularly large one in mid-April. If you look at Winter 2023/24, there were massive storms during March and April. Overall, the recommendation is to wait until mid-February or March for trips to the Inner Alp resorts, such as Zermatt, Cervinia, Monterosa, and Saas Fee. (The Internet is littered with IKON passholders/US skiers complaining about Zermatt at Christmas/January. They never research snowfall patterns.)
I found another half-board deal for € 130: Chalet du Lys, located in Staffal. This was perhaps my favorite hotel in the Alps - a low-key, amazing location in the exact middle of the Monterosa, with beautiful rooms, historical furniture, and an outdoor heated pool situated under the highest peaks in the Alps, at 4000m+/13,000 ft.
(Aside: Again, don't be lazy when looking for accommodations in the Alps and just use basic search engines (e.g., Trivago, Booking, Expedia). Visit the individual lodging sites or call - they will offer better deals or create special offers since you are avoiding the middleman. This is especially true for Andermatt, Engelberg, St. Anton, Courmayeur, Monterosa, and others. Talk to people in person: Germanic Euros especially hate credit cards (vs. cash/debit), and like the personal contact. Additionally, many smaller, reasonable places are not on the search - I would estimate that almost 50% of the lodges in Andermatt are not on the search engines.)
Below are a series of maps detailing the extensive off-piste and freeride skiing available at the Monterosa resorts of Champoluc (west, left side), especially Gressoney (middle), and Alagna (east, right side).
Monterosa Piste Map.
I skied the right side, focusing on Gressoney and Alagna, with a particular emphasis on the cable car to Punta Indren (Freeride Paradise logo) and the upper two-thirds. The ski-out to Alagna was closed, but Gressoney (Stafal and Trinite) had plenty of snow.
Off-Piste Map - This only shows the most popular freeride routes. LINK
Another Off-Piste Map. This focuses more on Punta Indren (left-served high point) and focuses on freeride routes between Gressoney and Alagna.
Heli-served and/or Touring Freeskiing Routes.
There is a reasonably priced tour that includes a helicopter lift to the Col Du Lys, skiing into Zermatt via the Schwarztor Glacier route, lifts to Klein Matterhorn from Zermatt, a backcountry return from Klein Matterhorn/Cervinia to Monterosa/Champoluc, and a ski back to Gressoney.
THE Guidebook for Freeskiing in Monterosa. Unfortunately, its last print run was in the early 2010s, and no copies are available for sale. Even the Gressoney guide offices do not have a copy to sell. The Alagna guide office has one copy for its use. However, they are doing another run/4th edition this summer, so it will become easier to purchase - I signed up for a copy.
Example of the Monterosa Freeride Guidebook (Polvere Rosa): The routes for Alagna. These are all lift-served with minimal traversing (the Alagna cable car is not shown and ascends the cliff in the middle, and the Punta Indren cable car's high point is visible on the upper right.
Diving from Serre Chevalier, I noticed that there wasn't much new snow at Montgenèvre, but there was a lot of new snow on the south-facing Alps across from the Via Lattea resort of Sauze d'Oulx, which had been previously bare. (In 2023, I skied Sauze d'Oulx and a bit at Sansicario.) However, driving up the Lys valley (north-south axis) to Gressoney, I couldn't see the new snow since it was getting dark and I was viewing south-facing hillsides.
I stayed up a little at the bar associated with the hotel, Gordon's Pub, discussing Monterosa ski touring with some Scandinavians. The Italian bartender girls also wanted to play cards with us and hear about their dream bucket-list cities, including San Francisco, New York, and Miami. It became a private party; they got out the Limoncello and served a round on the house.
The next morning, I realized I was wrong about the meager snow conditions. It snowed all day on Wednesday, April 2nd, and continued into the night and morning of April 3rd, when the sun finally came out. Serre Chevalier is just in a weather/snow doughnut hole (i.e., Crested Butte sometimes), and does not do well from Genoa Lows/Retour d'East southern Alps storms. The Via Lattea resorts in Italy, the Aosta Valley in Italy, and Val d'Isère all performed well, with 20cm at the base and 30-50cm (12- 20 inches) on top. Monterosa was definitely in the 30cm/12 inches + new category. There was some melt-off lower down (at 1500m) due to Monterosa's predominantly S/E/W exposures, but up high, at 2500-3300m, it was excellent and well-covered. I quickly went to the Alagna side, which faces east, to get to the powder before the sun got to it. Already, it received some partial sun the day before.
This 100cm base skied A LOT better than I thought it would!
Additionally, I really like the vibe of Monterosa; it combines some of the best attributes of La Grave and Val d'Isere with an undeveloped, uncrowded, anti-ski industrial resort yet sprawling resort that spans three distinctive valleys with traditional villages, like Serre Chevalier. There are more skiers with touring equipment than snowboarders. It's a very relaxed and stunningly beautiful place. It might even possess the same amount of off-piste descents as Verbier or half of Val d'ISere/Tignes, but without any of the powder competition, pissing contests, be-first-at-all-costs anxiety. It resembles more remote, old-school places in North America, such as Mt. Baker, Alta, Sugar Bowl, Targhee, Taos, Discovery Basin, Red Mountain, Whitewater, or Fernie/Castle.
Only problem: orientation/exposure and erratic snowfall. Major issues. But when it's on.....perhaps no better.
Looking south down the Lys valley/Gressoney from Staffal. The valleys are very sharp in this section of the Alps.
Gondola from Staffal to mid-mountain/Gabiet.
Gabiet. Location of the Aosta Valley snow site.
Upper lift: Gabiet Gondola to Passo Salati, where it connects with Alagna, and the Punta Indren cable car begins.
Still a lot of snow to be skied. All of this is easily accessible.
Looking over to the terrain served by the Punta Indren cable car. And this is only the terrain in Gressoney; steeper terrain is available in Alagna.
Some cool refugios in the freeride terrain that are open (upper).
The terrain under the Gondola is in a north-facing shadow and well-preserved (lower).
Punta Indren is the large sub-peak in the middle (served by a cable car), below the 4000m peaks above.
Canale dell’Aquila. There is a semi-marked path to this area, similar to a Swiss yellow trail found in Verbier or Zermatt.
Canale Grande (left) and Canale dell’Aquila (right). Add them to the list.
Alagna. Looking East from the Passo Salati.
Beautiful views. The goal was the easily accessible Olen freeride area to the skier's right of the piste.
Getting into the Olen off-piste area. Essentially, you traverse skier's right out to the untracked area, ski down the north-facing fall line, just below the cliffs. The mountains can shelter/protect this area - obviously more so in mid-winter.
Looking back at the Olen piste and freeride area (left of piste) from the upper Alagna cable car (Pianalunga(mid-mountain)-Salati):
Alagna's upper cable car ascends sheer cliffs. Impressive.
Another Alagna run - back to Olen -> piste this time, maybe a bit of freeride.
V3/Olen Piste. Definitely one of the world's best groomed expert slopes - 5k ft vertical feet of scenic, uncrowded skiing. (Unfortunately, I can only ski the upper 3k).
A quick run on the Alagna mid-mountain chair, Pianalunga-Bocchetta - primarily to scout the iconic La Balma freeride zone, a 6000 vertical foot drop itinerary in a parallel, but separate valley ending in Alagna village.
The green valley of Alagna
Love this photo of the Alagna Cable Car
As you can see, Alagna/Monterosa was slammed with crowds at 11 am on a Friday in early April, about 24 hours after receiving 12 inches or more of new snow.
(Again: Why ski the Alps? Little Cottonwood Canyon would be destroyed on the same date and with the same snowfall. Or other CO Front Range ski areas. (Again, the metro areas of Turin (2M) & Milan (3 M+) are much larger than either SLC or Denver, and only 1-1.5 hours away).
The left side (south-facing) of the immediate photo below reveals the impact of the sun; likely, before this storm, it might have been bare rock.
Crowded Cable Car
Playing around on the upper slopes of Alagna
A peek into a couloir (Oblico or Stolemberg?) from Passo Salati - La Balma is easier open area in distance. No tracks = no dice for me. Scary. Maybe I should have hired a guide? Anyways, off to the Punta Indren Cable Car to ski La Balma.
To be continued. (I hit photo limits).
I had relatively low expectations before arrival:
- The resorts missed some of the Aosta Valley, as well as the Italian storms of early February that plastered 1.5 meters or more of snow in Courmayeur and slightly lesser amounts in Cervinia and La Thuile, as well as a significant one in late March.
- Official snow plots never really reached a 100cm snow base or the historical mean.
- The unseasonably warm and rather snowless March had melted out the lower slopes (<1500m), and Alagna even had to close its only ski-out/snowmaking run into the village, situated at only 1200m, in the week before I arrived.
- I was unsure how much snow from this Genoa Low/Retour d'Est storm accumulated, but the totals in Serre Chevalier were not impressive.
However, I thought it would have to be better than my previous visit to Monterosa Ski (Gressoney / Alagna / Champoluc, Italy): February 1, 2023, when the off-piste was very rocky and mostly unskiable. Great snowmaking, groomed pistes, and scenery, though.
Below is the Snow Graph for mid-mountain Gressoney: Valle d'Aosta Snow graphs - Historical Data LINK This snow depth data extends 5 years back with record low and record high in the last 100 years. Unfortunately, it does not include any sites for Courmayeur or La Thuile. (The sites appear to be at dams/reservoirs in Aosta).
One can see a series of storms for Monterosa beginning in mid-March, with a particularly large one in mid-April. If you look at Winter 2023/24, there were massive storms during March and April. Overall, the recommendation is to wait until mid-February or March for trips to the Inner Alp resorts, such as Zermatt, Cervinia, Monterosa, and Saas Fee. (The Internet is littered with IKON passholders/US skiers complaining about Zermatt at Christmas/January. They never research snowfall patterns.)
I found another half-board deal for € 130: Chalet du Lys, located in Staffal. This was perhaps my favorite hotel in the Alps - a low-key, amazing location in the exact middle of the Monterosa, with beautiful rooms, historical furniture, and an outdoor heated pool situated under the highest peaks in the Alps, at 4000m+/13,000 ft.
(Aside: Again, don't be lazy when looking for accommodations in the Alps and just use basic search engines (e.g., Trivago, Booking, Expedia). Visit the individual lodging sites or call - they will offer better deals or create special offers since you are avoiding the middleman. This is especially true for Andermatt, Engelberg, St. Anton, Courmayeur, Monterosa, and others. Talk to people in person: Germanic Euros especially hate credit cards (vs. cash/debit), and like the personal contact. Additionally, many smaller, reasonable places are not on the search - I would estimate that almost 50% of the lodges in Andermatt are not on the search engines.)
Below are a series of maps detailing the extensive off-piste and freeride skiing available at the Monterosa resorts of Champoluc (west, left side), especially Gressoney (middle), and Alagna (east, right side).
Monterosa Piste Map.
I skied the right side, focusing on Gressoney and Alagna, with a particular emphasis on the cable car to Punta Indren (Freeride Paradise logo) and the upper two-thirds. The ski-out to Alagna was closed, but Gressoney (Stafal and Trinite) had plenty of snow.
Off-Piste Map - This only shows the most popular freeride routes. LINK
Another Off-Piste Map. This focuses more on Punta Indren (left-served high point) and focuses on freeride routes between Gressoney and Alagna.
Heli-served and/or Touring Freeskiing Routes.
There is a reasonably priced tour that includes a helicopter lift to the Col Du Lys, skiing into Zermatt via the Schwarztor Glacier route, lifts to Klein Matterhorn from Zermatt, a backcountry return from Klein Matterhorn/Cervinia to Monterosa/Champoluc, and a ski back to Gressoney.
THE Guidebook for Freeskiing in Monterosa. Unfortunately, its last print run was in the early 2010s, and no copies are available for sale. Even the Gressoney guide offices do not have a copy to sell. The Alagna guide office has one copy for its use. However, they are doing another run/4th edition this summer, so it will become easier to purchase - I signed up for a copy.
Example of the Monterosa Freeride Guidebook (Polvere Rosa): The routes for Alagna. These are all lift-served with minimal traversing (the Alagna cable car is not shown and ascends the cliff in the middle, and the Punta Indren cable car's high point is visible on the upper right.
Diving from Serre Chevalier, I noticed that there wasn't much new snow at Montgenèvre, but there was a lot of new snow on the south-facing Alps across from the Via Lattea resort of Sauze d'Oulx, which had been previously bare. (In 2023, I skied Sauze d'Oulx and a bit at Sansicario.) However, driving up the Lys valley (north-south axis) to Gressoney, I couldn't see the new snow since it was getting dark and I was viewing south-facing hillsides.
I stayed up a little at the bar associated with the hotel, Gordon's Pub, discussing Monterosa ski touring with some Scandinavians. The Italian bartender girls also wanted to play cards with us and hear about their dream bucket-list cities, including San Francisco, New York, and Miami. It became a private party; they got out the Limoncello and served a round on the house.
The next morning, I realized I was wrong about the meager snow conditions. It snowed all day on Wednesday, April 2nd, and continued into the night and morning of April 3rd, when the sun finally came out. Serre Chevalier is just in a weather/snow doughnut hole (i.e., Crested Butte sometimes), and does not do well from Genoa Lows/Retour d'East southern Alps storms. The Via Lattea resorts in Italy, the Aosta Valley in Italy, and Val d'Isère all performed well, with 20cm at the base and 30-50cm (12- 20 inches) on top. Monterosa was definitely in the 30cm/12 inches + new category. There was some melt-off lower down (at 1500m) due to Monterosa's predominantly S/E/W exposures, but up high, at 2500-3300m, it was excellent and well-covered. I quickly went to the Alagna side, which faces east, to get to the powder before the sun got to it. Already, it received some partial sun the day before.
This 100cm base skied A LOT better than I thought it would!
Additionally, I really like the vibe of Monterosa; it combines some of the best attributes of La Grave and Val d'Isere with an undeveloped, uncrowded, anti-ski industrial resort yet sprawling resort that spans three distinctive valleys with traditional villages, like Serre Chevalier. There are more skiers with touring equipment than snowboarders. It's a very relaxed and stunningly beautiful place. It might even possess the same amount of off-piste descents as Verbier or half of Val d'ISere/Tignes, but without any of the powder competition, pissing contests, be-first-at-all-costs anxiety. It resembles more remote, old-school places in North America, such as Mt. Baker, Alta, Sugar Bowl, Targhee, Taos, Discovery Basin, Red Mountain, Whitewater, or Fernie/Castle.
Only problem: orientation/exposure and erratic snowfall. Major issues. But when it's on.....perhaps no better.
Looking south down the Lys valley/Gressoney from Staffal. The valleys are very sharp in this section of the Alps.
Gondola from Staffal to mid-mountain/Gabiet.
Gabiet. Location of the Aosta Valley snow site.
Upper lift: Gabiet Gondola to Passo Salati, where it connects with Alagna, and the Punta Indren cable car begins.
Still a lot of snow to be skied. All of this is easily accessible.
Looking over to the terrain served by the Punta Indren cable car. And this is only the terrain in Gressoney; steeper terrain is available in Alagna.
Some cool refugios in the freeride terrain that are open (upper).
The terrain under the Gondola is in a north-facing shadow and well-preserved (lower).
Punta Indren is the large sub-peak in the middle (served by a cable car), below the 4000m peaks above.
Canale dell’Aquila. There is a semi-marked path to this area, similar to a Swiss yellow trail found in Verbier or Zermatt.
Canale Grande (left) and Canale dell’Aquila (right). Add them to the list.
Alagna. Looking East from the Passo Salati.
Beautiful views. The goal was the easily accessible Olen freeride area to the skier's right of the piste.
Getting into the Olen off-piste area. Essentially, you traverse skier's right out to the untracked area, ski down the north-facing fall line, just below the cliffs. The mountains can shelter/protect this area - obviously more so in mid-winter.
Looking back at the Olen piste and freeride area (left of piste) from the upper Alagna cable car (Pianalunga(mid-mountain)-Salati):
Alagna's upper cable car ascends sheer cliffs. Impressive.
Another Alagna run - back to Olen -> piste this time, maybe a bit of freeride.
V3/Olen Piste. Definitely one of the world's best groomed expert slopes - 5k ft vertical feet of scenic, uncrowded skiing. (Unfortunately, I can only ski the upper 3k).
A quick run on the Alagna mid-mountain chair, Pianalunga-Bocchetta - primarily to scout the iconic La Balma freeride zone, a 6000 vertical foot drop itinerary in a parallel, but separate valley ending in Alagna village.
The green valley of Alagna
Love this photo of the Alagna Cable Car
As you can see, Alagna/Monterosa was slammed with crowds at 11 am on a Friday in early April, about 24 hours after receiving 12 inches or more of new snow.
(Again: Why ski the Alps? Little Cottonwood Canyon would be destroyed on the same date and with the same snowfall. Or other CO Front Range ski areas. (Again, the metro areas of Turin (2M) & Milan (3 M+) are much larger than either SLC or Denver, and only 1-1.5 hours away).
The left side (south-facing) of the immediate photo below reveals the impact of the sun; likely, before this storm, it might have been bare rock.
Crowded Cable Car
Playing around on the upper slopes of Alagna
A peek into a couloir (Oblico or Stolemberg?) from Passo Salati - La Balma is easier open area in distance. No tracks = no dice for me. Scary. Maybe I should have hired a guide? Anyways, off to the Punta Indren Cable Car to ski La Balma.
To be continued. (I hit photo limits).
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