Saturday, 12 April 2014

Europe 2014! Grand Paradiso and Mont Rosa Skiing

Day 1.  Getting back on skis

Aosta is the only province in Italy totally surrounded by high mountains and is our meeting point for this years trip. It shares some of the highest peaks of Europe on its border with France (Mont Blanc) and Switzerland (Matterhorn, Mont Rosa).  The city of Aosta is easily accessed from Milan airport and is the starting point for this years Aspiring Guides Euro Ski Tour.

Today was our first day on snow and a chance to find our ski legs at the local Pila Ski Area.  Spring is in full bloom and sitting at only 500m above sea level, the snow is long gone from Aosta.  We felt a little out of place walking out of the hotel dressed in ski gear and wearing ski boots.  There were no other skiers in sight but it was reassuring that the locals did not stare at us like someone dressed for skiing on Queen Street.  

A 10 minute walk took us to the bottom of the gondola and suddenly we were winging along over ancient stone buildings and vineyards.  Arriving at snowline at 1700m it was a different world.  Forget about scrapping along with rocks and tussock in usual spring conditions, this place was absolutely buried in snow.  With over a thousand  meters of vertical above us there were chairlifts going all different directions and we immediately forgot out primary mission of testing out our touring gear and preceded to ride every lift we could find.  

The ski area is obviously survives on English school children who dominated the lower slopes but up high we just about had the place to ourselves.  We did manage a quick check to make sure ski skins and crampons were all in working order and test out the avalanche transceivers to make sure everyone was familiar with the basics but the day turned into chasing the still cold powder on the shady aspects.   We assured ourselves that the most important thing was to get back on our skis and that hunting down every last bit of powder in the trees was the best course of action.


Roman ruins near the hotel in Aosta

 The team "training" at Pila Ski Area.  Aosta is in the valley a long long way below.

Whitney looking for a drive-in coffee

At the summit of Pila we could see our destination for the first leg of our ski tour.  The Grand Paradiso massif is on the right and our route will end up coming out the valley in the far left.  The plan is to spend 5 days completing the tour.  It looks beautiful!

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