Espace San Bernardo (La Thuile, Italy / La Rosiere, France): February 6, 2023

[ChrisC]

Piste Map

I highlighted/circled the best off-piste areas: La Thuile - North side of (steep), La Thuile - East-facing open areas above Les Suches (intermediate/low intermediate) and La Rosiere - South-facing Mont Valaison.

The trail map does not really show the proper orientation of any of the Espace San Bernardo pistes/faces so I included a Fat Map with a North Orientation. You can see most of La Rosiere faces due south while La Thuile faces North/NorthEast. The Mount Valaison sector in La Rosiere is high enough to preserve some decent snow at altitude. (Blue is FATMAP potential freeride routes).

I skied all day with minimal lunch (work the Courmayeur food coma off). Liftlines were non-existent in La Thuile, and just a couple of minutes on La Rosiere lifts near its village.

Overall, I really enjoyed Espace San Bernardo - La Thuile/La Rosiere - and would highly recommend it. The snow bases were deep, terrain expansive, no crowds (outside of La Rosiere village lifts/slopes), inexpensive, lots of off-piste, and some legitimate expert groomed pistes (hosts a World Cup event). The wind had unfortunately consolidated most of the snow on the North-facing La Thuile Slopes, but there was nice wind buff/chalk in some places. It's not as protected as the sharp valleys of Courmayeur. La Rosiere has some softening of its lower off-piste slopes while its highest elevations remained mid-winter. The village of La Thuile is authentic with some development at the lift base. Reasonable inns and restaurants with high-quality food/lodging.

I would definitely add a La Thuile to an Aosta Valley itinerary (Courmayeur, Monterosa, Cervinia) or a Tarentaise mega resort itinerary (3 Valless, Espace Killy, etc). Even Chamonix is not too far away. Not sure why it does not get more press?! However, I would have likely not gone here unless I was next door. BTW- La Thuile is included on Courmayeur multi-day passes.

Ski Day Part 1: La Thuile
I started on La Thuile's lower mountain expert runs since they were freshly groomed to avoid signs of wear later in the day. Pistes 2, 3, and 5 all compare to some of North America's best steep groomers. No pics since I was skiing fast and in early morning shadows.

I transitioned to the giant open bowl / semi-plateau above Les Sucres. This is probably some of the best entry level off-piste skiing I have seen: wide, open, low-moderate pitches, everything is highly visible, etc. The terrain gets a little steeper - intermediate pitch - as you get skier's right/looker's left - specifically the Argillien Express.

I mostly stayed on the lifts/pistes directly above Les Sucres up to Chaz Dura. I would return later in the day to ski the other part of the bowl since lifts were open until almost 5:30 pm.

Looking over the edge of Chaz Dura to the north face of La Thuile

Summit of Chaz Dura

La Thuile Village/Valley

Mont Blanc from La Thuile

Valley on right side of Mont Blanc is the La Balme off-piste route from the Courmayeur's Arp summit

North Face of La Thuile - Fourclaz Express lift. Very high-quality snow. Some chutes were skier packed.

Mont Belvedere summit and lift

Piccolo San Bernardo Express

Mont Blanc - again

Most of the off-piste was not skiing all that great. However, 10-20 cm could turn this side of the mountain into a playground - everything is above 2000m. The East side too!

More to come - La Rosiere.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Trail map makes logistics not look great between the two sides. But 49K vertical, wow!

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Not sure why it does not get more press?!

I didn't realise how close this circuit is to Les Arcs. La Rosière/Thuile both got their own chapters in Where To Ski and Snowboard going back at least 15 years, which indicates a British audience so apparently it's not completely off the radar.

Trail map makes logistics not look great between the two sides.

I think I missed it -- how do you go back and forth?

 

[ChrisC]

Ski Day Part 2: La Rosiere

La Rosiere is a thoroughly modern French resort. It's built in traditional Savoy alpine architecture - looking a bit like Verbier or Val d'Isere. Every lift has been upgraded to a HS 6-passenger express lift. And seems to primarily cater to families. The most popular lifts were right around the base area which service blue and some easy red pistes.

However, the terrain above the village on Roc Noir is rather unremarkable. Nice, but not really special. Mostly easy oscillating groomed pistes going through open rolling meadows. They seem to parallel one another, so there is not much difference between them. Industrial skiing.

The exception is the new terrain and 2 new 6-packs at Mount Valaisan. A lot of nice steep bowls and chutes that no one was using. The ski pod of Fort de la Redoute was also pretty good.


View of Les Arcs from Fort de la Redoute (connection between La Thuile and La Rosiere)

Looking over to Mount Valaisan

View to Tignes / Tignes Glacier

Mount Valaisan - upper lift. Looks like one lift on the map, but there are two. Lots of nice terrain, some which retained wintry snow.

View to Mount Blanc/La Thuile north side from La Rosiere (Fort de la Redoute)

More Mount Valaisan from below

La Rosiere village

Roc Noir from Rosiere Village. There is a large bowl to looker's left that is skiable.

Bourg Saint Maurice from Roc Noir

La Thuile north face. The link to La Rosiere is at the top of this lift: Chardonnet.

The super-long Bellecombe Poma lifts (1 and 2) on the north face of La Thuile. It's crazy these lifts have not been upgraded to something high-speed to improve the interconnection between La Thuile and La Rosiere. However, it keeps the families on the French side.

Crossing the border from Italy to France at the top of Mont Belveder

Some of the outlying bowls on the east face of La Thuile. Arnouvaz lift.

Les Sucres in La Thuile at 5pm.

Overall, great day out on the slopes of Italy and France. Would have done one more run to break 50k if I knew how close I was to that metric!

 

[Tony Crocker]

What is ChrisC’s one day vertical record?

Mt. Bachelor, April 7, 2012:

How do you avoid battery issues with SkiTracks? Tseeb seems to having trouble with it.

 

[ChrisC]

I didn't realise how close this circuit is to Les Arcs. La Rosière/Thuile both got their own chapters in Where To Ski and Snowboard going back at least 15 years, which indicates a British audience so apparently it's not completely off the radar.


I think I missed it -- how do you go back and forth?

It’s a little complex due to the various faces of Espace San Bernardo.

La Thuile to La Rosiere:
This is the most involved connection. The path is highlighted on the official piste map with yellow lifts. It involves 4 different ones;

East face of La Thuile

• Les Sucres S3/Gondola - from La Thuile village
• Chaz Dura Express - to peak, then take piste to north side to either:

North face of La Thuile

• Belvedere or Petit San Bernardo lifts - ski to:
• Chardonnet lift - top connects to La Rosiere

La Rosiere to La Thuile is simpler:

• Roches Noir lift from La Rosiere
• Fort lift to Fort de La Redoute (actual fort) cross into La Thuile
• Bellecotes surface lifts

Until this trip, I really was never aware of Espace San Bernardo and its interconnection between Italy and France. It’s a bit under the radar due to the neighborhood's heavyweight mega-resorts.

 

[ChrisC]

Powderhounds has a nice trip report/review from a powder day at La Thuile

La Thuile

La Thuile ski resort Italy is a fun, low key snow magnet in the Aosta valley that combines with France's La Rosiere to form the awesome Espace San Bernardo. See Powderhounds for information, reviews & photos.....

www.powderhounds.com

 

[Sbooker]

I didn't realise how close this circuit is to Les Arcs. La Rosière/Thuile both got their own chapters in Where To Ski and Snowboard going back at least 15 years, which indicates a British audience so apparently it's not completely off the radar.

I did a day trip from Les Arcs 1800. Had lunch in Italy. It was a big day.
When I was there in January some areas on the La Thuile side was as slick as I've ever seen anywhere. A fine layer of granular snow sitting on polished ice. Those two drag lifts from La Ros to Italy are epically long. My novice boarders managed them to my delight.

 

[ChrisC]

What is ChrisC’s one day vertical record?

Mt. Bachelor, April 7, 2012:

How do you avoid battery issues with SkiTracks? Tseeb seems to having trouble with it.

I had some iPhone issues in the early 2010s, but nothing in the last 8-10 years. Just get your iPhone to 50-60%. You can also turn off cellular to reduce battery usage. GPS still works. Airplane mode.

It's a more cold-weather battery usage than SkiTracks.

Good luck to Vail using cell phones as ski lift tickets - assume 30-40 % will fail after 12noon.

It's only

 

[ChrisC]

What is ChrisC’s one day vertical record?

I had a 56k vertical day skiing Northstar alone in 2016 for a pre-Alaska/Valdez trip.

Mostly skied groomers and skied-out trees - but I know that mountain. $179 Student MBA passes.

 

[q]

I didn't realise how close this circuit is to Les Arcs. La Rosière/Thuile both got their own chapters in Where To Ski and Snowboard going back at least 15 years, which indicates a British audience so apparently it's not completely off the radar.


I think I missed it -- how do you go back and forth?

Thanks for the report. Brought back happy memories of what I think was my last ever European ski trip back in 1998 with my dad. Stayed in the Chalet Alpina, cracking little hotel with an honesty bar. Loved the ski area and lunch/beers etc in La Rosiere.

Haven't looked in a ski brochure for 20 year for uk trips but La Thuile was very much a place that they organised trips to in the late 1990's.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

an honesty bar

I had to look it up as we don't use that expression here.

British
referring to or using a way of charging for goods or services that relies on the customers to leave money in an unattended receptacle even though there is no one to collect their payments.

I guess our closest variant is "it's on the honor system" and I've never encountered a bar here that works in this way. Anyone else?

 

[ChrisC]

Caribbean bars. Happy Island off of Harbour Island - St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It was my birthday so I they just left rum on the table.

Limoncello in Argentina and Italy at dessert.

I guess the honor system was a heli-skiing operation in Valdez.

 

[tseeb]

I've been to places that were better than honesty bars, as they were free, pour yourself. This included tequila at rooftop deck in hotel we stayed at in Sayulita and after dinner drinks at restaurants in Washington, D.C. and Ibiza.

Just get your iPhone to 50-60%. You can also turn off cellular to reduce battery usage. GPS still works. Airplane mode.
:
:
It's only

Not sure I understand the first or last part of this. I assume the last part was sent before finished, but the "Just get your Iphone to 50-60%" doesn't work for me at Heavenly or Kirkwood. I start at 95-100% charge, kill unnecessary apps and had my battery replaced at Apple store earlier this year when it dropped below 80% of Maximum Capacity, but if I use phone much (camera, text, listen to music or a book), I can be down to 20% by noon.

You can also turn off cellular to reduce battery usage. GPS still works. Airplane mode.

It's a more cold-weather battery usage than SkiTracks.

I agree with all this and used to turn off cellular on Backside at Kirkwood as there was only service at very top and searching for service killed battery, but was surprised to see service all the way this year so I left it on. My helmet came with built-in (corded) headphones and the pocket with hole for cord in jacket I usually wear is uninsulated so phone battery suffers from cold. On some recent very cold for April days when I was wearing a vest under jacket, I put phone in pocket inside vest to stop battery from draining. As I've said previously, I've started carrying a small external charger, but it means one more thing to re-charge and make sure I have right cables to use.

Good luck to Vail using cell phones as ski lift tickets - assume 30-40 % will fail after 12noon.

Note that this will be optional and a convenience to customer who forget their pass and cost saver for Vail as they won't have to re-print as many passes. Under FAQs for Mobile Pass at https://www.epicpass.com/app.aspx has:

"Will I still be able to use my physical Pass Media card to access lifts if I don’t choose to use the Mobile Pass?
Yes, you will still be able to use your physical pass media card if you choose to do so.

What should I do if my phone runs out of battery — can I still get a physical pass or lift ticket?
Keep in mind that the Bluetooth® technology used in the My Epic app is designed for low energy usage. That being said, we are also looking to add additional charging stations on-resort in convenient locations, and guests are always welcome to visit our ticket windows to get a physical card printed.

If I or my children don’t use a smartphone, what are some other options for lift access?
Guests will still be able to use their physical pass media cards to access the mountain."

There is more in FAQ, but we are already pretty far off-topic. (Maybe somebody needs to start a 2023-24 pass thread?) While "we are also looking to add additional charging stations on-resort in convenient locations" would be nice, I haven't been able to find any that worked in Tamarack lodge when I tried at least a couple of times years apart.

The EpicMix tracking also seems to have gotten worse this year. It used to be that all CA Vail resorts tracked lifts (except for the ones it missed - sometimes about half) on Mountain Time. But my recent experience at Kirkwood had some lifts in Mountain time and some in Pacific time. And besides missing some lifts at Kirkwood, it also seemed to add lifts at times I didn't ride or ski past their bases, but it's hard to reconcile with inconsistent time zones. Good thing I'm keeping enough charge in my phone to run SkiTracks.