As on Thursday we drove to Sestriere but this time took the gondola to Mt. Fraiteve and spent the day in Sauze d’Oulx.
The 27 catwalk runs along the ridgeline between Sestriere (right) and Sauze d’Oulx (left).
Farther along the 47 piste drops into Sauze d’Oulx. We later found that the long 46 down to Borgata/Sestriere remains closed and shows no signs of being plowed or controlled this season.
We were too tempted to duck another closed sign and drop in here.
The key 25 piste, only entry to Sauze from the other areas is down the middle of this bowl which thus needs to be controlled before it can open.
This powder was still deep and fluffy on day 3 due to altitude 8,500 feet and north exposure.
1,000 vertical of that will put a smile on anyone’s face.
We took two more laps on chair 12, skiing powder next to the pistes. On this one you can see the avy control below the opposite cliffs.
Hopefully ChrisC found this interesting terrain today far skier’s left.
We left chair 12 via a catwalk overlooking Sansicario to the SW.
This was not open Wednesday and we reluctantly took a pass as it would require a chair and poma to get back up and we needed to ride chair 11 into the rest of Sauze d’Oulx. Chair 11 off piste would have been good yesterday but looked a bit sun baked now.
We skied the #12 piste which was uncrowded with great snow but was not open all the way down, so we had to load at chair 10’s midstation. Next we skied all the way to the resort town, which looks more expansive than Sestriere.
At all of the Via Lattea areas we noticed partially groomed areas like this.
It makes little sense. Obviously skiing those chunks would be unpleasant. I say don’t start the grooming process unless you can finish the job. On Wednesday at Sansicario we skied one of these roped off runs. With the 18 inches of snow, we did not contact the rough subsurface.
Riding chair 2 we inspected Sauze’s d’Oulx’ trees, reputed by Powderhounds to be among the best in Europe. We agree with that assessment after skiing 1,000 vertical of them here.
We rode chair 2 again, intending to explore the far eastern sector. But lifts 3 and 4 were closed and only the #5 poma was open. View from #41 piste of closed chair 4:
The #3 poma is on the back side of that peak.
We rode chair 2 and 8, noticing still another closed lift above, chair 6.
We concluded that Via Lattea has a severe staffing shortage, further evidenced by the only one of three ticket windows open and the big line at the Sestriere base.
We skied piste 12 again, this time ducking into a short but sweet tree stash along the way.
It was now time to head back to Mt. Fraiteve. View of chair 12 alpine on the way:
Scenery while waiting in 8 minute lift line at chair 12:
I feared worse as chair 12 is an old double and the end of day connection for anyone staying in Sestriere or Sansicario.
We thought we would be skiing piste 46 down to Borgata, but when it was closed we returned to chair 12 via piste 47, then rode the gondola down to Sestriere.
We skied 19,000 vertical, 4K of still good third day powder.
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