Last weekend, Giorgio, Margriet and I went for another short weekend of skiing in Valle di Gressoney. We skied on Friday and Saturday. This was my third (yup, sounds like I’m lucky this year) trip to Valle di Gressoney for skiing this year already (I was there for New Year’s and for a short trip with Peter a few weeks later) and this was yet a totally different experience than the previous ones.
Whereas the previous two times we had quite some good weather, this time around it had been snowing for the full period we were there. We arrived late afternoon on Thursday and left again on Saturday around 5′ish. When we arrived it snowed already, and only on Saturday at 3pm, we saw the first bits of sun on the slopes. Sight was terrible on Friday and also on Saturday morning, with lots of mist and snow falling all the time. It still was a great weekend though, as going off piste didn’t really matter a lot: the pistes themselves were also covered in powder pretty much all day. The times I did go off piste a little bit (there were avalanche warnings all the time, so I didn’t venture quite far from the pistes to keep things safe) I was covered in powder up to my chest. Fortunately there wasn’t a lot of wind, which prevented things from becoming too cold.
We didn’t stay up in the house, as I figured with all the snow, it’s probably even more difficult to get there than two weeks ago. That time it already took us close to an hour to walk up there, but with at least another meter of snow, it would probably have taken even longer, not even mentioning the fact that I only have one pair of snow shoes and these are definitely needed this time of year.
Later on Saturday we went to Milano, to have dinner with Giorgio’s family (parents and grandpa of 96) and have a few drinks with friends of Giorgio. My Italian has definitely improved a lot this weekend, since I was basically surrounded by Italians all the time. Having a simple conversation definitely is not a problem anymore and I’m quite close to understanding a normal conversation as well. Vocabulary-wise I still have to do a fair bit of learning, but that’s going to be just fine as soon as I start reading newspapers (note to self: since you’re at MXP airport anyway right now, why not buy one).
All the locals in Valle di Gressoney are totally stunned by all the snow. All the records are broken, with almost 5m up in the mountains in the Dolomites. I hope it’s going to be snowing a bit more the coming weeks. I’m thinking about planning another short trip in March some time. As it looks, there will be skiing until the end of April or even the beginning of May this year, so even if March doesn’t happen, there’s still some time.
On my way to Oslo, from Milano, I sat next to a couple that coincidentally had been skiing in the Gressoney valley too. They stayed in Staffal, in a hotel called Ellex, supposedly quite nice according to them. One to remember. Also, this guy mentioned a website I had never seen before, called Gressoney Online. Lots of information about the Gressoney Valley.
I’ll post some pictures later on.
