TR: Cervinia

We're just back from an excellent week in Cervinia. This report is probably
rather late in the season to be of much help now, but might encourage others
to share our experience next year!

Our third trip to this resort, but our first as proper 'Intermediates' -
what a vague term! So we were able to cope with the (Italian-style) reds,
including a blast down the 1400m / 8 km Ventina, which was in superb
condition if you got started early. The sunshine and traffic meant that the
steeper runs got chopped up during the day, but then Cervinia is really
about cruising.

The new Cretaz 6-seat chair-lift was a real boon, saving the slog from town
to the old gondola / bubble station, but a slight downside was that the
second lift it links to, the Plan Torrette, deposits you at the top of a
fairly steep (though short) red section. This would be quite intimidating
for beginners hoping to ski down the very easy blues to their lessons at
Plan Maison, the hub of the resort. The short Campetto chair (also new) to
the left of the Cretaz just gets you to the top of a dismal blue, icy at the
top and slushy at the bottom, and definitely not worth repeating, so I don't
know why they bothered to install it. As before, we found the blue 'home'
run 5 messy in the afternoons, with a steep, sugary finish. It was closed
for the first couple of days because of avalanche risk.

Another innovation is the very short Du Col chair (only about 200m) which
links over the col to join the Valtournenche domain, which has been enhanced
with new lifts and some attractive afternoon-sun runs. The Du Col (hard to
spot on the piste map) also dumps you at the top of a red, but this time
it's really steep, and when we got to it in the late afternoon it was
distinctly mogulled, and not at all what we were looking for with tired
limbs.

Snow conditions higher up were first-rate, and the weather generally very
good, in fact too hot for comfort on Friday. The only snags were a couple
of cloudy days with poor visibility, but this did bring some fresh snow.
Queues? None to speak of, except on the first Sunday, and again on Friday,
when the perfect conditions brought out the weekenders. Even then, we
rarely had to wait more than a few minutes. Most times, you just coast
straight up to the turnstile and get on. Brilliant. Lots of the skiers are
wearing helmets now, so I no longer feel an oddity.

(Private) ski lessons from the Breuil school were mixed : one good, one
so-so, and one downright poor (spending most of the time just saying "follow
me" or chatting on his mobile, even though we had asked for very specific
coaching to improve our technique on steep terrain). A sn*wb**rd taster on
the Friday afternoon was excellent, though, with two hours of clear tuition
from a really enthusiastic instructor (Dan), rental of the board and boots
all for EUR 50 (and you could keep the board for the rest of the day).

We went with Inghams and stayed in the Serenella Hotel, rather too 'budget'
to be really enjoyable, but they do have no-supp single rooms, which suited
our party. The one night we ate out was at the Maison de Saussure, with
excellent Valdostana cooking and a nice atmosphere. Flights were to Geneva,
which meant a long transfer, and since the Mont Blanc Tunnel was closed by
landslide, it took over four hours via the Great St Bernard instead.

Cheers,
Steve P

"Steve Pardoe" wrote in message
...
We're just back from an excellent week in Cervinia.
Thanks for an enjoyable TR; seems you had a good week!
Haven't skied the area for a couple of seasons now and it sounds I should go
back because of the new lifts, and, I believe, the new lifts over in
Zermatt. You didn't mention skiing in Zermatt; I imagine it was a bit busier
over there, no doubt.
Cheers, Mike

"Mike" wrote in message
...
"Steve Pardoe" wrote in message
...
We're just back from an excellent week in Cervinia.
Thanks for an enjoyable TR; seems you had a good week!

Indeed we did - from the snow point of view, probably second only to
Breckenridge, in our limited experience.

Haven't skied the area for a couple of seasons now and it sounds I should
go back because of the new lifts, and, I believe, the new lifts over in
Zermatt. You didn't mention skiing in Zermatt; I imagine it was a bit
busier over there, no doubt.

My wife and I didn't go over this time - she was recovering confidence after
a nasty accident last year. We'd skied in Zermatt (crossing to Cervinia a
couple of days) previously, but at our standard (120 years old between us
and only skiing for a few seasons) we found the Swiss side rather hard work.

Their piste map shows a new lift (bubble, I think) Furi-Riffelberg (giving
access to the Gornergrat area) which would presumably beat the train for
speed, and also convenience if one were based towards the top of the town.

Steve P

On Mar 14, 6:33 am, "Steve Pardoe" wrote:
"Mike" wrote in message

...

"Steve Pardoe" wrote in message
...
We're just back from an excellent week in Cervinia.
Thanks for an enjoyable TR; seems you had a good week!

Indeed we did - from the snow point of view, probably second only to
Breckenridge, in our limited experience.

Haven't skied the area for a couple of seasons now and it sounds I should
go back because of the new lifts, and, I believe, the new lifts over in
Zermatt. You didn't mention skiing in Zermatt; I imagine it was a bit
busier over there, no doubt.

My wife and I didn't go over this time - she was recovering confidence after
a nasty accident last year. We'd skied in Zermatt (crossing to Cervinia a
couple of days) previously, but at our standard (120 years old between us
and only skiing for a few seasons) we found the Swiss side rather hard work.

Their piste map shows a new lift (bubble, I think) Furi-Riffelberg (giving
access to the Gornergrat area) which would presumably beat the train for
speed, and also convenience if one were based towards the top of the town.

Steve P

On Mar 13, 2:51 pm, "Mike" wrote:
"Steve Pardoe" wrote in message

... We're just back from an excellent week in Cervinia.

Thanks for an enjoyable TR; seems you had a good week!
Haven't skied the area for a couple of seasons now and it sounds I should go
back because of the new lifts, and, I believe, the new lifts over in
Zermatt. You didn't mention skiing in Zermatt; I imagine it was a bit busier
over there, no doubt.
Cheers, Mike

Thanks for the excellent post!! We went to Cervinia a couple of years
ago and just reading your report gave us the desire to go there again!
Cheers, Cecilia