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Thread: ZERMATT
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10-17-2018, 12:04 PM #51
I did not mean to impugn the beauty of Geneve to Martigny, that's striking as well.
My wife and I did the trip from Geneve to Florence via train and the Simplon tunnel and Como a few years ago and really liked it.
The biggest surprise for us were the areas along the Swiss/Italian lakes Locarno to Lugano with the Alps above. Just something to consider.Merde De Glace On the Freak When Ski
>>>200 cm Black Bamboo Sidewalled DPS Lotus 120 : Best Skis Ever <<<
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10-17-2018, 12:45 PM #52Rod9301
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Take the tgv paris Geneva. Couple of hours.
Rent a car, drive to chamonix, then the tunnel to Italy. A couple of hours then you're in cervinia, where you can take the lifts to zermatt, where you don't need a car.
Reverse.
Driving from Geneva to cervinia is fantastic.
Stop in Italy and have a great lunch or dinner.
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10-17-2018, 12:46 PM #53Rod9301
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Actually, i was off, Geneva to cervinia 2h 40 minutes
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10-17-2018, 12:50 PM #54Registered User
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10-17-2018, 03:20 PM #55
Great stuff here. I'm considering an Aosta Valley trip...maybe 5 days in Courmayeur then to Cervinia. They're both on the Aosta Valley pass and there's an International version which includes Zermatt. So what's it like getting from Cervinia to Zermatt via ski lifts?
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10-17-2018, 04:03 PM #56Registered User
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Love love love zermat n skin over into italy.... love the town
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10-17-2018, 04:04 PM #57
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10-17-2018, 05:41 PM #58Registered User
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We have friends that have a house ~45-50 min outside of Alagna. The Monte Rosa area looks amazing but I have a few questions (happy to discuss via PM so not to hijack this thread's main purpose).
1 - How feasible is that daily drive in the winter?
2 - How family friendly is Alagna? I've looked into some guides and the terrain seems to be what I'd want but this would be a family trip (wife, tween and baby). We took the tween to Hokkaido with us a few years ago but this is obviously a bit different.
3 - The drive to Gressoney/Champoluc, Cervinia or Courmayer are all ~1h45 - 2h, so only feasible if we stay closer.
Thanks!
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10-17-2018, 06:31 PM #59
I have only driven up to Alagna and it's fine if it doesn't snow. When it dumps, you really want 4/awd/snowtires and getting there early, like anywhere else. But there are no windy passes, it's all relatively flat.
2 - How family friendly is Alagna? I've looked into some guides and the terrain seems to be what I'd want but this would be a family trip (wife, tween and baby). We took the tween to Hokkaido with us a few years ago but this is obviously a bit different.
Alagna also has good pistes up high, but the runout can be really tiring and ratty. One can ski the pistes up high there or go over to Staffal and Champoluc and then download the big tram down the lower mountain back down to Alagna.
It's a ridiculously big place counting all 3 valleys and Antagnod.
Alagna is the least developed, all old stone buildings, an amazing central church. I remember this one bar kind of mid lower in the town below the main church that was built into a rock wall with huDge boulders outside covered in glass and art.
The guy to get guided by there is Sergio Gabbio. who runs http://www.montagnadiluce.it/en/ . Also, the people who run the albergodeipescatori.it in Piode along the access road have a parking spot right next to the main tram in town. It's worth buying a parking spot from them if they'll sell one. They let people in their hotel use it.
3 - The drive to Gressoney/Champoluc, Cervinia or Courmayer are all ~1h45 - 2h, so only feasible if we stay closer.
Merde De Glace On the Freak When Ski
>>>200 cm Black Bamboo Sidewalled DPS Lotus 120 : Best Skis Ever <<<
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10-17-2018, 06:56 PM #60Rod9301
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Alagna to gressoney is best done by skiing
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10-17-2018, 07:46 PM #61Registered User
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Thanks Buster and Rod.
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10-17-2018, 08:12 PM #62
Champoluc is the place you want to be for family friendly., for a number of reasons. Champlouc proper has decent beginner facilities. Frachey (2km away) has very good intermediate terrain. The town is convenient and has more than Gressoney or Alagna including an English ski school with childcare and children's instruction. The village is especially English language friendly. Gressoney and Alagna both have kinda crappy runouts to the village, Champoluc's is much better.
None of the valleys are convenient to one another, except by skiing. Alagna is not even in the same province. It's a 3 hour drive in good conditions. Gressoney is not located at the village, so you're either staying at Staffal or taking a hotel bus up in the morning. If you're coming from Geneva/Chamonix/Cervina, Alagna is 2 hours further.
Alagna has one thing going for it, fewer lifts to the good stuff on powder days. To tell the truth however, the crowd at the Champoluc side will more likely be sticking to the piste, so the off piste stays untracked fairly well.
Full disclosure - I have worked for the English ski school there as well as the one in Courmayeur and Cervina, so take any baises as they come.Living vicariously through myself.
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10-18-2018, 06:40 AM #63
Thanks Buster, Leo and others for the tips. We're most likely going to save the Alps for another trip. You know - keep the wife happy so she lets me ski at home this winter.
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10-18-2018, 09:22 AM #64
Ride lifts up from Cervinia, slide down snow to Zermatt.
Aosta Valley is beautiful, and full of wonderful wines. Great touring on the Great St. Bernard Pass. There is even a decent microbrewery now in Aosta, one of the few good beers in France, Italy, Switzerland and Austria.
I agree it is a constitutional right for Americans to be assholes...its just too bad that so many take the opportunity...iscariot
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10-20-2018, 04:20 PM #65
Nice map of the off piste routes on the South side of the Monte Rosa ending in Champoluc, Gressoney or Alagna:
direct link allows expansion:
http://www.monterosa.com/Portals/0/i...te-Map-Big.jpg
The highest tram, the Indren, tops out at 3275m where the Col de Lys and access to the Grenz Glacier down into Zermatt is at 4250m, so a good 3 hours skin. The Grenz is extremely crevassed.
From the Pyramid Vincent at 4200, it's 300 vertical meters down to Alagna.
Col de Lys to Staffal via the Valle Perdu 2400m vertical:
Last edited by Buster Highmen; 10-20-2018 at 04:58 PM.
Merde De Glace On the Freak When Ski
>>>200 cm Black Bamboo Sidewalled DPS Lotus 120 : Best Skis Ever <<<
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10-22-2018, 08:17 AM #66
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10-22-2018, 12:47 PM #67Rod9301
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They are, alagna especially.
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10-22-2018, 01:03 PM #68
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10-22-2018, 01:18 PM #69
It's a bitch to access with a nanowad of any kind of public transit.
It's South facing, crusts up a lot and has a lot of high altitude, barren landscape with lots of rocks. The Alagna run out is heinous.
The really cool glacier runs require a couple hours of skinning or heli. Lots of other big lines there require ropes.
It is gorgeous; not much development, lots of old stone buildings. I'll go back soon.Merde De Glace On the Freak When Ski
>>>200 cm Black Bamboo Sidewalled DPS Lotus 120 : Best Skis Ever <<<
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10-22-2018, 01:22 PM #70
no catch, really. just not as popular as some areas and "people" just talk about the same 5 or so ski areas in europe. chamonix, la grave, verbier, zermatt and st. anton.
edit: I see buster posted below - you can/could access them via public transport but it's from the southern side of the alps and that's a less popular air destination for skiers from the states. they are/were quieter villages than some other places. there are/were lots of fun places to ski in europe that don't/didn't get much us press.
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10-22-2018, 01:41 PM #71
All the places listed by dunfree above except La Grave have easy access and lots of vacation type resources with bars, restaurants, hotels, spas, shoppes and a name that can be dropped.
Alagna is a lot like La Grave but South facing, even more isolated with honestly not a lot of the resources most vacationers want.
Another one a little further East is Macugnaga. In the spring, there's 2 huDge high consequence couloirs from the Alagna side of the Monte Rosa down into Macugnaga, the Tyndall and the Marinelli.
2400 vertical meters.
From Macugnaga if the weather's good, there's a straightforward run down into Saas Fee valley.Merde De Glace On the Freak When Ski
>>>200 cm Black Bamboo Sidewalled DPS Lotus 120 : Best Skis Ever <<<
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10-22-2018, 02:01 PM #72
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10-22-2018, 02:56 PM #73
the cat track/access road/whatever you want to call it back down to alagna is poor - narrow, long, crappy snow - even by the standards of the alps ime. Gressoney/etc don't suffer so much from that. but they are as buster said, smaller, sleepy.
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10-22-2018, 04:05 PM #74
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10-22-2018, 04:37 PM #75
Gressoney is spread out over a number of very small villages. Between them, maybe 20?, but none of the villages has any kind of nightlife. Mostly lunch and late afternoon places.
Living vicariously through myself.
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