Last Ski Trip Before Lockdown

Dateline: Cogne, in Aosta province, Italy. March 4-13, 2020.

No, this post has nothing to do with Coronavirus!  I’ve been wanting to publish these photos ever since I got back, but… So now finally, here they are!

Take a break and look at some drop-dead gorgeous photos of XC skiing in the Aosta Valley, in the northwest corner of Italy near France.

I took several trips to the Dolomites (already blogged about) in January and February to prepare for the Masters World Cup XC ski races on March 4-12. Wow, only six weeks ago! The World Cup was one of the first events to be cancelled, in a seemingly endless list. As of today, I have nothing planned in the future. At all. Strange.

When the races were cancelled, since they were only 5 hours away by car, I decided to go anyhow. The Aosta valley is a very remote area, just south of Chamonix. The snow wasn’t great, but that could change, and the exercise would be good regardless. I threw my skis in the car and drove. On the way, I got my first real sign of the virus: a completely empty highway service station. Turned out the nearby village had some of the early cases.

I stopped in the town of Aosta before heading up the narrow valley: Roman ruins and wide open piazzas.

Way way up a steep valley perched the tiny village of Cogne. It was quiet and the hotel was mostly silent. After I checked in, I wandered the almost vertical alleys of the hill town.

I also went up to a village above Cogne and took a shot from there of the main ski area.

I ran into another guest and it turned out there were only three of us staying the hotel: me and two other American skiers from Alaska, Dorothy and Cindy. How unexpected and wonderful to have company! I’d thought I’d be on my own. The three of us got along great and did several ski adventures together. They are much better skiers than me, but it all worked out.

At breakfast, there were only us three guests.  All this food, and only three women to eat it. Very strange.

The very next day a major snow storm hit and the landscape changed. The trees bowed under piles of snow, the ski tracks were invisible, and the town became a puffy white wonderland. We were so happy! We knew we’d have plenty of good snow the rest of the week. Hooray! In aact, one ski area had so much snow they couldn’t open for several days.

The sun came out a day later and we skied up the valley to the village of Valnotay. Beautiful!

When Friday and Saturday arrived, so did many people from the Milan area. Lots of kids because schools had closed. There were plenty of people in the hotel and the restaurant was full for dinner. We didn’t think badly about them bringing the virus with them because it still felt like something “other” that had nothing to do with us. We sympathized with their desire to escape. The hot tub and spa room at the hotel was packed!

On the weekend, with all these people clogging the tracks (!), we got adventurous and headed down to Aosta and up to St Bartelemy on the other side. A narrow twisty road up to the tiny resort, very steep, almost scary. But eventually we arrived. OMG! incredible skiing. And a bar. Of course. And sunshine. We could see far across the Aosta valley to mountains in the distance. Amazing. Beyond amazing!

Worth noting in the above photo, there’s a really good system of snow hiking trails in all these snow areas. You don’t even need snowshoes. You can take the kids and the dog and walk in normal hiking shoes. And there’s always a restaurant/cafe somewhere!

Here’s the view towards Mont Blanc and the French-Swiss Alps. We passed this view on our way to Val Ferret, which was finally open. It’s a tiny but gorgeous resort that is tucked in on the Italian side of Mont Blanc and it had been walloped by the storm on Thursday.

The skiing was extraordinary. Just perfect. Mostly flat, but it was a good change for me. My legs were tired!  I stopped soften to take in the view. I took several videos so you can see how it looked. We skied along the jagged ridge of Swiss Alps. Incredible. And it was another day of unbelievable sunshine.

We met up at a restaurant along the trail and had Aperol cocktails (of course!)  and lunch, with wine. Life is good skiing here!

Check out these videos (all shot vertically alas. Next time horizontal… ) : Val Ferret, More Val Ferret, Val Ferret Short

We met several Australian skiers and a few Americans, so had some fun cocktail hours and a few group dinners. It was very fun and I hope we stay connected. As the week went on, the virus had caught up with us. Cindy’s flight home was cancelled and then the two of them rearranged their travels asap to avoid being trapped in Italy. The Australian couple left early to drive back into Switzerland to avoid being stuck and Friedl, a top biathlete, also escaped to Switzerland because the Italian biathlon range where he was planning to train for the competitions in Finland had just summarily closed. [Update:Unfortunately, I have since checked the web and found that his biathlon events were also cancelled. What a bummer for him!!]

By the last day, everyone had left, but the ski places seemed to be still open. I was alone once more and decided to go to another ski area that my friend Mary Lee had recommended: Etroubles (you can imagine how we pronounced this name?!) in the valley of St Rhemy. It was snowing as I drove up yet another steep road, which made me nervous since I didn’t have snow tires. But it all worked out.

I found a ski track, parked my car, and wandered up the valley. I spoke with a skier who was coming in and he said they’d groomed the night before. By now, with the snowing, the tracks weren’t very visible, but you could see where they went. Ah well, that was enough. After a loop on classic skis, I came back to the car, switched skis and did another loop. On my way back, a bulldozer had just scooped up the track as he cleared a parking lot. Okay. I turned around and went the other way. When I got back to my car this time, the trail had been closed.

Driving back down hill… more incredible views!

To finish off this unexpected and wonderful week, the last night I was moved into a different hotel because my old one was completely empty and I had a room overlooking the main ski start/finish area. It was a night of full moon, so here’s my last shot. It was so bright, I could have gone out and skied!