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Artesina Skiing

January 2024
A short but fine adventure by S Read more
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  • TravelerArtesina Skiing
    Day 1

    Traffic

    January 2 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    So, an early start - alarm at 4am, depart for the bus 45 minutes later, bus departs 5.15am to Heathrow for a flight to Nice. The journey this side all went swimmingly, including a cheeky morning pint at Heathrow Wetherspoons. A short hop later, we landed in Nice and grabbed the bus for the three-hour ride to Artesina...only three hours was nearly nine hours due to horrific and unavoidable traffic everywhere, finally arriving into the hotel well past 10pm. A shame, as the outset of the coach journey had seen us flying through the most beautiful French riveria valleys filled with orangey-yellow pastel houses and hills topped with beautiful churches. To be fair to the hotel, they kept a full meal waiting for us on arrival, and everyone was very patient with the avoidable circumstances.Read more

  • TravelerArtesina Skiing
    Day 2

    Skiing in Artesina

    January 3 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C

    After a fabulous breakfast, we got kitted for ski gear and met up with the instructors at 8.30am. Artesina is apparently experiencing unheard of weather conditions...so there's basically no snow! They had managed to get two blue slopes open with the judicious use of snow cannons, so after the nursery run, we hopped on the two-man chairlift and headed up to the start point for both. The instructor took us down the first blue slope, which was significantly steeper in some sections than might have been expected, and incredibly icy making staying upright a particular challenge (with both Ben and I taking a fall!). The views from the top were superb though.Read more

  • TravelerArtesina Skiing
    Day 2

    Artesina Afternoons

    January 3 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    After our instructors left us at 10am, we spent some time reminding ourselves how to ski on the nursery slopes before heading up to the other blue that we'd not done - purported easier than the tricky one we'd come down this morning. Can't say we found that we agreed! Similarly steep and icy, making traversing it at a leisurely and controlled pace a real challenge. So, once done, we headed up the chair lift again for a restorative pint at the top of the slopes. Coming back down afterwards, my legs were killing me and I decided to call it a day, only to find they hurt as I'd had a horrible reaction to the synthetic ski socks! So we changed, grabbed a beer and the cards, and played crib in the shadow of the mountains for the final couple of hours of sunlight.

    Tomorrow, all being well and presuming I can get into ski boots, we're off to a neighbouring resort. We were also supposed to be going on a cave trip there but it was cancelled due to lack of guides...apparently, it's been replaced with night skiing later in the week which will be a new experience. Fingers crossed for some snowfall!    Read more

  • TravelerArtesina Skiing
    Day 3

    Prato Nevoso Mornings

    January 4 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 7 °C

    A later start this morning with a 9.15 bus to Prato Nevoso - a resort we can see from the top of Artesina but is 30 minutes of hairpin bends from here. Suited and booted, we headed straight up the chairlift and down the blue run, which was delightful compared to icy Artesina. A few runs of this before we tackled the neighbouring red, which was much easier than anything we did yesterday! Alas, the volume of ski schools at both Artesina and Prato Nevoso means the chairlifts and the slopes are full.of small children and teenagers with seemingly little manners. A great time in the morning nonetheless.Read more

  • TravelerArtesina Skiing
    Day 3

    Prato Nevoso Afternoons

    January 4 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C

    Stopping for 'lunch' (beer) at the top of the two open runs at Prato Nevoso, we spent a delightful couple of hours under glorious sunshine. Although, the toilets being Eastern-style was a bit of a surprise (and logistical challenge in ski gear!). The afternoon saw us mainly run the red, including three runs of me losing a glove, searching for a glove, recovering a glove. We squeezed in one more blue before we walked to meet the bus and drove home with a beautiful sunset over the valley. I had earned myself some glorious blisters from my ski boots, but at least without an allergic reaction to the socks today.

    After dinner back in the hotel, one of the staff led the day's awards for those who'd done something daft, today's award going to the two chaps who decided to walk back to the resort and got lost. The hosts had also put in karaoke, which led to an interesting rendition of 500 miles and Sweet Caroline, both accompanied on the beer tray, which later resulted in a head injury!    Read more

  • TravelerArtesina Skiing
    Day 4

    Back to Artesina

    January 5 in Italy ⋅ ❄️ 0 °C

    The plan for today was to stay in the resort on our doorstep. We set the alarm early as the weather was supposed to come in today and it was snowing even when we got up. We managed to get almost the first chairlift up and had a good couple of runs on the blue before the weather set in, reducing visibility massively. Having done four runs down we stopped for a coffee, before deciding we'd take a longer break and go for a walk instead.Read more

  • TravelerArtesina Skiing
    Day 4

    Le Tana Del Lupo

    January 5 in Italy ⋅ ❄️ -1 °C

    In the heavy snow, we walked out to find a bar slightly down the road from the hotel. We'd planned to follow the road down but Ben found a beautiful footpath that traversed down the hillside in amongst the snow-covered trees. The bar had a fabulous selection of beers, so we sampled them all and enjoyed some free Italian tapas (aka fries) while the snow continued to pour. The trek back up, after a brief go on the swings outside the bar, was rather more arduous than the journey out, being in deeper snow and uphill!Read more

  • TravelerArtesina Skiing
    Day 4

    Night skiing at Prato Nevoso

    January 5 in Italy ⋅ ❄️ -1 °C

    After dinner, we got a coach back to Prato Nevoso. Doing hairpin bends down and back up the mountain in foot deep snow was rather alarming, but the driver was a pro. We donned ski boots and headed up the chairlift into the night and the gloom. The visibility cleared up quickly and the heavy snow stopped, which made for a beautiful night of skiing. We had a rather rocky start as the sticky snow have welded to the bottom of my ski in an ice block that meant I had no control at all. After clearing the skis, we were away, running the blue twice and the read three times on virtually empty slopes. The chair lifts were absolutely freezing, which did make the rides up rather uncomfortable!Read more

  • TravelerArtesina Skiing
    Day 5

    Last morning at Artesina

    January 6 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 0 °C

    A final day of skiing at Artesina today. There had been some debate over what resort we'd be in today, but the snowfall here and the faff of ferrying minibuses to a resort an hour away meant we stayed at Artesina. We managed to get almost the first chairlift up of the day and had the newly groomed slopes absolutely so ourselves for the first run of the day. We ran four runs, had a beer break, and ran four more before the weather closed in again so we went for lunch whilst it cleared.Read more

  • TravelerArtesina Skiing
    Day 5

    Trucca Turra

    January 6 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 1 °C

    The weather cleared through lunch, so after a some discussion we decided to hand in our ski gear and walk to the Trucca Turra chairlift. This took us higher up into the mountains with absolutely stunning views over the Alps; we think we could see as far as Turin in the distance. Some of the group had been up here before the snowfall and had a lovely walk. However, the snow was now a foot deep and soft, so walking any distance was a mission. Fabulously, and unplanned, we found there was an open bar up here - despite the piste being closed, plenty of cross country skiers were about. So we grabbed a couple of beers and enjoyed the stunning views, before grabbing the chairlift back down. A beer and a game of crib in La Tana before trekking back up to the hotel.

    Before dinner, we were treated to Ben and JP using the newly acquired tray to 'run' the nursery slopes, and it was many, many beers after dinner before we finally went to bed!    Read more

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