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Gressoney, Monterosa snowboarding off-piste

Sunday, 02. 15. 2009  –  Category: Snowboarding

A couple of weeks ago I had 2 days snowboarding in the Monterosa ski area, based in the central of the 3 valleys - Gressoney, with neighbouring Champuloc and Alagne either side.

Monterosa has a reputation as a “freeride heaven” attracting a serious croud of dedicated powder hounds. At the time we went, despite there having been no fresh snowfall in 10 days, Alagne had the biggest base of anywhere in Europe with over 5 metres.

4 of us on this trip, all good snowboarders of a similar standard and all keen to get away from the pistes. With only a weekend at our disposal and not being familiar with the area, we hired a guide for the first day. It’s the first guided day I’ve had and can say without question it was well worth the investment.

Up 2 lifts from Gressoney central station, a short 10 minute hike later we were strapping in for our first run of the day with our Guide, Rudi leading the way. Unfortunately, due to the lack of recent snow and some warmer weather, a layer of crust had formed on top of the snow. Very few spots of soft snow on this first run, but what the hell, we were snowboarding - and this place clearly had some great terrain.

Fortunately, things only got better from there - and we were treated to perfect blue sky without a cloud in the sky until late afternoon. I don’t know how he did it, but Rudi ensured that from then on we only rode soft snow. Sure, it wasn’t fresh, but not all of it tracked. And most importantly, he got a handle on the ability level in our group and kep on pushing us. By the end of the day, we had all dropped cliffs much bigger than we had before.

On the run down before lunch in Champuloc, Rudi had taken us of a completely untracked run with cliff drop after cliff drop and some deep deep powder.

An hour or so for lunch to recharge the batteries on some local wine and cuisine, and a short cat ride back up the mountain and we were off again. More of the same that afternoon. Hiking away from lifts, riding powder, looking for untracked stuff, avoiding the crust… and taking on cliff lines.

By 4pm, we were buzzing off a great days snowboarding… collectively one of the best we’d ever had… and retired to the bar for several hard earnt beers.

Gressoney is famed for its freeriding opportunities and NOT the nightlife. There seemed to be no more than one or two bars in Gressoney La Trinite where we were staying, but that was adequate for us. We knew snow was on the way that evening, and the next day would be a whiteout - so we enjoyed the beers and set the alarms late for the next morning.

It was a pretty casual day on the mountain. Visibility was indeed pretty bad, especially in the Alagne valley - which was a shame as we had the sense that there are some great runs there - if you can see where you’re going.

Ironically, the day was further tainted when I caught a massive edge in the whiteout and landed with my tranceiver slamming into my rib cage. Not 100% sure whether I broke anything but 2 weeks later its still hurting.

None the less, we did manage to get some good off piste in that day before heading for home.

One more trip report to write up - 10 days snowboarding in Montgenevre - to follow soon.

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