Our friends at Whitedot Skis - Jess Whiskin and Mark Perkins emailed this short report over from their early season "warm up" trip to Cervina, Itailan Alps.
"It’s still pretty early in the season to expect to access any decent snow for skiing in Europe but after a damp summer and a balmy autumn in the Chamonix valley, we were all too ready to shake out the legs and take our new skis for a spin. A weekend jaunt to Cervinia in the Italian Alps was an unexpected revelation and all the more of a bonus to get on skis this early in November.
We drove from Chamonix on the French side of the Month Blanc tunnel, where the mountains are still looking distinctly autumnal and snow free for this time of year. Bowling down the motorway through the Aosta valley on empty roads in bright sunshine, it felt like Spring but winding up the hairpins on the approach to Cervinia, it was immediately clear we were in for a spectacular day.
Following heavy storms in the Gulf of Turin which lasted pretty much all of last week, the high slopes in Cerviniaopened this weekendto a bucket load of fresh snow and bright blue skies. There were even a few powder turns to be had off the sides of the pistes on Saturday. Temperatures were balmy with hardly any windchill and not a cloud in the sky allowing great views over the Gran Paradiso mountain range, emerging out of the cloud forest.
Cervinia opens earlier than most other resorts simply because of its altitude at 2030m, with the highest area of the resort on glacial terrain and backing on to Zermatt (also now partially open.) There were lots of race teams in town, gearing up for winter by carving impossibly sharp lines on the piste in top to toe lycra.
The great thing about skiing in Italy too is that the Italians tend to settle down to a long lunch in the afternoon, basking in the sunshine for the rest of the afternoon on deck chairs, leaving us to zoom around on practically empty pistes. So that’s the legs warmed up for the season 2011/12 and now thoroughly in the mood for a long, cold winter. "
Jess and Mark
