Ski Italy

La Thuile (1440 m ) together with French La Rosière (1850 m ) form Espace San Bernardo, whih means 150 km of excellent ski area in the valley between Mont Blanc and Testa del Rutor (3 486m).
The French-Italian road connection goes via ( Little St Bernard Pass) Passo del Piccolo (2188 m) closed November-June, covered by snow for largest part of the year.
The presence of the Alpine pass renders the long human presence in the area, called Aliolica during Roman times, changed in Medieval era to Thuilia and finally after French troops invasion get the present name La Thuile.
The remains of old military outposts, and forts from World War II are still visible in the area, skiers can see them following 11-kilometer long run number 7 that starts from top of Chaz Dura
ending in La Thuile.
The most experience one are going to choose black slop Le Defi (run 27),which pitches at 71 %, or try their skills at number 3 dedicated to Wprld Cup winner Franco Berthod ( up to 73 %).

La Thuile is the old coal mine district, where the coal first was excavated as early as in 9th century A.D.. but the mining dropped before WWII to stop in 1966.

The first chairlift has been constructed in 1946, and in 1968 “Piemonte Funivie” a society from Turin opened the first mechanical lift here.
At present two communication towers, the DMC cable car and the quad chairlift Bosco Express, transport the skiers at a rate of 5,400 persons an hour,
all thogether with the French side making total of:
38 lifts with capacity of 58.000 p/h
150 km of 74 pistes are labeled:
blue 32 km ( total 45 km )
red 29 km ( total 82 km )
black 13 km ( total 23 km )
Over 400 high pressure artificial snow-making machines and low pressure machines guarantee optimal snow conditions on 30 kilometers of slopes.
There’s also plenty of excellent off-piste terrain, and heli-ski, which is very popular here as it is forbidden in France.
Heli-skiers and boarders are taken up to the top of the Rutor glacier ( Testa del Rutor 3,486m) to finish in Moroir village on French side, or the Miravidi glacier (3,051m/10,009ft)
to end the run in Italy.

Cross-Country skiing:

There are four tracks between 3 and 10 km long are awaiting for Nordic ski lovers.

Snowboard:
one snowpark based in La Rosiere.

La Thuile is reachable within less than three hours from Turin or Milan airports as long as La Rosiere from Lyon or Geneve airports.

[photo by giustino ]

Tags: resorts, Valle d`Aosta