General Outdoor Recreation

Ed Leigh, Blog 4

13 April, 2011

It’s been a slow week, an eight hour slog through Austria and Italy for a heli skiing trip that we knew would never happen and just to rub it in we left epic snow behind in Austria.
It was actually an interesting test of Graham and I’s morals, it turns out I don’t really have any when it comes to powder. Graham was most certainly the responsible one here, he argued that we had said we were going and hotels were booked. I argued that we were up to our guts in snow and it wouldn’t be unreasonable to presume that we had broken down, at least for a day.
As it was Gra and I found ourselves in the sleepy border resort of La Thuile a day early for a press trip. We opted for a quick gun round the mountain which confirmed our worst fears, that this end of the Alps really was having one it’s worst Januarys on record. What little base there was had been saved by the consistently low temperatures. But it was almost too icy to enjoy on a snowboard. Graham on the other hand had got the GS skis out and actually looked like he was having fun doing 80mph fly bys on people.
La Thuile is a funny little resort, no night life to speak of and in the glamour stakes it can’t compete with it’s well to do neighbours Courmayeur, Les Arc  and Chamonix. But I think that works in it’s favour, if you’re looking for a resort with good trees skiing, a large area and access to some incredible heli terrain then La Thuile would certainly be worth a sniff.
We waited for two days that we knew weren’t going to deliver, but we did get a guided tour of the resort on the last day. Although it was a white out with howling wind we did lap both La Thuile and it’s French sister resort La Rosiere. The track is here:
Admittedly it’s not that exciting but believe me the terrain is here for some serious riding and with the added bonus of heli time for the good days this is a low key resort to keep an eye on.
It’s schlep back across the Alps now to St Moritz, but with the prospect of the Freeride World Tour at the end of it, it’s a much more exciting one.