Sauze d’Oulx 2023

Reporter: Tom Russell

Although this was one of the very early start holidays, I was looking forward to it because I know Sauze well and like it, and I'd not been there for a few years. The thought of entering the potential chaos of Manchester Airport wasn't appealing, but they seem to have got it sorted out now because getting airside was relatively quick and easy. When we entered Terminal 2 hall there weren't the enormous queues I was dreading, relatively few people were in the labyrinth, and, apart from a snafu with ticket allocation (where I was initially ticketed as Jane Russell wife of Andrew Russell) it was a (relative) breeze. Lets hope that continues for the Alpe d'Huez trip too (apart from the snafu!).

The aircraft we flew on, however, left much to be desired; even the crew didn't like it according to one of the cabin crew I talked to. It was a Boeing 767 wide body plane with a cramped 2-4-2 seating arrangement, narrow aisles and no leg room, for me at least. Try as I might (and I did) I couldn't get both my legs in the space available, probably because I have very long legs. Fortunately I had a seat where I could dangle one leg in the aisle, but there, of course, it was vulnerable to being attacked by the refreshment trolleys being driven at breakneck speed by the cabin staff. Well, ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit there, but you know what I mean.

Other than that it was an uneventful flight, and even Turin immigration wasn't too bad, I've been in much tighter packs there in the past. Queuing for luggage and skis was the usual slightly nerve wracking experience, but after successful retrieval the Crystal staff were there to direct us to the transfer buses for the short journey to Sauze.

As usual for Sauze, the transfer buses were not allowed to drive to the hotel, so luggage either had to be walked there or left by the roadside for a van to pick up. The route is up a steep cobbled street, but I've done this before so I knew what was coming and chose to walk it there, along with most other people. Hotel Sauze's location is the closest I've ever had to the Clotes lift, the main one to the slopes, so that was a bonus. The building itself looked reasonably smart and the staff were helpful, the boot room was easily accessible from the reception area and had a couple of walls full of relatively new looking heater pegs, but the ski room was only accessible from outside the hotel and there was some concern about ice on the access path, it looked as though it would be easy to slip, but I didn't hear of anybody actually doing so. The heater pegs were really warm during the evening, but in the morning they were cold, which made boots harder to put on. Several people, me included, took to retrieving their boots in the late evening when they'd dried out a bit, and keeping them in their room so they'd be warmer in the morning.

Breakfast in the hotel was self service with a reasonable range of sweet and savoury menu items, but the muesli was rather biased towards chocolate chips. Dinner was adequate but drawn out, mainly because there were only two waiters to serve 60+ diners. A beer in the bar afterwards, and the associated craic were popular, and with good reason.

Our room was not capacious but was ok for sleeping in with beds long enough that my feet didn't dangle over the end too much and a good, warm duvet, which is all I require for a ski hotel room. It also had a magnificent view up the valley over the old Sauze village rooftops. After the week's stay there I would go back to that hotel. It has its shortcomings but was overall ok.

I was a little nervous about skiing on the first day (I always am) but the snow was good and I know the pistes well, so I really enjoyed it. We skied all the open pistes and rode all the open lifts in the Sauze valley but we couldn't get out of the valley because the access pistes and lifts were closed, plus some of the pistes I remembered were also closed, but it didn't matter, we had enough to ski all day. Monday night it started to snow and it continued into Tuesday, giving the off piste and tree skiing lovers a field day. The pistes were also lovely, and as the week progressed more and more pistes were groomed and opened, although my favourite one, on the far right of the valley, remained closed. It very often is, something to do with ice and/or lack of snow cover at the bottom on the approach to the Jouvencaux lift. We also skied in Sansicario, Montgenevre and Sestriere during the week, so, lots to go at.

The return journey started early morning, with a "breakfast" bag per room which was a bit of a joke, I don't know how many people got

much out of it. There was also confusion about what to do with luggage, which had to be transported to the coach either by the owner or left outside the hotel at 4 AM (!), which left a few people having the walk back to the hotel from the bus stop to fetch their cases/skis. Turin airport security clearance was a bit of a queue (so what's new?) but reasonably quick. The same aircraft took us back to Manchester with the same lack of legroom and a delayed start, but we got there in the end.

Verdict? A really good holiday.