Off-piste in Gressoney

Hi Keiran. First stop might be Maggie Jo's account in the latest yearbook of my trip to Gressoney last year. But the best thing is to see if you can get hold of the local off-piste book 'Polvere Rosa', either 1st or 2nd edition. It has nearly all the do-able routes in it, covering Champoluc and Alagna too, but I don't think it's in print any more. You might be able to pick up a copy in resort, either at the bookshop in St. Jean, or one of the shops in Trinite. It's worth having so, if you can't find it and you're prepared to escrow your house as forfeit against loss or damage, I could probably lend you mine - the precious, the precious!

I found the Italian IGC 1:25k map generally good - no. 109 'con itinerare scialpinismo' covers the area. If I remember right, the latest version has a lot more ski routes marked than are on my one. You do have to be just a little careful with it - last year two of my party were coming down from Passo del Rothorn in the dusk, and nearly got caught by a severe drop-off that's simply not marked on the map. It's a very obvious crag from the valley road, but not on the map! The other thing is that conditions do change and when I was there one or two of the more 'interesting' routes had become pretty severe/impossible, for example the access to the Lys glacier.

I don't know about local guides, but Nigel Shepherd goes there, knows the area well, and is great company.

Hope that's helpful. Always happy to give more detail by email if you wish.

Andrew

Version 2 of Polvere Rosa was in the book shop in Gressoney in March 2011. Unlike version 1 it's too big to carry in a pocket. I bought version 1 from www.unilibro.it just before version 2 came out.

Steve