Bardonecchia 2025 - Enough mountains for one trip? No chance!

Following my week in Claviere, I jumped in a taxi for the half hour journey to Bradonecchia. After dropping my bags at the hotel I went for a walk to scout the place out a bit. The slopes all spread out from Campo Smith and are only a 5 minute walk from the Villaggio Olimpico hotel I was staying in. Campo Smith is home to ski hire, several cafes and bars as well as ski lockers which we had access to. We left our ski equipment there overnight and our shoes there while we were skiing - ideal!

Five minutes in the other direction was the town centre with lots of bars, restaurants and shops. I didn't see much of this because I had full board accommodation included in the package from the company I was working for, and after a full day skiing and dinner I was quite happy staying in the hotel!

After a couple of days skiing I found the slopes around Campo Smith to be, by far, the busiest - get away from there and you have loads of space and, more importantly, no lift queues. As with my last skiing blog, I'm not going to waffle on about a week in the same, small, town. I'll just leave you with the pictures I took over the week, click through them to read the captions for a bit more info about the area.

Coffee stop at Campo Smith

Have you seen a better lunch stop?

One of the best cloud inversions I have seen

Campo Smith again

The one blue run was packed when lessons were finishing!

One of the best cloud inversions I have seen

The Bardo sign with another cloud inversion

The customary selfie with the Bardo sign

Bardonecchia isn't the biggest ski area I have ever been in, but there was enough for a week's fun with lots of wide open red runs, my favourite type! There is also a free shuttle bus that will take you the 10 minutes to Monte Jafferau, this was totally different - wide open, empty slopes with perfect snow (it was getting a bit slushy back in Bardo). I had an afternoon on Jafferau at the end of the week and wished I'd gone over there sooner. If I return to Bardo I will explore more of Jafferau for sure.

As an aside, there is a road over Monte Jafferau that is on my wish list for the bike, I have seen pictures of bikes next to a monument at the top, and I noticed this very monument when getting off a lift - that will be a nice point of reference when I'm down this way on the bike in the summer!

Monte Jafferau ski area

Monte Jafferau ski area offered unparalleled views of the surrounding mountains

Monte Jafferau ski area

The slopes were empty in Monte Jafferau

After 15 days in the mountains it was finally time to head home - I caught the train from Bardonecchia to Turin where I stayed one night in a hotel and was able to go out for a final 'proper' Italian pizza. Sunday morning I was back on the shuttle bus to the airport. My flight was over 2hrs late taking off, largely because of the complete lack of organisation by Turin airport staff causing huge queues. I guess it wouldn't have been two weeks in Italy if it hadn't finished with some true Italian efficiency!

I finally got back to Gatwick on Sunday afternoon where I was picked up by my ever patient and understanding other half. I'd enjoyed being away but was glad to be home and ready for the rest! Five weeks until the next ski trip!

A view to the train station from my hotel in Turin

The view from my hotel window in Turin

Last night pizza and beer in Turin

Huge queues in Turin Airport

Finally heading home

Thanks for reading, I have a couple of outings on the bike planned before my next ski trip so I'll be back to writing about two wheels next week - if you would like read about my exploits please subscribe to my blog for future posts any updates.