Skiing at Isola 2000

We’ve not had the opportunity to go skiing so far this year, due to various reasons. This Sunday, there was no excuse for me. No need for chains, a promising weather forecast, and nothing planned. Unfortunately Mathilde couldn’t make it, as she’s preparing her aggregation (she’s having her first exams next week), but the Vuolle family were planning to join me.

We decided upon Isola 2000, the oldest and most well known ski resort in the Alpes Maritimes department. For me it was actually the first day of skiing at Isola 2000 – on previous years we just never made it. Isola 2000 was founded in the late 60’s by a British alpinist. As a result, it’s not the prettiest of ski resorts – quite a lot of the buildings are of the typical 60’s-70’s concrete style – not very easy on the eyes. All in all, though, it wasn’t as bad as I expected.

The skiing itself was fantastic. Isola 2000 is the highest of the local ski resorts, with the highest point being at over 2600 meters (Cime de Sisteron), and the resort itself being at an altitude of 2000 meters. I spent the morning getting into the rhythm of skiing, trying a few blue slopes on both sides of the valley, where the resort was located (and a couple of red ones as well). I especially liked the run down from Col de Lombarde. It was an easy and relaxing blue, but it was well bathed in sunlight, and wasn’t busy at all (where almost everybody seemed to be skiing). What’s also cool about the Col de Lombarde is that it’s located right on the border to Italy – so I could enjoy a very picturesque view over the Italian alps from there.

After non-stop skiing until 1 o’clock, Hannu and his family finally arrived, and we could go have lunch :-) Some rose wine and a tartiflette later, I was ready to continue. While Hannu went hotel hunting (his family where without a place to stay for the night), I made the long trek up to Cime de Sisteron with Rita and the kids. It took us a good while to get up there, but boy was it worth it. The views towards the coast were absolutely stunning – especially bathed as the landscape was in the fading afternoon light…

The perfect way to end a good day of skiing, then. I even managed to leave before the big crowds left back for the coastline, but in spite of that it took me a good two hours to get back to Cagnes… But it was definitely worth the drive!