EN
EN
This is the full Via Lattea — the Milky Way — sheet, not just Sestriere. It runs west from Sestriere through Monte Fraiteve to Sauze d'Oulx and Sansicario, drops to Cesana, and carries on over the border through Claviere to Montgenèvre in France.
The catch is in the pass rather than the map. Montgenèvre is only included if your Via Lattea pass runs to six days or more — shorter passes cover the Italian side only. If you have a three or four-day pass, the western end of this sheet is not yours, however clearly it is drawn.
Sestriere ski resort guide · Milky Way ski area
The Via Lattea reads as a chain rather than a wheel. There is no central mountain that everything hangs off — instead the resorts sit in a line along the valleys, joined end to end, and getting from one tip to the other and back is most of a day's skiing in itself.
Sestriere sits at the eastern end and the highest point of it, which is the advantage worth paying for: the village is at 2,035 m and the snow holds here when the lower links are patchy. Two mountains rise straight out of the village, and a third, Monte Fraiteve, is the hinge that swings you west into everything else.
7 green80 blue120 red42 black249 pistes, 70 lifts, 1,372 m to 2,749 m
The friendlier of Sestriere's two home mountains and the one to start on. Wide, well-angled blues and easy reds with the village in sight the whole way down, which matters in a resort where it is otherwise easy to end the day a long way from your bed.
The high point of the whole Via Lattea and the serious ground on the sheet. This is where the Kandahar race pistes fall — Banchetta Giovanni Nasi and Giovanni Alberto Agnelli — along with La Mitica, and they are genuinely steep, often firm, and not flattering.
It also holds its snow longer than anything else on the map, so late in the season this is the sector that still skis properly.
Not really a destination, more the junction the whole map depends on. From the top the Olimpica run drops the long way down to Sansicario, and the links across to Sauze d'Oulx open up from the same ridge. Check the lift status here before committing to a day in the west — if Fraiteve is shut, the chain is broken and the bus is the only way back.
The far western end of the sheet, past Cesana, where Claviere runs into Montgenèvre and the map crosses into France. Lower and more wooded than Sestriere, which cuts both ways: better in bad visibility, worse in a thin season — and only on your pass at six days or more.
The map is red-heavy and only seven runs on it are green, so this is not an obvious beginner sheet. What saves it is Monte Sises and the village-level ground, which are gentle enough and high enough to be reliable. Best resorts for a first ski holiday is the honest place to start if that is the trip.
The level this map is built for — 120 reds and a chain to ski them along. Do Sises and Fraiteve on day one, then give a full day to the Olimpica descent and the Sauze d'Oulx side, which has the best tree skiing on the sheet. Bardonecchia or Sestriere covers the other local option.
Concentrated on Monte Motta. The two Kandahar pistes and La Mitica are World Cup ground and ski like it; the black lines elsewhere on the sheet are gentler than these by some margin. Worth knowing that the off-piste here is limited compared with the piste count — this is a groomed-run map.
The other big base on this sheet, west over Monte Fraiteve. Lower at 1,509 m and far more wooded, with the best bad-weather skiing on the map and a livelier evening than Sestriere.
The quiet middle of the chain, at the foot of the Olimpica. Small, purpose-built and central to the sheet rather than at an end of it, which makes it the easiest base for skiing the whole Via Lattea.
The last Italian village before the border, tiny and right on the link into Montgenèvre. On every Via Lattea pass, unlike the French side.
The French end of the map, and the part your pass may not cover — six days or more only. It is the snow-surest village on the sheet and worth planning a day around if you qualify.
Package holidays to Sestriere with flights, transfers, accommodation and lift pass, all booked together.
See Sestriere ski holidays
