Season Diary - Day 10

Tuesday 27th January 2026 - Champoluc, Italy

Slotting back into the testing groove.

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We awoke this morning with just the finest layer of cloud covering the Val d'Ayas, this particular corner of Northern Italy that is our home for this week.

Driving through Champoluc you are astounded more people don't know this place exists. It is a beautiful, picturesque alpine village with quaint streets hiding cafes and hotel restaurants offering superb alpine and local Aostan cuisine at half the price of anywhere else in the Alps (isn't Italy wonderful?!)

The skiing in this region starts at 1,500m and rises just under 2,000m to top out at 3,275m. Generally it is very snowsure and offers skiing from early December to mid-April, far better than many French resorts these days.

The bulk of the skiing this week would be done in and around the Frachey funicular, placed just a bit further up the valley from the heart of Champoluc village. This is the curse of the ski test - come explore these exciting new destinations, but you'll only get to lap the one run time after time. You think I'm kidding? Check out my Strava ...

But what a piste it is. Sure, there isn't the mega freeride terrain offered by La Clusaz, site of the test for the last few years, but that's the trade off for not having to put up with a half-hour gondola ride each lap.

Run C11 has quickly become our home, a long, fast, steep red that offers a little bit of everything for testing gear. It starts nice and wide and straight, perfect for testing medium length and medium speed turns, before opening up where the trail splits to really allow your skis to rock over onto their edges and put them through their carving paces. Then it tightens up again, with opportunities for more high speed turns both long and short the whole way down.

The team here at Champoluc have done an awesome job with the snow canons to make sure that, even if the promised snow hadn't arrived, there would have been plenty of snow to ski on, and the cafe next to the test centre is doing a roaring trade in cheap (but good) beer and cheaper (but even better) pizza.

Today was all about getting back into the testing groove. After yesterday's affair with endless powder and some of the best snow I've encountered in Europe, it was firmly back on Terra firma and the reason we are all here - to test skis.

I love ski test week. Yes I get to test all of next year's gear, but it is about the community that is the UK ski industry. My role means I don't get to hang out with these guys (and it is mostly guys) as much as I would like, but every January I have SLIDE and Ski Test week to catch up, share a beer and, on occasion, share a ski. So getting back into the ski testing groove is as much about keeping those relationships going as it is about actually testing gear.