Hils Everitt checks out Club Med Pragelato-Sestriere in Italy’s Via Lattea ski area and gets the chance to spend some time with former Olympic Team GB slopestyle snowboarder Jamie Nicholls.
We stood downslope at the Sestriere Snow Park, mobile cameras at the ready, eagerly waiting for former Olympic Team GB slopestyle snowboarder Jamie Nicholls to set off.
He checked his bindings, jumped to his feet and he was off. Hurtling towards the jump he gained speed, hit the ramp then launched himself into the air and executed a perfect tuck, grabbing his board before landing smoothly.
Of course, this was extremely tame for the double World Cup winner and two-time British Olympian who competed in the 2014 Sochi and 2018 PyeongChang Games. Used to far more dramatic and skilful tricks in his competition days, Jamie now enjoys riding the slopes and parks creating online content and having fun with his snowboarding wife Jenny and two young daughters – both showing much prowess on skis and ‘boards. It was brilliant to watch him flying around and performing little tricks.
We were spending a few days in Italy’s Milky Way (Via Lattea) ski area with him, courtesy of Club Med Pragelato-Sestriere. The trip was to experience the all-inclusive company’s latest renovation in the European Alps. This Club Med resort is unique in that guests stay in the rooms within chalet-style buildings that make up an attractive alpine village, with the main reception, bar areas and restaurants in separate buildings. There’s also an igloo which doubles up as reception area by day and then by night a club. I rather like this set-up and prefer it to the normal Alpine complex.
My last experience of Club Med was a few seasons ago at the launch of the massive Tignes Val Claret. Impressive it most definitely was, but the charm of this former Olympic village certainly made it my favourite of the two. You may well not have heard of Pragelato. The village was originally built for the athletes competing in the 2006 Turin Olympics and sits a few 100 metres lower than Sestriere – home of the original Club Med in this area of the Alps.
Club Med has beautifully renovated this picturesque village – the works beginning in 2021. Our rooms in the chalet buildings were charming with lovely colourful artwork. The bar area had traditional Alpine stone pillars with Larch wood everywhere; solar panels have been installed, there’s extensive re-vegetation and reduced C02 levels.
Like all Club Med facilities there is a dedicated children’s room with lots of activities. A new teenager programme has been added with separate dining area, games room and activities for those often-hard-to-please 11- to 17-year-olds. If you have kids, Club Med is the perfect option for a hassle-free holiday. Jamie had brought his wife and daughters along to sample the family-oriented resort and was thoroughly impressed by the facilities and classes on offer.
So, to those all-important slopes. The village has its own gondola – originally transporting the Turin Olympic competitors to their events, it now swiftly wafts Club Med folk up into the vast Milky Way that offers something for everyone. We had an extremely fun few days with Jamie and a local ski instructor/guide Diego Bonetto from Scuola Sci Sestriere.
Diego gets a rave five-star review on Tripadvisor and I can totally endorse the sentiments. He is professional, fun and highly encouraging; plus his wealth of knowledge of this area is extraordinary. It is not just about the slopes and extensive off-piste areas, but its history, too. On day two in poor visability and driving snow we came across the beautiful ruins of Forte Seguin, an abandoned World War II fort on the run down to Sansicario. Diego knew all about it and you can tell his enthusiasm for the subject.
Our knowledgeable guide was himself a promising local downhill racer/slalom skier in his teenage years with great potential to make a big name for himself. Unfortunately for Italian skiing he was also heavily into motorbikes, and motorcross in particular, where he was involved in a few accidents and suffered some injuries. This meant he had to give up his alpine racing career at the tender age of 14. But Italian racing stardom’s loss has been our gain; he has been an instructor since age 19 and absolutely loves it.
Sestriere does in fact boast a young, local downhiller and slalom skier who finished an impressive 8th in the 2024 FIS Downhill event at Val Gardena Italy. Gregorio Bernardi, 22, has the potential to achieve great things, making the locals extremely proud.
They aren’t the only ones; we were exceptionally proud and honoured to be skiing and ‘boarding with Jamie and Diego for a few days. The Milky Way is a superb area and Diego guided us through some gorgeous powder snow on, and occasionally off, the piste, pointing out amazing routes, landmarks, historic facts, fun facts, cracking jokes and regaling us with his encyclopedic knowledge of the area and people.
We flew down some great fun reds, with many ideal for perfecting those wide carving turns. The long red back home to Pragelato is especially brilliant as are the Olympic slopes at Rognosa. We glided down the entertaining, and very friendly, black No 21; marvelled at the views and carefully negotiated some poor visability at times as the weather played around with our senses.
We saw the original Club Med towers in Sestriere, built in the 1930s – now Hotel Torre/Rossa – sitting behind the Olympic village.
Fun fact from Diego: US skiing legend Bode Miller didn’t stay in the village, but he used his camper van in the car park and was a regular visitor to the night club, even before his races. It wasn’t his most successful Olympics, failing to place at any event.
If you book Diego for some off-piste fun, he may well take you to the area which leads down to a former castle, now the hotel Principi di Piemonte in the Sestriere area. What we do know is that he will guide guests through some incredible back country and thoroughly entertain them.
Entertainment is very much on Club Med’s radar with a full programme of après ski and kids’ events. And here in the Milky Way there are also some in the mountains. The all-inclusive deal in all its other ski resorts entices guests to come back for lunch every day. Here in the Via Lattea we stopped for lunch twice at Chalet Mollino situated above Sauze d’Oulx. This is now one of four Club Med slope-side restaurants specialising in locally-sourced dishes. I can particularly recommend the lasagne, and the boys were very taken with the gnocchi.
You can expect the usual Club Med atmosphere here. It may have been blowing a minor blizzard, but hosts were still dancing on the balcony tables in their sparkly jackets to the DJ vibes and smooth notes of the saxophonist.
More innovations in this area include a new Club Med resort at Sansicario; and there is also a link planned to the town of Bardonecchia – which hosted the 2006 Olympic snowboard events – to increase the already huge 400km Milky Way by another 100km.
There’s plenty happening in this brilliant ski circus.
Grazie mille Club Med. I will be back and booking Diego for an off-piste day or two. And I will be looking out for Jamie who is equally enamoured with its slopes and off-piste fun. It’s an ideal playground for him to turn as many tricks and surf through the trees on as many off-piste routes as he wants.
TRAVEL FACTS
Without flights, seven nights all-inclusive stay at Club Med Pragelato-Sestriere, Italian Alps starts from £1969 per person (based on double occupancy).
With flights, seven nights all-inclusive starts from £2106 per person (based on double occupancy) with return flights from London and transfers included.
Club Med Visit clubmed.co.uk/r/pragelato-sestriere or call 03453 676767.
Ski lessons or guidingVisit scuolascisestriere.com or email booking@scuolascisestriere.com (Club Med can book these for you.)
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Categories: Italy, Resort News & Reports
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