294: Sauze d’Oulx & Via Lattea, Pra Loup and Aussie Olympic hopes

We find out about Sauze d’Oulx and the Via Lattea ski area in Italy, as well as the resort of Pra Loup in the southern French Alps.

We also get excited about the Olympics, hearing Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards’ thoughts on Lindsey Vonn – and go ‘Down Under’ to look at Australia chances of bringing home a record medal haul. Plus we have your feedback and our regular snow reports from around the mountains.

Iain was joined in the studio by James and Sinead from SauzeOnline and by Mike ‘The Snow’ Richards.
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Tirol in Austria sponsors The Ski Podcast, which means this winter we’re are finding out more about some of the great destinations in Tirol, and how you can connect with the Austrian way of life: ‘Lebensgefühl’ – that you’ll find there.
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SHOW NOTES

Mike was in Crans Montana for the World Cup racing (3:45)
Lindsey Vonn crashed in the Downhill and ruptured her ACL (5:00)
Claire Harrison reports from the Aosta Valley (6:30)
Alex Armand from Tip Top Ski Coaching is in Les 2 Alpes (7:45)
Jim Duncombe is in La Clusaz (8:30)
Betony Garner reported from Livigno, where she is working for Team GB (10:20)
The first of our Special Olympics episodes was released on Wednesday (11:00)
Former Team GB Skier X athlete Emily Sarsfield will be joining Iain for those episodes (11:30)
Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards on Lindsey Vonn (13:00)
Rachael Oakes-Ash is THE expert on skiing in Australia and New Zealand and is Livigno reporting for snowsbest.com (14:45)
Australian team chances (15:00)
Watch ‘Pipe Dream’ – Scotty James’ story (17:30)
Indra Brown (19:15)
James and Sinead run SauzeOnline (24:00)
Visit the official ‘Via Lattea’ website (25:30)
The ski area has 400km of pistes (26:30)
Sauze d’Oulx used to have a reputation as a party destination (29:00)
A UK company now owns lift systems in the Vialattea and Bardonecchia (27:15)
Who is the area suitable for? (30:30)
Gastronomy in Via Lattea…and low prices! (32:00)
Mike visited Pra Loup in December 2025 (34:00)
The Pra Loup ski area has 180km of pistes (37:30)
Ski touring tracks in Pra Loup (38:00)
The Mercantour National Park (41:30)
Pra Loup is a ‘dark sky reserve’ (42:00)
Wolves are in the logo and in the park (43:00)
Find out about the proposed new slope in Merthyr Tydfil (44:00)

Feedback
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