A Long Weekend in Pila

07/09/2026

After being battered by the bike trails in Cervinia we were off to Pila where we hoped that the trails would be kinder. The blue trails on the map made us hopeful we would have something more in our comfort zone and everyone who has reviewed the bike park has raved about it.

Getting to Pila

We had to retrace our steps for a while and on the way back towards the city of Aosta we dropped into a garage we’d noticed sold AdBlue on the pump and topped up as well as brimming the tank with some reasonably priced (compared to France) diesel. The road up to Pila is a bit of a trek but was very quiet and we arrived in the sosta to find just one British motorhome parked up. Behind them was a new feature of the sosta, a EHU post with eight sockets supplying 6 Amps of electricity each. This was an unexpected treat, especially as the sosta is completely free. It will make winter visits much easier too. In addition to the EHU we found out that there are free showers in the gondola base station, we didn’t use them, we were too lazy to walk up so relied on our own shower but a German neighbour cycled up on his Ebike every evening.

This sosta is in mixed parking without marked parking bays. The only area with specific restrictions is the very basic (and unpleasant) toilet dump area where there is a no parking sign. I didn’t think anyone would be tempted to park there anyway but as the weekend progressed and free parking became hard to find a couple of cars managed to squeeze into that spot.

When we turned up, the other motorhome was parked parallel to the edge of the parking area, taking quite a lot of the available room. We could see why they had done that, the parking is a bit sloping and their orientation made them as flat as possible without needing to use chocks. They also had their awning out, creating a nice area of shade in front of their van but again taking up about three vans worth of space. They weren’t causing us any problem, and with no marked spaces it’s not like they were breaking any rules, but on the Friday afternoon as more people started to arrive they did move to the other side of the car park to free up the EHU points and be less conspicuously space hogging.

We went to take a look around on that first afternoon, picking up the bike map and finding out the ticket options. The multi day tickets looked like a good deal, especially as we could use the days non consecutively. We bought a two day ticket, planning to bike on Friday and Monday, leaving the weekend to the youth contingent who arrived in their droves (relatively speaking – i don’t think I ever saw a lift queue except when there was a group of friends waiting together). The weather was so warm that we immediately gravitated to the ice cream freezer in the small shop. We picked up some bread and fruit too. As we remembered, the ciabatte rolls were lovely and featured daily in our lunch plans. My Italian is still not at conversational level but I am now very happy to order various items over the counter. I even managed a little joke about the pronunciation of Pesca (peach) versus Pesce (fish).

Pila Bike Park

Disappointingly, only one of the blue trails in the bike park was a real downhill trail. The other blue trails were on the tracks around the resort. There was also a large building site in the middle of the resort which we tried to avoid as it generated a lot of dust. Pila has become a far more popular ski destination as it is snow sure and good value, as a result there is quite a bit of investment in the infrastructure.

The blue trail was very nice though, flowy and just steep enough to maintain speed (not that I ever go that fast). I probably could have ridden this all day, but Paul was champing at the bit to try out some other options. On our first afternoon we explored red 15 and 16 from the top at Stella di Pila. These started with a steep entry that straight away pushed me out of my comfort zone. They were more technical enduro routes and had some lovely sections in between some more tricky technical stuff that I needed to push the bike over. Somehow on our return to the van we ended up on the XC track which was steep and difficult. The up hill sections came as a bit of shock so we escaped as soon as we could!

After taking some advice from a German couple in the sosta we started our second day of biking (after a warm up on the blue trail) on Red number 2 from the chairlift. Apparently this used to be a blue run but has been modified to make it steeper. This was a great progression trail, more difficult than the blue but not so hard that I felt a need to chicken out. I tried trail 1 after that but it was a little too difficult for me and I escaped back to the relative safety of trail 2 and left Paul to the harder stuff. On their recommendation we then popped back up to Stella di Pila to try red 11 which was a trail of sweeping berms and table tops (a feature which some people might use to jump but I just rolled over).

After all that Paul gave the bikes a good wash in the free bike wash area at the end of the car park (which people were also using for fresh water in their vans). Even though it’s been very dry, the dust had got everywhere.

It wasn’t all about the bikes

Over the weekend we had one rest day which we spent soaking up the sunshine and then I dragged Paul out on a hike. And it did feel like I was dragging him around what I thought was a lovely varied route from the top of the Chamolé chairlift. His knees and hips were aching from the biking, probably more from Cervinia than from Pila.

The walk started with a steep uphill above the chairlift to the rocky summit of Testa Nera (2819m). From here we knew there was a path down but looking over the edge it seemed almost impossible and it was only when we spotted people walking up that we understood where the path went. The rocky steps down the other side of the mountain were briefly interrupted by a small pasture with a green lake and the inviting Rifugio Arbolle, before continuing a precipitous descent alongside a waterfall down into a very pleasant valley.

In the valley the path was smoother and Paul’s mood eased. We followed a pretty stream where people were paddling and were offered coffee by a large family who were enjoying their dinner outside one of the farm buildings. In the woods we heard the sound of bells and spotted a herd of Ibex (or very ibex adjacent goats) browsing between the trees.

The final part of the walk involved some uphill again, but this time on a gradual path that took us back over the ridge towards the chairlift. I’d been keen to walk along the ridge from here but Paul vetoed that idea and so we descended through the pine scented forest, ending up below the top of the chairlift and having to puff our way up the top of the ski slope to finally catch it back down again.

Pila has always been one of our favourite winter destinations and this long weekend cemented it as an excellent summer option too.