Direttissima

Direttissima is the most famous freeride route in La Thuile, it's a very long slope with medium steepness that ends up in a beautiful wide tree run. This descent is suitable for intermediate skiers as it doesn't have obstacles on his main route. The drop-in is situated on the Chaz Dura Peak's top, 15 meters right the end of Chaz Dura chairlift. In case you find this lift closed you should take Chaz Dura express and walk right uphill for 50 meters till reaching the drop-in. The run begins beside a little house with antennas on its roof. From that point, you can have a look at the full descent which is a very wide slope flanked on the right by a rocks wall. If you find this slope with hard snow due to the wind effect try to descend on the left side taking care of avoiding a huge cliff that's situated on the lower left side of the run. Once you reach the end of the open space you have 2 options: the first one is to take your left into a beautiful tree glen ending your route at Fourclaz express lift starting. The second option, which is the most deserving one, is ski forward into the trees until you reach La Tour (4) piste. Cross it and take your right. From that point, you can see a stable, you should pass between its right and a 30 meters radius ground hole to reach the top of a little hill. Now ski into a glen with some trees until you reach a bigger valley. Consider that there's a narrow river in the center of this valley that should be crossed snow permitting. If you know that it might not be enough snow, avoid to descend in this valley and end up your run on La Tour piste. Once you have crossed the river (it also can be completely hidden with a lot of snow) traverse on the left side of the valley that ends up on San Bernardo (7) piste. This run can be really crowded during the day, so I suggest to ski it on early morning. It takes sun in the afternoon and the snow can be really nice also on warmer days. Try to avoid the descent after a W/SW windy day (unluckily a very common situation in La Thuile) because the snow could be really hard and many rocks could emerge.