After months of planning and wondering if this trip was really going to happen due to Mother Nature not being  generous with snow, I finally landed in Turin, Italy.

It wasn't until I touched down that I remembered I had been at this exact spot five years ago for the little contest called the Olympics. Miikka Hast picked me up and took me to his secret Italian Paradise that I’d been hearing about for a year. He made me promise to not tell the name of this spot since the Italians that told him  about it made him swear the same.

We got to the only hotel/pizzaria/discotec on time for dinner where we met Jonas Hagstrom from Sweden and a few other friends for the best pizza and wine. Yes Italy!

We were quick to bed and early to rise to the warm sun that felt more like a Spring day. We set off hiking to get some good powder runs from the last dump of snow that was already over 10 days ago. Wow! This would never happen in Whistler.

I met a few Italian pros that were at the hotel that I knew from the contest scene. Small world. They seemed happy to see me at first, but soon changed as they wondered how I found out about the spot. I blamed Miikka and also promise to keep it to myself.

After two days of hiking powder lines with Miikka and Jonas in the sun, weather came in again. Instead of waiting it out, we took a trip to Cote d'Azure on the French Coast only two hours away. On the way we stopped for lunch in Monaco. Trying to find a place that we could actually afford was a challenge as it seems that money is of no importance here. As we were walked along a strip of super yachts we even saw a famous Finnish F1 driver jogging along.

In Nice we went for coffee and checked out the Carnaval Parade, then we set -up shop for the night in Antibes where we strolled the old streets. We woke up in the morning to have breakfast in the famous Red Carpet Cannes.

We drove almost the entire way back to the mountains in a snow storm. We were barely able to get back to our hotel and I hoped my Canadian guys would find the place before we got snowed in.

I was so happy to hear Eric’s voice later that night when he strolled in with Shayne and photograhper Geoff Andruik.

We woke up to at least a meter of fresh snow the next morning and it was still dumping. We rode all day in the deepest powder I’ve ever had in my life, run after run. – Dom Vallee

How do you write a story about a place you're not supposed to talk about? We're not quite sure, but stay tuned for a feature from the trip in Volume 20 of Snowboard Canada coming next winter.