 Poster: A snowHead
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Thought I'd post my my experience with Skiers Lodge and la Grave
I went with a friend to Skiers Lodge http://www.skierslodge.com/. For three days of guided skiing 13 to 15th March. . Had a great, but exhausting and eye opening time.
I’m 50 years old, a little overweight and not very fit.. On the plus side I’ve done a bit of Alpine climbing in the distant past so I’m not totally clueless in high mountain environments. Steepness in itself doesn’t bother me unless I feel that a fall would send me a long way over rocks.
I’ve skied for 20 years (about 30 weeks total) and reckon I’m an ‘early advanced’ skier. In fact the Inside Out level 8 description could have been written about me:-
‘8 Early Advanced - I can comfortably ski all the pisted runs on the mountain under control and can pick my line down any piste. I seek out steeps, moguls and chopped up snow as a fun challenge. I am beginning to get to grips with skiing fresh snow just off-piste.
You can carve clean tracks on blue runs when the conditions are good with only a little skidding. You are keen to get better on icy pistes and in variable conditions. Your progress may be hampered by a lack of technique or fitness. You may be reliant on pushing your heels or picking up the inside ski to initiate your turns or have bad habits you struggle to break. You probably pick your way down moguls a few turns at a time and traverse really difficult areas. When you think you are carving you may not be actively piloting the skis. You may be thinking of taking an Level 1 Instructor course’.
So the skiing went like this:-
Day 1. The La Grave lift was shut because of high winds. The Col du Lauterat was also shut, so we all went to Les Deux Alps in minibuses. Spent the day skiing off piste lines in bad viz, variable snow, including a few inches of fresh powder. Hard work except for about an hour when the viz. improved. This coincided with a couple or runs down an untracked powder slope at about black run steepness. Here I actually started flowing down the mountain with confident linked turns. Also spent an hour practising using the transceivers (which were provided by the guide, along with sac, shovel, probe and harness). Knackered by the end of the day.
Day 2. The La Grave lift was open. Blue skies, 30 cm fresh snow everywhere. Had some wonderful runs down the Vallon de La Meije to P1 and on the glacier down to P2 (via Col du Lac). Endless untracked powder, mostly not steep.
Day 3. A couple of variations on the Chancel route and on the Glacier down to Col du Lac, and finally back down the Vallon route to P1. Bad viz. all day and light snowfall. Very few skiers around. Snow conditions were much more variable than on day 2 and I struggled all day. Did some steeper stuff than on day 2. Absolutely exhausted by the end, could not have skied another day.
So here’s my opinion. I was just good enough to get something rewarding out of being in La Grave. I could do the ‘perfect powder in good visibility’ thing but I was survival skiing when conditions became variable and the light went. I would consider that either a full mountain guide or at the very least an experienced skier with a good knowledge of the mountain is absolutely essential. There are a few markers down the Chancel route from the top of the gondola to the refuge but they are small, a long way apart and easy to miss. Every route has numerous variations and it would be really easy to miss the ‘main’ way on and end up in trouble. The traverses to P1 are narrow, bumpy, rocky and broken up by tree roots. (Actually I quite enjoyed them).
There is now only 1 drag lift above the gondola, this is reached by a short walk, followed by a tow, hanging onto a knotted rope, behind a piste basher. There is one blue run down the side of the drag lift.
The whole experience is very different from the normal ‘just off piste’ skiing I’ve done in the past. There is never an easy option, the place is very committing. As well as transceivers and avi kit we skied in harnesses on days 2 and 3 because some of the time was spent off piste on a glacier.
I was probably the weakest skier staying at Skiers Lodge. Most of the others seemed to have been skiing since birth, or have done several seasons in ski resorts. The clientele were mostly Brits, Swedes and Americans, with equal numbers of each.
We will return, next year all being well. I need to get fitter, lighter and develop more technique over the next 12 months.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Spud9, thanks for posting that. It's tempting me to have a trip there now.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Spud9, wow, impressive achievement. Although I too am probably an Inside Out Level 8, I wouldn't have dared to do that trip.
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