LIVE TR: Les Coches 19th to 26th December 2022 - with pics/vids

A snowHead

Weather forecast in terms of freezing level and temps looks pretty dire next few days. Bit of rain in Les Coches this morning and lots of cloud up top. Daughter has a fever and staying in bed.

A snowHead

Was slow out the blocks this morning as things didn't look too enticing. And actually, it was just me and the wife for the most part. It wasn't always pleasant (bit rainy/wet snow) or easy to ski (flat light, cludgy/stony in parts) but it was better than a day in the (home) office and we had a nice cruise across La Plagne. Even brightened up a bit here and there and skied until 4:30.

Forecast is for lots of precipitation Thursday into Friday but freeze level will be critical.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

A cloudy old Wednesday:

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One of the big advantages of skiing at night is you can't see either how bad the snow is, or how poor the weather is, take last night for example

I hate cold, grey overcast skiing but if I were out for a week I'd go anyway. Hope you were warm enough and you get your snow.
My son was out skiing yesterday afternoon and said he saw most stones higher up, and I heard the same from someone in les Arcs. I guess it is rockier higher up.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@davidof, one of the advantages of a week at a time punter skier is that you have to take what you get and find the amusement/joy in whatever nature throws at you. Even though it's been cloudy and grey, it's not been cold. Which is part of the problem.

Yeah, on some lower slopes you see bits of vegetation or plain mud rather than rocks and boulders. Came down Kamikaze this afternoon. Champagny bowl does suffer more than most when conditions aren't good and for sure Kamikase was in a pretty poor state. There are some pistes that are still holding up pretty well though.

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Either I am getting old, lacking fitness or the snow is making it tough on the legs.

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Combination?

After all it is free

@pam w, could well be.

Wife is off to bed!!

Conditions and the weather both look very grim. Crying or Very sad

I've had a some great trips to the old MountainSun place in Les Coches at this time of year but the key thing for pre-crimbo trips is to wait until the last minute before committing.

Somthimg to bear in mind perhaps for future years

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Le chalets de wengen in les coches are a great place to say with chalets and appartments , a car park , ski lockers a great pool and sauna /jacuzzi .
I would say that as i own one of them but I think they are in an ideal resort in an ideal location .
enjoy the snow

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

snow reports

Things looked fair to middling out the window first thing today and after a fairly early night we were a little more spritely and out by 10. Daughter was still fevered up so left in the hut and the three of us were go. Decided to head over to Les Arc. Skied Ecureulis on arrival and actually it was in decent nick. We then headed down Aigle and up Grizzy then down into 1800. Some nice piste conditions despite flatish light.

Eventually got over into the 2000 bowl and ate our lunch at the newish picnic hut just above the Marmotte/Ours lifts in 1950. Following we skied down and up Esprit (is this the longist chair lift in the Alps?) After getting Varet up saw that Aig Rouge was open to skiers - though with a warning of poor vis. Problem was not so much that but more the wind blowing up the slope and blowing sugary snow in your mush. Still it was an adventure. We then headed over to Grand Col and had one ski down there. And then headed back home via a convulated route. There was a bit of light snow the last hour.

All in all a decent days skiing.

A frosty Aiguille Rouge cable car

You know it makes sense.

Well done Layne. I've enjoyed your trip reports over the years and admire your "get out and get on with it" attitude. Hope your daughter is up to joining you tomorrow.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Appreciated @pam w

So as per the forecast heavy rain here in Les Coches overnight and into the morning. So no rush to get out. But I did want to get out to see what things were like up the mountain, for better or worse. Made no sense for daughter to go out though.

The other three of us were out for a little over 3 hours. Used the Lac Noir to limit the wetness getting up to Bijolin. Up here the rain had turned to snow. It was breezy but not crazy. We skied down to Crozats and over skiing down to Bellecote (Teppes piste closed because of Avi danger). At this point it wasn't unpleasant skiing. And with very few people out some nice solitude.

We got Colosses up and skied down to Centre. Grand Rochette gave us a break from the precipitation. From the top we took a right down Carina and then Capella. Top section was great. We went up twice more and then decided we were wet enough and it was time to skidaddle home.

Skiing back down to Les Coches was sad. I've stayed here numerous times at the back bottom ends of the season and this is the worst I've seen. Nevertheless, it was worth going out and having scoot around.

Sun is expected to come out tomorrow and Sunday looks like being nice. Only problem being a high freeze level.

A snowHead

Halfway down Capella so perhaps 2000 to 2100m

A snowHead

My son is a bit of a brainbox and very competitive with the old card/board games. But he took a pasting tonight. Good to keep his ego in check.

As they would say in Glasgae (and it's very that type of weather) it's been pishing it down all evening. Wine and cheese tastes good though!

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

The biblical rains finally relented as the lifts opened this morning. My daughters temp has come back towards normal but she still didn't feel up to skiing so was the 3 of us again. We headed over to Les Arcs. Story of the day was the amount of avalanche activity. Above the freezing level it had dumped snow massively. But as the temps were if anything on the up it was quite literally detaching itself from the mountain side. Lots of stuff was closed (Varet/Grand Col), many areas had been blasted but it still wasn't enough as mid-afternoon there were slides onto the piste in at least a couple of places (Plan/Charmettoger) and a slide on Pan Vert I believe necessitated a rescue from piste security.

We had a nice day piste cruising and a brown bag lunch next to the stream behind the Pre St Esprit base station. The pisteurs had worked hard to cover the patches though at times it was still a bit pick your way through. Lifts were opening and closing at different times. Derby and Vallandry were shut in the morning for example but opened in the afternoon.

Tomorrow and Monday expected to be stupidly warm for the time of the year so looks like no powder day this holiday but we'll enjoy the time in the mountains.

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Some pics from yesterday Christmas Eve

Just one example of the avalanche activity but it's like this everywhere, if not worse. Avalanche back to the rock/dirt across large swathes

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Nice lunch spot behind the Pre St Esprit chair - next to a fully flowing stream

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If you zoom in you can see the people waiting for the basher to clear the ava debris and then just above what appears to be a search where an ava went on to the piste

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Beautiful late afternoon view from our balcony

After all it is free

Well it was like early April today rather than December but a pretty good day nonetheless. And we skied some pow!

We skied down to Crozat, then down to Inversen and then down to Carella on the Levasset piste. Whilst going up Carella a few folks were going down off piste from the ridge and it looked like it was skiing fairly smoothly. So we gave it a go and it was up to scratch - so we lapped a couple of times more. We then skied over into Centre via Colosses and then went up Lovatierre and down Hari Kari. Then had lunch and just piste cruised around the rest of the afternoon.

Now for our last meal, bit of packing up before our last days skiing tomorrow.

Enjoyed your updates as ever, Layne, be it rain, snow or shine. Sounds like you had a good trip and were lucky to be somewhere relatively high in this warm weather! Hope you have a great day tomorrow and a smooth journey home.

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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Somebody got lucky when we were doing the off piste. My wife and son had skied down and were waiting and then my daughter went. And finally me. When I got halfway down my pitch they were shouting for me to stop. So stop I did. They were pointing to the top of the slope were someone seemed to be searching for their ski. At first I was like, "what do you want me to do about it?" And then they said I should traverse and I realised there was something 20 metres or so to my left. It looked like a rock poking out to be honest but I went to investigate and sure enough it was the blokes ski. It must have been 100m downslope of him. I really had to shout and hold the ski up for them to realise. His friend came down to check it was his - and then duly carried on boarding down! I stuck it in the snow and departed.

Later my daughter said she skied over it but didn't realise it was a ski at first, she thought she'd pinged a rock. She only stopped when she reached the other two family members who saw the skier searching at the top and put 2 and 2 together. His friends may well have found it if they had skied down that line but it wasn't obvious and certainly they had no clue it had travelled so far.

snow reports

Up early to make sure we had the apartment cleaned out and keys handed in before going out skiing. We skied over in Les Arcs today. Due partly imagine to the number of closed pistes restricting where people could go the slopes were fairly busy. So we decided to picnic early in the hut near 1950. After we came out it was quieter. The red piste down from Varet was probably the highlight of the day. We did it twice.

As the day wore on the cloud built and then the snow/rain came so we headed over the tree lined runs above Vallandry. It was a great final days skiing. Now changed and driving to Chambery for traditional Buffalo Grill meal.

Left Chambery about 9 in the evening (local time). Raining for a short time but then easy drive back to Calais. Seemed like a lot more traffic heading south. Not too many cars at Eurotunnel but after breezing through check in and French border had to wait ages to check through UK border control. Still made it on 06:20 and with the time change and relatively quiet M25 made it home just after 8. Car unpacked, coffee drunk, now it's off to the supermarket!

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@j b, me and the wife share the driving. When not driving the other sleeps in the back. Well, as much as you can do in the back of a car. We are pretty tired though. I have had a power nap this afternoon and chilling before and after. Body clock is also a funny thing.