La Plagne 2023/2024

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A few weeks ago in British half term we found Les Arcs to be far busier than La Plagne on the couple of days we went across.

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Les Arcs doesn't have a 3-way/junction quite like the Blanchette, Colosses and Arpette one but certainly has important lifts that get hefty queues. Derby and Arcabulle are two immediately spring to mind.

I have been to Paradiski loads but usually Christmas, sometimes Easter, but only once at HT. The 3-way certainly had it's moments and as we were staying in Les Coches a couple of days we needed to get Arpette towards the end of the day and had to endure at a guess a ~15 minute wait. Ironically the VE and lifts out of Les Coches never seem to clog up.

The only thing that I think could help the 3-way as already discussed is for the liftees to put more effort into filling the chairs.

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Layne, there needs to be a way to bypass Bellecote altogether.
If the new Bellecote glacier project goes ahead then Belle Plagne will be left without a major lift.
Going up Blanchette the other day, it seemed a lift from Belle Plagne going up the other side of the valley to Petite Rochette and link with Carella chair would be a good idea. And then construct a piste from there across to the Mira piste.
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Have to be honest all this talk of long queues is putting me off going and it does seem a rip off to get charged 330 euro for a lift pass when it seems you're going to be spending lots of time waiting and shuffling forward instead of skiing.

Perhaps someone can come on and try and redress the balance with some of the good things about La Plagne.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

It's a brilliant intermediate resort, snowsure, some gorgeous views, some lovely restaurants, some high quality slopes, some wonderful activities throughout the season. We come out of French ski holidays, obviously some places are busy, this requires mostly just to be a bit intelligent about where you go and at what time, take the Grande Rochette singles line, ski when no one is skiing from 11.30-14.15 and you have the resort to yourself, enjoy to the fullest.

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Jammy 07, apologies for denting your holiday hopes, but your post suggests you are planning to visit sometime in the future - that is therefore not during the mid-term holidays. You'll be fine.
We like La Plagne. We've bought a place here. We just (usually) avoid New Year and February/early March. Rest of the time it's fine.
Les Arcs yesterday was just as bad - even a massive queue for Vagere!

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The resort has a lot to offer. The snow was great, the chairlifts and gondolas good (some were heated), there is a good selection of pistes, the harder ones I did go on were enjoyable.
I was running out of time, but don't really regret it.
The best day I had is making me wonder if doing the same thing next year is a good move (probably).

After all it is free

@58ski, which lifts are heated? I’m a big La Plagne fan and go every year but have never noticed such luxury?!

Should I have said some of the gondolas or cable cars, unsure which ones.

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Many thanks for all the positive endorsements for La Plagne and hopefully I’ll fall in love with the place as obviously many have already done.

I’m flying out in a couple of weeks time which is school holidays here in the UK so I’m guessing it will be the same in France but as I ski with my school age son that’s unavoidable.

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@Jammy 07, It's not the French school holidays but it will probably be busy over the Easter weekend. Hopefully it will be quiet from Tuesday 2nd April.

You know it makes sense.

@Jammy 07, It doesn't look like it will be busy the week of the 23rd to 30th March. We check the availability of accommodation and there is loads available for that week so therefore not as many people on the slopes.
I think this week will be the last busy week and Easter weekend will be busy but hoping for the rest of the season to be pretty quiet.

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

Just arrived yesterday and been out for our group lesson this morning. It snowed all morning. The slopes were nice in places, we only really did from bergerie a few times so never got further. Snow was nice in some places as I said but there were some ice patches that had been scraped away by sheer volume of people. It seemed absolutely heaving today. The queue for bergerie was massive. After lunch we did becoin and down pavane (which as an extremely difficult blue and I personally think should be a red). It was as horrible as I remember lol. The visibility was awful (flat light) so we ended up just skiing back about 2.30 and calling it a day. I don't think I could face the bergerie queue again!! I'm hoping it's just busy because live 3000 was closed and it's also Sunday so hoping by tomorrow people will be more spread out..... Or back to work Eh oh!

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Agree flat light in places. Arrived at 2pm and skiied to the close by which time it was snowing. Highlights from short outting Inversens and Source both lovely. Now having a beer in a small bar in Montchavin. Photos is from Inversens chair and the bottom of run to Montchavin

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And Montchavin

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

I don't know what is going on this week but it has been extremely busy. Bergerie chairlift queue is a joke and the slopes themselves are very busy. It's been a glorious bluebird morning, however looks like the snow is starting again

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I may be wrong as I've never stayed in plagne centre, but I believe bergerie is notorious for being a choke point lift as most of plagne village + soleil ski down to it so that they can get up higher at the start of the day, potentially after lunch too.

It's very much on my list of lifts to avoid unless absolutely necessary.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

It's been like this all day as we went up it 3 times in our lesson. We also skied to belle plagne and they were all heaving. It's not only the lifts, the slopes are extremely busy too!

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Started snowing after lunch. Thick flakes coming down. Visibility was variable. Some low down pistes very icy in places in the afternoon and cut up but I guess you would expect this

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Yep even Champagny area this morning got long queues at chair lift

After all it is free

@polo99, This is the week when everybody without kids or not tied to school holidays books thinking it will be quiet the week after the school holidays finish.
We used to have 3 retired teachers from France book our apartment for this week on a regular basis.
It can be as busy as the main French school holiday weeks.

Next week will be far less busy and the weeks after that it will hopefully be very quiet apart from the Easter weekend.

Well, polo99 and thierryd, we had a very different experience today - almost as if we were in different resort. We've had a lovely time.
We were on Bergerie at 9.20hrs. Yes, there was a queue, but we we were through to a chair in under 10 minutes - no big deal. Then Aollets which was quite queueless.
Quick 2nd breakfast at Chairlift restaurant, then down to 1800 lift, Envers, Becoin, Lovatiere, Verdon Sud, Grand Richette, Blanchette, Colosses. No queue anywhere.
And after yesterday's snow, and staying cold, all pistes are in lovely condition. (Bosses maybe not so good).
Clouded over and started snowing at 1pm, so into Monica's for a long lunch. Home for tea
Now snowing hard. Perfick. snowHead

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I'm in La Plagne and love skiing among the trees off to the sides of the runs, or between runs.

There's enough snow here now that I think that could work pretty well (of course you need to take care).

However, most patches of trees don't look very accessible or great for skiing.

Any suggestions for runs or areas I might try?

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@niallcardin, montchavin Les coches and montalbert are probably your best bets for skiing in the tree line. I'm no expert on the type of tree skiing where you're literally turning around the trees, but there are plenty of clear runs in the treeline in these sectors of la plagne. Some of these runs eg Pierre blanche have "shortcuts" through the trees where the piste does a sharp turn and you can cut across.

If you have a paradiski pass, the slopes around arc 1800 hit a similar vibe.

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@niallcardin, we don't have the glades I believe they have in the States and a lot of the forests are largely impenetrable.

There are a few options here and there but it's hard to describe/give direction.

niallcardin, after decent falls of snow we enjoy going thro the trees between Palsembleu, Coqs and Morbleu or off to the left from Grenouilles. But we've not really had a good fall recently, so not sure what it's like just now. When conditions are right it can be brilliant.

You know it makes sense.

At the minute the pistes are a mix, on one piste you can have a beautiful run, then a load of hard pack where you fight to stay upright (maybe that's just me lol) then chopped up avoiding every lump and bump. Ive also found this time which I didn't notive on my last visit 10 years ago that there are some quite steep sections of blues which hit you by surprise, one wrong turn and it's curtains. We took the funiplagne yesterday and that top section I think called mira is hideous for a nervous skier like myself. Tried to get my head out of anxiety trying to avoid hard pack thin cover, volumes of people and getting to the bottom of that section has put me of wanting to go back up which is a shame because I wanted to go over the back towards champagny. I am sure thee is still a way to avoid this section nd still get over. We obviously picked the wrong direction of trieuse today and that was a nightmare. Very steep, very cut up and thin cover making it difficult for me. Obviously if you are a very competent skier then none of the above will bother you at all. I am constantly scouring the piste for where I make my next turn avoiding the mounds and ice and people and with the help of my instructor still try looking ahead and not down. Most of it is in my head and I hate myself for it!! I think the forecast is for sun the next 2 days which, when you can see the surface you are on, makes it so much better for someone as nervous as me. Last couple of days I've been thinking I think is probably gonna be my last skiing holiday as I feel no amount of lessons is gonna change the thoughts in my head Eh oh!

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polo99, you picked the wrong way to get over to Champagny. Better to go over from top of Blanchette. Could also take the blue down from the top of Lovatiere, but some do find the top section intimidating.
Beware big queues building up at the Borseliers lift on sunny days.

Today has been lovely, with dark grey clouds keeping lifts and pistes pleasantly quiet. Champagny filled up with fog in the morning while La Plagne side was clear with the odd sunny period. Tomorrow looks promising.

A snowHead

@polo99, Seconding what Jonpim said, the Blanchets chair is deffo the way to get to Champagny to avoid queues - there are 2 ways to Champagny from the top. One is to go down the Quilis run, which can be scraped and then onto Levasset, which has a bit of a choke point at the top and can be crowded / bumpy if it is busy.

The other "hidden" way involves taking "roc du diable" from the top of Blanchets chair, making sure you take the flatish path all the way to the top of a drag lift, only at the top of the drag lift will you see signs for Champagny - it does involve going round a bit of a bend. From here you can drop onto the Geisha run, which is where you eventually go from the Funiplagne, but it cuts out the part you said you don't like. Usually this is much quieter, and the Geisha is a pretty flat pathy run for the most part.

I feel like I've given up a secret ...

A snowHead

@polo99, to avoid the steeper bits of Trieuse, take the 'easier way' (?) track on the right just as you reach the restaurant halfway down. You can follow that track, crossing a number of pistes and eventually the Col du Forcle drag lift, until it runs out onto a much easier piste down to Bellecote.

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Thabks for all your suggestions. I think your emsecret is safe with me as I think it's a bit complicated for me and I'll probably end up getting lost hahah.
Yes the truise, I know where the fork is because when we got to it we said which way shall we go and chose the left instead of the right as we were unable to see what was over the hill and by that time it was too late to turn back.

We went up arpette lift and the run down from that was OK, except I think we got a but lost and ended up on another steep section which I managed to navigate very slowly. When we got to the bottom, we came out at belleciote I think at the top of the belle plagne gondola and that was another mistake in the afternoon lol. That is obviously a very heavy traffic driven route best not taken in the afternoon. We have lessons in the morning so could someone recommend some nice wide not too steep runs for us please where I can build my confidence, feel I've travelled and work on my technique? Thabks so much for your help everyone. Much appreciated as I have been feeling very disheartened

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https://imgur.com/a/gngZUeK That's essentially it marked in green, it's very simple but up to you! The perspective of the map makes it look uphill, but it isn't.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Oh that's good to know thank you. I'm not sure what the runs down to champagny are like (obviously I know I can only go half way) but are they wide and nice or are they single track roads?

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The way I've just mentioned is a fairly flat path.
The bozelet from the top of Verdons (lovatiere lift from plane centre) is wide but has some steep sections (for a blue run). It can also be quite busy at rush hour.

The levasset which you can get from the Blanchets chair or even higher at the Roche de mio, is a very nice run in my opinion dcently wide, but it is a massive thoroughfare, so can get busy when everyone is heading home at 3pm, which can also chop up the snow in the choke points.

The 2 choke points on the levasset are at the bottom of the upper half, just before you get to the Quilis & Carella chairs and the other is just past those as you drop into the lower half.

Were I a nervous skier, I'd pick the geisha way I marked on the map any time I was expecting crowds. But the levasset is a good run if you can do it when it's empty, maybe aim for 12.30.

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After all it is free

That's great thank you. So if I were planning a little route for the afternoon from plagne centre, would bergerie then down trieuse/todos be a good option? Then up blanchets, down geisha, up verdons sud, down bozelet, back up verdons sud then down verdons /chantal back to plagne centre be a good option?

Out of interest, what is the run tunnels like?
Thanks for all the guidance, much appreciated

Tunnel is a lovely run , with the fun of seeing the light /music show in the tunnel . It goes from just below the Roche de mio - you turn right and it’s an alternative to Sources. It links up with either Bellecôte directly or , to avoid an often mogully bit, just keep left and go via belle plagne .

Re your itinerary : Bergerie lift and any of the runs down to bellecote is good . Blanchets and taking the route round to geisha also lovely . If you want to ski a bit on the champagny side you might find Bozelet a bit steep in places but it does have wonderful views ! An alternative would be instead of going back up Verdons sud , carry on down the end of geisha (which merges with the bottom of levasset ) to borseliers , then ski the short link down to rossa and come down any of the confidence building blues that run down to the rossa chair start . When you’ve had enough , ski down from there to the bottom of the Verdons sud lift and ski back down to plagne centre via Pollux .

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The approach to Tunnel is a bit flat so get some speed up or be prepared to pole a fair distance...

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La Plagne 2023/2024

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