 Poster: A snowHead
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| Jonpim wrote: |
3. I think thefatcontroller's apartment is in an excellent position in Arcs2000 |
what are the advantages of arc 2000 over Les Coches and vice versa? To me not having skied the area Les Coches looks perfectly positioned to access everywhere.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Mother hucker, i will let thefatcontroller answer that.
But regarding "the best bits": if you like off piste, especially through the trees, then the off piste routes down to the left off the top of Salla (looking down the hill) are some of our favourites. Get a guide to take you down.
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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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Mother hucker, I agree with thefatcontroller that Belle Plagne is probably the best place if you are intending to ski mainly La Plagne. It is central, compact, has good quality accommodation, and good bars and restaurants.
It's main problem is you need to go down to Bellecote to get anywhere (unless you use eblunt's crafty routes, or prepared to queue for the Gondola mid-station), and at peak times Bellecote can be bedlam. Having said that, we did stay at Belle Plagne for many years (self catering) during UK half term without any real problems with queues, but then we did know our way around.
As regards using the Vanoise Express, I think you might go quite often. If i were staying at Les Coches, I would think of Montchavin/Les Coches and Peisey/Vallandry as one resort, with possibility of moving on to La Plagne or Les Arcs if you so wished. Stop thinking about it as La Plagne or Les Arcs. The Vanoise is a lift like any other (if maybe a bit fancier).
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Jonpim wrote: |
| As regards using the Vanoise Express, I think you might go quite often. If i were staying at Les Coches, I would think of Montchavin/Les Coches and Peisey/Vallandry as one resort, with possibility of moving on to La Plagne or Les Arcs if you so wished. Stop thinking about it as La Plagne or Les Arcs. The Vanoise is a lift like any other (if maybe a bit fancier). |
I concur.
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Meantime a lovely day here in La Plagne after yesterday's blizzard.
We did manage some skiing this time, but first thing there were large queues on the usual suspects: Becoin, Bergerie, Colorado and Grand Rochette. So we just went elsewhere and no queues at all. So glad most people seem stuck with the lifts out of Plagne Centre and leave the rest of the resort to us.
Pistes below Plagne Centre hard and skiddy, above 2000m pistes lovely.
Looks like snowy weather again tomorrow.
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@boredsurfin, yes - if the dump this week arrives as promised next week should be excellent!
@Jonpim, agreed that if you're staying in Les Coches you're likely to use the VE quite often.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Is it just me, or was it insanely busy today ? I thought all the school holidays had ended. Maybe it was the one sunny day this week so everyone cam out for it.
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We were out today as well. Weather perfect, pistes in wonderful condition, but where the flip did all the people come from. This afternoon looking up to the top of Mira it was like a scene out of Zulu Dawn! Absolutely crazy numbers of people around, huge queues, utter madness.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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eblunt and RobinS, come over to our little backwater and no queues anywhere 
By 11.30 Colorado was clear, and so was Verdon Sud
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@eblunt, @RobinS, Les Arcs was insane today too. Unenjoyable.
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@thefatcontroller, I still don't understand how, in this case Les Arcs, can build huge new hotels (club med) emphasising its good because they are 'hot' beds ie in use every day and not build any new pistes or extend the skiable area in any way. La Plagne is equally guilty, the last new piste opened was Derochoir which rarely open hardly attracts the hundreds maybe thousands of extra skiers that the recent developments have attracted.
La Plagne did have an agreement licence to develop the Beacoin area, but for 'green' reasons have handed the licence back. As in LA, LP continues to build faster lifts which simply increases the numbers on the pistes by a faster rotation! (and at the same time removing the smaller 'labour intensive' lifts 
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You know it makes sense.
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boredsurfin, Greed. And possibly bulging brown envelopes.
Meantime, lovely look as we drew the curtains this morning: all the trees are white and terrace covered with snow right up to window sill. Must have snowed a fair bit. Weather forecasters continue to be blind sided.
Thunder storms forecast for lunchtime, and then a balmy 13°C on Friday afternoon 
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@boredsurfin, Dont know but did read somewhere that the issue many resorts face is bed occupancy rates not numbers on slopes as many leasebacks come to an end and are taken back into private ownership their actual usage is minimal compared to when they were rented out by the leasing companies. I seem to remember reading something on Les Arcs that the sales of lift passses is fairly static?
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Poster: A snowHead
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thefatcontroller, Good points about influence of selling leasebacks.
And the 2018 International Report on Snow & Mountain Tourism backs up your idea that visitor numbers have been static, at least as regards France as a whole - see page 31.
I have been unable so far to find information about lift pass sales for either La Plagne or Les Arcs - must be recorded somewhere.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@Jonpim,
| Quote: |
By 11.30 Colorado was clear, and so was Verdon Sud
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We took Verdon Sud at 11am, only because the queue for Borseliers was so massive! Between 11:30 and 2 it was fine, outside of that just crazy. Unfortunately it has been the same every week except the three or four quiet weeks in January. I am afraid there's just far too much accomodation for the ski infrastructure to cope with.
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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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Shouldn't they do something about the occupancy rates - it shouldn't be economical to own an apartment and only use it for a few weeks a year.
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Regarding the numbers on the slopes - you'd need to see the precise numbers for La Plagne... I would be surprised if they were static say over the last decade.
Perhaps people are spending more time actually skiing these days?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@RobinS, my experience might be out of date (my season in La Plagne was 6 years ago now) or not relevant because I stayed in Montchavin which I think is the other side of the domain to you. Nevertheless I will share it to try and reassure you a bit! Basically Christmas week was fine, new year was mental and we hadn’t figured out the short cuts and hot spots, the following 4 weeks were really quiet. Then the 4 French holiday weeks were really busy and we had to pick our routes and timings carefully. One week was so busy we didn’t ski. Surprisingly the week following the last holiday week was no quieter - I had the impression that everyone without kids or very small kids came that week. After that it just got quieter and quieter - and April just dropped off a cliff in terms of numbers of people. The British Easter weeks made no noticeable impact. Definitely the last 4-5 weeks of the season were the best of the lot - no queues, empty pistes, lots of snow and lots of sun.
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From memory ...Lift pass sales for La Plagne were 3% up last season with the growth coming from the 30% non French visitors mainly growth in Uk visitors. French numbers at 70% of total were static.
Now to see if I can find where I have remembered that from  (It may have been in the local paper https://www.ledauphine.com/savoie )
Some background info here ....If your French is uo to it theres lots of numbers here from CdA https://www.compagniedesalpes.com/
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@Gämsbock, That does tie in with our experience so far. We were expecting this week to be quiet so got a bit of a shock at the crowds! We go home at the end of the month, so are rescheduling as much work as possible to get it done this week now, so hopefully will get more ski time next week in the hope it will be quieter!
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boredsurfin, my Compagnie des Alpes site comes in English. Data up to Sept 2017. All very general. But interesting how many ski resorts they run. Lots.
Have had a quick look at Le Dauphine. Not found anything particularly pertinent yet, except this article from March 2016: "More than 5,000 hot beds are expected to come out of the ground in the next five years: 2,450 at Aime 2000 by 2020, 900 at Montalbert. Some are already under construction on Plagne sun, Champagny and Montchavin." (Googe Translate ).
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@Jonpim, are you a member of APLP? I may have read it in one of their newsletters or maybe on Perso...
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Loganberry, if the sun does come out tomorrow it will indeed be a wonderful day.
It has been snowing all day. The La Plagne Weather Bulletin has the snow level rise from 130cm to 170cm at 2000m. That would seem about right.
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Absolutely Jonpim, and some sun would certainly be nice, but looks more likely after tomorrow. I’m guessing though that the forecast heavy snow fall (almost a metre between this afternoon and overnight on the mountain according to some) will be enough to delay lift opening higher up tomorrow morning? Not that the highest lifts have been open at all this week 
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You know it makes sense.
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| Jonpim wrote: |
Mother hucker, I agree with thefatcontroller that Belle Plagne is probably the best place if you are intending to ski mainly La Plagne. It is central, compact, has good quality accommodation, and good bars and restaurants.
It's main problem is you need to go down to Bellecote to get anywhere (unless you use eblunt's crafty routes, or prepared to queue for the Gondola mid-station), and at peak times Bellecote can be bedlam. Having said that, we did stay at Belle Plagne for many years (self catering) during UK half term without any real problems with queues, but then we did know our way around.
As regards using the Vanoise Express, I think you might go quite often. If i were staying at Les Coches, I would think of Montchavin/Les Coches and Peisey/Vallandry as one resort, with possibility of moving on to La Plagne or Les Arcs if you so wished. Stop thinking about it as La Plagne or Les Arcs. The Vanoise is a lift like any other (if maybe a bit fancier). |
Thanks for the crafty route's recommendations. We have a studio in Belle Plagne and are delighted with it. From the window with a pair of binoculars I can check out the lift queues at Bellecote, and if it's bad can go up in the lift and get the magic carpet and Col de Forcle if really needed. In general we find Blanchets is almost always OK, it's only Arpette that's a no no sometimes. It's also handy in that we often pass the flat during the day so for example we might do Champagny in the morning for the sun, drop back for lunch and go elsewhere in the afternoon. We can get to Transarc in about an hour and 10 mins so it's no too much of a trek going to Arcs, but equally 3 lifts to Montalbert. But everyone has there own preferences and nowhere is the perfect place.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Drove up last night to find queues of traffic from before Moutier and then at each traffic holding point to Aime got up to Montalbert to find all the car parks were full, the neighbours had all their extended family's staying as well ... Its supposed to be a quiet week after all the holidays
Not to worry this morning the place was very quiet, with quite a few people seem to have left, the forecast mentioned rain, so we can only assume it was busy with weekenders.
This morning reached 21c in the village at 10am, no queues at the lifts, glorious sunshine, excellent snow and the promised rain held off until 16:00 and temperature dropped back to 7c with snow forecast overnight. Over the French lunchtime we had Bergerie lift to ourselves - pretty much a unique experience.
Much of the high stuff was closed, but we noticed the Cretes draglift was open at 2pm so headed up there to find the only piste open from it was Grande Pente - which was, how shall we say, 'interesting' if it was all powder it would have been wonderful but it was a mixture of crust, soft snow and some heavy stuff lower down - there are photo's, but oh dear I can't work out how to post them on here 
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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The Envers chairlift continues to run (slowly) and is well used, however the seats as previously mentioned are a bit of a problem, the red ones are cracking and the black ones are de-laminating... so hopefully the rumour that they will all be replaced for the summer is true - or the rumour that Poma will build a complete replacement in the summer would be better 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Had a fine day spring skiing today. Pistes lovely, a bit of "poor man's powder" low down. Wall to wall sunshine, and hot. Beautiful conditions for our last week out here.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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offpisteskiing, excellent pics, and i like your term "spicy".
I'll stick to inbound off-piste for now.
Had a lovely long lunch at Borseliers with Mr and Mrs Boredsurfin on Wednesday.
Lot of discussion about Envers.
A very necessary lift just now - the run blue run down to Envers was pretty ghastly when we went down it on Wednesday (to avoid the hordes of Ski School kids going up Envers)
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Duplicate
Last edited by Then you can post your own questions or snow reports... on Fri 22-03-19 18:56; edited 1 time in total
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Had a run across from Montalbert to Villaroger and back today. Skiing really nice, a bit slushy in places, no crowds or queues, except Colossus on the way back, two of the 8 seats have been blocked off all week, and it was running slowly. Don't know whats broken, but it had a massive queue (15 minutes+). The one thing to spoil a fantastic day.
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Yes, RobinS, we did similar, but only as far as lovely new red run down beside new Comborciere chair, followed by long leisurely lunch at Chalet Hotel La Foret above Vallandry.
Rather than the Collosse hordes, we initially opted for the bus , which was rapidly gaining a large crowd, but then our companion's partner was on his way back from Geneva and picked us up instead. Fortunate as not everyone was getting on the bus.
Another warm sunny day today.
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FAQ
). The flat light forced us off the hill around 3, but the weather held up better than forecast. Hoping that the overnight storm clears in time for a nice play in the powder tomorrow.
