TR - La Plagne 16th -24th Jan 2015

A snowHead

So just back after 7 days skiing in la Plagne. My 4th week skiing and 3rd in la Plagne (other week was in Arinsal).
I've done trip reports on la Plagne before but hopefully this will still be useful to anybody thinking about going there.

The last 2 years we have gone with Crystal, once flying via Geneva and last year via overnight eurostar. I've no beef with Crystal but this year their prices seemed a bit steep and at the time BA were doing a sale on combined flight and car hire bookings. So this was our first DIY trip and I'd definitely do it that way again.
So flew out on Friday 16th from a very quiet Gatwick and arrived into a very quiet Geneva. No queues for Avis car rental and as a BA executive club member, chains are included for free and all cars come with winter tyres anyway.
It was a lovely sunny morning and we enjoyed a nice journey via Lake Annecy to Moutiers where we stocked up for the week in the large supermarket there before a quick drive up the hill to Belle Plagne. Cost wise the tolls via this route were 14euros and a few cents for the return journey and we were 29 Swiss francs for fuel.

We arrived in resort about 2 and headed to the reception for Pierre & Vacances les Constellations apartments. Check in time was 5 but our room was ready given it was a Friday and in January. We were in a studio which says it sleeps up to 5, that would be extremely cosy indeed. For 2 it's a decent size. Two sofas in the main area which double as beds and a set of adult bunk beds next to the entrance (the 5th bed pulls out from one of the sofas). Decently equipped kitchen with 5 of everything, a dishwasher, 4 hobs, a microwave that does grilling and a coffee maker. We have been twice before so no surprises. We were in the Licorne building with a balcony overlooking the Piou Piou club. I don't find this building as handy as the main Andromode, it's a bit of a trek to boot room and you have to ski uphill or have a bit of a trek back at the end of the day. We just kept our skis in the apartment. They also hire out fondue kits for a deposit.

We have our own boots but rented skis from Armand Bertrand sports which us just under the gondola as they offered a good deal via snowbrainers. They seemed good to me and I loved the skis I got (Rossignal Attraxion 8 for anyone interested). My husband was well chuffed with his Salamon rocker RXT800s.

The skiing - it snowed in Friday night and all through the day on the Saturday. The pistes were empty and we had a great time skiing over to la Roche and 1800, a number of icy patches lower down though. Over the week we skied all over la Plagne although did not head over to Les Arcs. I felt the best snow was in Champany and with a decent amount of sun during the week skiing there was brilliant. The three blue runs under the Rossa chair lift were a lot of fun, each is slightly different and great for practising technique and drills. Hari-Kiri may well now be my favourite red although Sources will always hold a place in my heart as my first ever red 2 years ago.

I had 2 private lessons with Oxygene this year (Adrian was my instructor). As ever my skiing came on leaps and bounds and my parallel turns have improved greatly, I think I even managed to carve a turn here and there as well. I skied my second ever black run by going down the Rochette which was awesome!! He also introduced me to jumps in the easy snow park above Belle Plagne and I went back later in the week for another few goes. My husband had a lesson with Jenny which he enjoyed and I quote "she sorted me out".

As we were self catering we catered pretty much every night, we had lunch at le Matafan on Friday which was really good and got takeaway pizza one night from the pizza place on the piste near the Spar on the top part of the resort.

The last couple of years we tended to finish the day with a beer at the bar just up from Belle Plagne on the Arpette run however this year they charged 9 euros for a big beer so no more of that! The only other on mountain restaurant we used was les Borsilliers in Champany for a few vin chauds and chocolate chauds over the week, much better value.

Overall I love la Plagne and am not quite finished there yet, I find enough variety and challenges on the piste and really live the instruction from Oxygene. We are off to Valmeinier in March so it will be interesting to see if that had any impact on my views.

A snowHead

Great trip report. The better half is a timid skier so any tips of where the easier blues are? We'll be staying at plagne soleil. Thanks.

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@roguemazza, Great report... snowHead

I suggest that you cross the Vanoise on your next trip and sample the superb tree-skiing above Paisey-Vallandry

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Thanks Red27. Will give it a go.

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TR - La Plagne 16th -24th Jan 2015

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