 Poster: A snowHead
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Bit late with this but thought I'd give a summary report of skiing in La Plagne last week, Sunday 5th to Friday 10th March. Haven't been before but quickly appreciated extent of the ski area. Arrived on Saturday 4th by car, road clear, no chains needed. Two competent skiers, one improver, one nervous. Sunny Sunday morning but deteriorated in afternoon and snowed into Monday and Tuesday. Mist restricted higher level skiing (I don't like skiing in mist) but powder everywhere and conditions were superb by Wednesday. Thursday and Friday were sunny, especially Friday and Roche re Mio opened. Freeze/ Thaw had arrived by Thursday though which seems to have continued into this week.
Stayed in Belle Plagne which is pretty but not that convenient for beginners/ improvers imv. as you have to join a busy and steepish blue down to Bellecote. I think some of the blue ratings are optimistic I.e. too challenging for early intermediates e.g. top of blue from Blanchot chair. However great range of pistes for competent skiers. The main problem, though, was that it was surprisingly busy. French school holidays over but still busy and you were forever looking behind to avoid out of control idiots. Is LP always busy? Road clear for when we left so easy drive down mountain. Good week overall.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Stayed in Belle Plagne which is pretty but not that convenient for beginners/ improvers imv. as you have to join a busy and steepish blue down to Bellecote. |
It does get a bit busy but I actually think that is a lovely stretch off piste and the two times I stayed in BP I loved it as a warm up run straight out the door.
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| I think some of the blue ratings are optimistic |
You will never find total consistency on gradings - it's just a guide.
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| Is LP always busy? |
Depends what you call busy! There are some pinch points. TBH when the conditions are good it's a great opportunity to explore the outer reaches of the area - Montalbert, Champagny, Les Coches which have some great skiing but obviously are the areas that suffer in poor conditions.
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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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billb, i think your summary fair,
Belle Plagne made mistake in taking out the Belle Plagne chair some years back: it was slow, but allowed beginners to ski down an easy protected slope above Belle Plagne - the magic carpet goes about a quarter of the way up.
As pointed out elsewhere, if you take the Magic Carpet, you can then ski down a relatively easy route to Bellecote.
Belle Plagne, like most areas, does have it busy areas and busy times. Avoid those and you are fine.
Montalbert has been wonderfully quiet this week.
(on Tuesday the central bowl of Courchevel was busy, but the runs above 1650 were gloriously quiet)
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@Jonpim, thanks, I can see the carpet links into the easier run down but it's a slog to walk to the carpet from your apartment (ours was Pegasse near the small Spar). Too much walking uphill for a beginner (don't particularly want to do it myself).
@Layne, my comment on blue grading is compared to many other resorts I've visited. I think some of the LP blues have steep sections which are virtually red which are difficult for improvers especially when busy.
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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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| @Layne, my comment on blue grading is compared to many other resorts I've visited. |
So was mine 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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There's always going to be a fine line between run gradings. Only a tiny difference separates a difficult blue from an easy red, while there's quite a wide spectrum of difficulties within one colour grading. And then snow conditions / time of day / aspect etc. complicates things further.
When I was a child I visited La Plagne on my second skiing holiday and was terrified by the top of the Carella blue (now called Levasset) despite being fine on plenty of reds. Looking back on it, it was the first run of the morning during a week with spring freeze-thaw conditions, and it faces west. It would probably have been much easier later in the day.
Between La Plagne and Montchavin there are two runs underneath the Bauches chairlift. One is black (Malatray), the other is blue (Bauches), so one must be significantly more difficult than the other. But if you look at old piste maps, the same runs both used to be graded red. Again, it shows that there's a tiny difference between a difficult blue and an easy red (Bauches present vs past), and between a difficult red and an easy black (Malatray past vs present), but a big difference between and easy red and a tricky one (Bauches vs Malatray)...
So @billb, "virtually red" might still just be on the blue side of the dividing line, but any number of factors could make it seem of red difficulty on a particular day.
I'm not saying you're wrong about optimistic blue ratings though - am heading to La Plagne next week so will be able to see whether I agree with you or not!
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Billb - I agree with your assessment of La plagne which is why I think I recommended Les Arcs instead when you were seeking opinions  (hope I have remembered that bit correctly).
Did you get over to Les Arcs? I expect you'd prefer it there.
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You're quite right snowymum, Les Arcs is far better.
(If only everyone would accept this then La Plagne would be a lot quieter  )
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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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@snowymum, yes, you did recommend Les Arcs but we went for Belle Plagne as a good apartment deal came up. My son and I (the two better skiers) had intended to visit Les Arcs but couldn't really leave the other two on their own for too long. But we did ski down "bauches" from L'Arpette to assess the route but thought it too difficult for the others (a more difficult blue we thought). Maybe the other route to the Vanoise express (towards Les Coches) is easier? Well, it will have to wait until another time. A pity but slower, less confident skiers restrict what can be done.
The tunnel blue and the two reds down from Roche re Mio were particularly nice I thought. The glacier was closed but it's somewhat lost on us as we don't do off-piste or hard blacks (my son did the Mio black). I assume the "Natur" runs, when open, are quite challenging.
@denfinella, @Layne, I think you make valid points. We are, of course, dealing with a lot of variables including the weather.
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