 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi All,
New to this forum but reading it the last couple of days and seems a good resource.
Anyway me and my pal are looking for our mid jan trip and i have had a look at Mountaisun (which i read about on here!) who seem pretty good value, especially the Tignes deal which includes lift pass. I have been to Tignes the past two seasons and enjoyed it however i would like to try somewhere different ideally but its a bit of a mare getting to some resorts with high transfer prices and being in the North East limits where we can fly to (Geneva).
We have done Chamonix twice, good place but not to fond of the buses, Avoriaz 3 times, great place but digs are small/ quite expensive and covered the area mainly, Mayrhoffen twice, enjoy the Hoff but again pretty much covered the area including Gerlos etc, Slovakia 5 times, also did Deux Alpes twice as a skier years ago and Schladming again as a skier, we both snowboard now!.
My sister went to La Plagne last season and loved (preferred it to Tignes & Avoriaz) it but she is a novice and not sure if we would get enough bang for the buck from the description she gave it (novice friendly), is this true?, quite fancied the Pardiski area but getting a decent deal is proving tricky, Mountainsun have some digs in La Plagne but they only seem to do short breaks and we want a week. The 3 valleys (VT) looks good and heard good stuff about it but again a party of two doesn't yield much value for money.
We are both fairly solid boarders ie Blacks are not a problem at all, hammer Red runs and love some off piste, sadly didn't get much last season as not a great deal of fresh snow  .
So i guess what im trying to say is Mountainsun any good?
La Plagne any good?
Any other suggestions?
Quite fancy Catered but SC would be fine.
Budget of about £850 all in, cheaper the better but want some quality. 
Cheers
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I'm personally not a great fan of La Plagne; very blue run heavy, although there is some decent off-piste to be found. Also, being made up of lots of villages I found there's no real decent centre, it felt quite disjointed. If you do fancy Paradiski then perhaps look at Les Arcs? I did a season there last year and absolutely loved it. If you got a chalet in Peisey/Vallandy you'd have very quick access to the Vanoise Express and therefore quick access to La Plagne and Les Arcs areas.
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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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Skrabble, Tignes with mountain sun is one of the best deals you will get, and the off-piste in tignes is world class , enjoy
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Thanks for the replies,
Dav - thats what i thought from looking at the piste map re lots of blues. I will have a look into what you suggested mate.
Neilski - the 09/10 season we had loads of snow and had some great off piste in Tignes when the viz was good which was only 1 day unfortunately, rest of the week it snowed constantly and was a struggle alot of the time because you could hardly see anything, have you stayed at the Tignes chalet with Mountainsun before?.
Cheers
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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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My first post too woop...
I did half a season in La Plagne last year (Belle Plagne) and it is pretty blue heavy... However there is excellent off piste to find. The good thing about it being known as a novice resort is that the off-piste doesn't get tracked as quickly (although since there was no snow last season it didn't really matter!).
Also La Plagne has the glacier which means you're more or less guaranteed some decent snow, although it can get mega busy up there if the snow's bad lower down.
I went over to Les Arcs on the Vanoise Express once and in my view they'd done a better job of looking after the limited snow, I felt that the pistes were in better nick. That could have been a one off though.
My suggestion would be, get a Paradiski pass then try and stay somewhere close to the Vanoise Express so you can get between the 2 areas easily (monchavin/Les Coches on the Plagne side, Peisey/Vallandry on the Les Arcs side). That way you have easy access to a massive area.
As you said though, there's not too much going on in La Plagne. Plagne Centre is alright, but it's a pain to get to from the other resorts at night, last bus back was at like 11.45pm.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Oh and the runs down off the glacier are magical.
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| Quote: |
being in the North East limits where we can fly to (Geneva).
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You could always fly to Chambery with Jet2 from Newcastle.
Or, if you don't mind a drive to Manchester, you can fly to Munich (Easyjet or Lufthansa).
We've just booked a weekend trip to Munich in November (with Lufthansa from Manchester) for a couple of days glacier skiing in Austria and got a bargain flight for £89 each!  (The same dame deal is available through to March 2012).
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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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If you are on a board avoid La Plagne it means The Plain in French like Salsibury Plain ie FLAT, on just two runs they have bothered to put in rope tows to help the boarders. The off piste is absolutely brilliant and as others have said takes ages to get tracked out but it's all pretty crap really.
Oh yes nearly forgot all the lifts are really old and slow.
How it is Frances busiest most profitable ski station is beyond me.
According to those that know on here Les Arcs is way way better Arc 2000 is especially good for boarders they say.
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La Plange on a board, that'll be frustrating, lots of flat areas where you'll need to keep your speed up and maybe a bit of walking to lifts down at the bottom of runs, not sure how you'd get on. Off piste is good, if you know where to look, like everyone always says, get a guide. If your only there for a week, I'm not sure its enough to know your way about the area sufficiently to get to know the best bits and where there going to take you out. For my Money having stayed in Plange, Plange 1800 and Les Coches, I'd go back to Mountainsun in les coches, ques are a lot smaller on that side, espesially first thing in the morning, where the bigger hubs of the Planges get a bit crowded, theres less flat bits, although the lift system is a bit older unless they've done some upgrading over the last season. Also easy access to Les Arc via the Vanoisse.
Les Arc, Best bits are over by Arc2000 and that general area, but unfortuneatly everyone knows that and again lots of queing, no matter the time of year there always seems to be big ques to get up the Auglie Rouge.
Espace Killy, 1 of the best resorts in the world, never disapoints!!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| boredsurfin wrote: |
If you are on a board avoid La Plagne it means The Plain in French like Salsibury Plain ie FLAT, on just two runs they have bothered to put in rope tows to help the boarders. The off piste is absolutely brilliant and as others have said takes ages to get tracked out but it's all pretty crap really.
Oh yes nearly forgot all the lifts are really old and slow.
How it is Frances busiest most profitable ski station is beyond me.
According to those that know on here Les Arcs is way way better Arc 2000 is especially good for boarders they say. |
La Plagne in no way translates to plain...
It's not as bad as it was any more (although I hadn't been there before so don't know how bad it was), apparently before last season they did a lot of work re-grading some of the flat bits and putting in new tows. There were a couple of bits where boarders whinged but on the whole it wasn't so bad. I was working in a kitchen and I was one of 2 skiers in 13 staff, everyone else boarded and they didn't complain much - just avoid the 2 runs that are bad! Most of it is fine, quit whingeing.
The park is pretty good too, boarders seem to like that 
Personally with the lifts I had more problems with the new ones, at least the old ones were reliable. The Arpette lift was pretty much brand new and stopped every time you got on the damn thing, right pain in the back bottom, mostly due to all the kids on lessons falling off on it though.
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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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Oh yeah forgot to ask, anyone know of some decent Snowboard guides?, only seem to find ski guides 
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You know it makes sense.
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la plaine maybe, if you stick around you may get the irony 
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FAQ
and a very fair assessment of La P, I would say. As a piste skier, I prefer Les Arcs (as well as the 3V, Espace Killy etc, etc,) but I am told that it is good for off piste if you are good enough. I'm not!
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