 Poster: A snowHead
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Resort: Belle Plagne WC 28th Jan 2012
Purpose built and the highest village in LP. Surrounded by pistes with several snow-covered roads through the higher sections allowing quite a bit of almost ski-in/out. BP has quite a cosy centre with a fair range of shops/bars/restaurants and ski rental places. Although there are a few stairs to navigate from one end of the resort to the other, it's not so spread out that one can't get around without too much difficulty. As purpose-built high altitude "villages" go, it's not without charm. For the best distribution to the LP ski area, it's probably easiest to ski down to Bellecote for any one of a number of uplift options, as opposed to queuing for the gondola that may well be brimming from first station down in Bellecote. Not so much of a problem later in the day, of course.
BP is well-placed for those looking to ski over to Les Arcs. For those skiing back from the other LP areas, the Arpettes chair provides a good ski back down and distribution to many of the accommodation blocks and chalets.
TO: Neilson
Accommodation: Chalet Montagnettes (Vallons) – Catered Chalet
Ski Hire: Sport2000 Armand, BP Centre
Skis: Salomon Enduro XT800 (Rocker) 175s 16.3 Radius
It feels a little surreal, sitting at the home/office looking over a snow-covered garden having just returned from the totally snow-covered vista of La Plagne. The early (3.45am) departure on Saturday getting us home ahead of the snowfall here at home that almost certainly would have created delays (thoughts to those whose travel plans have been hindered).
Undoubtedly, last week has been one of the best weeks skiing of the 22 I’ve been on. Both in terms of the conditions (simply outstanding) and the holiday (highly entertaining).
The journey and transfers went without problem, although I had forgotten quite how Thomas Cook planes cram their passengers in  . And Grenoble was the usual scrum at the carousels – not unexpected though.
An odd and pleasantly unexpected coincidence at the Moutier coach stop en-route (3.5 hours airport to resort which is longer than I recall ) – bumped into a friend I met in 2010 in ADH and subsequently arranged to holiday with in Folgarida/Marilleva in 2011. Seems he was also heading to BP also with Neilson! More on that later.
The early departure home naturally meant an early departure from Gatwick the week before. Left home at 3.30am and was on-resort by 2pm. Unpacked by 2.10pm and plenty of time to on-hire the pre-booked skis and to sort the passes for the SO (Sweetheart on here) well ahead of the hordes.
It was 6 years to the day since the last trip to La Plagne. That time, 6 guys on a 4-day stag do stayed in a 1 room apartment in Bellecote . Quite a few evenings were spent in various bars (ha ha ha – what a surprise), including several in BP. So it was with a sense of pleasant familiarity to push open the door of La Tete for a sneaky couple of beers before heading back to the chalet armed with my skis and the passes for both the SO and me.
The first evening dinner was a quiet affair served up by Liz, our chalet hostess for the week – more later. Just Sweetheart, me and one other couple. The other five guests had been held up (5 guys, a couple of which are snowHeads). They duly arrived a bit later so we all introduced ourselves in the excited anticipation of getting out the following morning in the incredible conditions  .
Sunday: How awful! A 50m stroll out of the chalet, up a slight incline and onto the piste  . Firm, bashed snow and a gentle run down to the Arpette chair at Bellecote. Sweetheart had decided to pick up her skis from BP in the morning (as opposed to the previous night) so we agreed to meet at around 10.30 – not a first lift of the day skier…..
So, jumped on the first lift up – Arpettte – and a nice warm up blue down Parpette to Bellecote. Then up Arpette chair again and down St Jacques. Still cutting fresh tracks on freshly groomed snow under blue sky….where is everyone? And do I care? Nope! Now pushing the skis harder – grippy skis on grippy snow with no-one around = big grin  Met up with the SO 90 minutes later already feeling the force and remembering why this resort is really that good.
We spent the next 4 hours skiing together, having a great time. Some here will appreciate what a relief that was….Sweetheart skiing superbly, with excellent technique, good speed, loads of confidence
We finished at around 3pm – quality first day, best not to push it. Shower and into BP centre for an après or 3 at La Tete (beginning of a theme) before dinner and a heavy night on the complimentary wine (beginning of another theme).
Great start to a great week
Monday: much the same! Just more pistes covered! Towards the end of the day, the weather came in and the snow started….stopped mid-evening and then started again at 2am (according to Liz….), continuing on into Tuesday.
OK, so I won’t go through each day (relieved sighs).
However, Tuesday I went out with the 5 guys in the morning – by now the bantering had well and truly started and it became apparent that the border in the group had the special attention granted all lone borders who decide to slide with skiers…..namely, any opportunity to cover them in snow when they routinely sit down…apparently  . Guys – I know a few of you are snowHeads – thanks once more for inviting me into your group. I haven’t laughed so much in ages, nor enjoyed the skiing (and après-ing) in such terrific company.
With a good 30cm of fresh, we headed off to Montalbert to get into the trees in an effort to improve visibility and conditions.
A decidedly interesting ski to be honest. A cross between off piste and on-piste. Lighter on edges, yet a desire to straight line the gentler slopes, sitting back a bit to keep the very GS skis’ tips out of trouble.
Ahhhhh, welcome back thigh burn  . It was a fun, but fairly heavy going trip down to Montalbert where 5 younger blokes unashamedly ran an old bloke into the ground......An old bloke who was now running late on returning to meet up with his SO….an older bloke who bravely stuck up his hand and said “I’m going to get the bus back guys”…..to much derision. The ultimate insult was the production of a taxi business card that apparently said “loseur” or something on the back……thanks “Son”…..
Duly ashamed into MTFU, we headed back, me refreshed and stiffened (snigger) by a damn good hot chocolate and rum (yet another theme).
And what a run back to Plagne centre it turned out to be.
At this point, one should probably remind skiers (and borders) to follow the oft repeated advice not to follow just anyone on a piste in snow, low vis and enough fresh to cover the route…..
Not 20m from jumping off the (long, slow) Formelet lift from Montalbert, we followed a group of skiers (looked fairly new to it all) onto what we thought was a gentle green run down to the Coqs (no sniggering at all the Coqs gags chaps, if you happen to find yourselves here). Well, it looked like a green marker. Only, one doesn’t often find the terrain on a green dropping away to expose quite so many (any) trees in what should have been the middle of a piste…..ooops…..schoolboy error.
So, we manly continued on….through knee-high fresh snow on a fairly steep slope through some trees until we picked up a red run down to Coqs….
Now, off-piste is still a bit of a goal. And I was the old man of the group. And I was on a pair of very stiff GS skis……And ok I fell twice (once deliberately to avoid a rather steeper route altogether)….And there were a few moments I began to curse those 5 younger b@stards….but, ya know? That was bloody good fun and we all had big grins when we rode Coqs back up to Aime La Plagne OK no more Coqs gags….. …..
I managed to get back 50 minutes late to meet a cold Sweetheart at the Face du Nord restaurant in Belle Plagne where we had lunch. If you’re there, I recommend the Assiette Montagnardes Reclette. Pricey for lunch? Yup! Worth it? Yup! But I was knackered and hungry!!
Now I’m not sure (memory going), but I think we did a few runs and then retired for the day. That meant back for tea and cake…..well, that probably should have happened.
But I think what did happen was that La Tete called (happy hour 4pm to 8pm . So low and behold we all ended up there…..managed to make dinner at 7.30 and then promptly got through about 15 bottles of wine….
Thursday: met up with the aforementioned friend and his group (3 skiers, 1 border….. ….and went over to Les Arcs for a glorious day in the sun when LP was a little more overcast. Loads of fast, wide and mainly quiet reds. What a quality day – thanks for the invite chaps . And apologies for the sh!te piece of guiding to the Vanoise…..that Routes des Bauches would challenge the French Nordic squad….. .
The final Friday morning spent with the 5 guys from the chalet bombing down to Champagny via Levasset and Les Bols (IIRC) – a fabulous red winding down through the trees. It was so quiet (apart from a bit of edge scrapping on the hard pack) and peaceful. Lovely.
With the temperatures well down around -14, the piste snow was packed and super grippy. We headed back to Plagne Centre via Les Verdons. Again amazingly quiet. So it was let the edges go, extend those legs and put in some fast carves all the way down, dropping onto Marie-Chantal before hitting LPC. We then headed back to the slopes towards PB. The guys did some snow-park stuff and I went off to do the GS run near the Les Ours run.
Cranked up the bindings, stripped down to the ski-suit, tightened the helmet and pointed the skis downhill……ducked across the line 25 odd gates later, skidded to a stop, whooping and helicopter dismounted one ski a la Cuche to the warm rapturous applause of the crowd….. ….feel free to disseminate the truth from any of that….. …..but the turns were nailed with some skidded turns only when I hit a bit of rutted, frozen rubble…..”commit, commit, commit”……
I do like the cold and sunshine. Great vis and harder pistes – just enough to confidently hold the edges. Still grinning  .
And that was pretty much it. An outstanding week. Literally one of the best. And I want to go back…..the surreal snow vista here is taunting me…..
The TO: Neilson did pretty much what they said on the tin. I should make a special mention though of our chalet host, Liz. Outstanding IME. The food was consistently good, She was helpful and fun. Thanks Liz.
Chalet Montagnettes: Cozy, but not cramped. Fireplace, balcony and mainly shared facilities, though our room was a really decent double with big en-suite bath/showeroom. If a varied group turned up and didn’t get on….could be tricky. Not the case this week. I think the place would well suit a large/extended family or a group of good friends. It is 50m from the piste, so as close to ski in/out without passing the door. BP centre is a covered 6 minute walk and there are lifts should one wish to avoid most of the steps. Maybe something to consider with very young or elderly. It didn’t bother us.
Chalet host night off: the SO and I went to K2, a large restaurant about 2 minutes away. Good service and the pierade (sp?) CYO plate of meat could well have left one or two endangered species in France. A veritable mountain for the carnivores.
Skis: hired on-line 24 hours before from Sport2000 (Armand in BP). 40% off plus a further 5% with a discount code from Edde (thanks ). So, €79 including the insurance for their “diamond” skis – as mentioned, Salomon Enduro XT800 Rocker. Clearly new. Edit: There seemed to be a good choice of skis, the people were helpful/friendly and they happily re-waxed my planks halfway through the holiday at no extra cost.....well it was a good excuse to leave the skis safely and then proceed 10m round the corner to La Tete without a) worrying about leaving them outside and b) not having to lug them 6 minutes back to the chalet. They also took care of the poles
As for the skis.....rated as all-mountain planks. Piste: very, very assured at speed and easy to manoeuvre at slower pace. Seemed fine taking a hard edge on wide arcs and easy on narrower turns. Most of my skiing is on-piste, yet on the odd (unscheduled ) venture off-piste and into knee-high powder, they performed fine.....even if at times, I didn't . There wasn't any crud, but I suspect these skis would have made light work of it. Have to say, I really liked them. Stiff enough for speed and quick turns, yet not so stiff/heavy that your legs feel like they could drop off halfway through the day.
Apres: Aha, back to one of the themes…..La Tete….€3.50 for ½ litre of Amstel between 4 and 8pm. Much was consumed…..much……well, thirsty work all that skiing and it was so cold that the Camelbak pipe froze and a thirst needed to be quenched….my excuse….sticking to it (toofy grin). Apart from a brief sojourn to Cheyenne across the way, La Tete was the place. They have live acts on quite a few evenings – Pink Velvet stuck in my mind……  . The place is usually busy/buzzy and it was good to go back there again……and again……and again……well, you get the picture.
All in all, I like Belle Plagne. It has a certain charm, is quite compact and is in an excellent location for skiing to and from. It’s not the liveliest of places, but there is fun to be had. I’d say the resort, overall, probably suits most needs and mixes of groups/ages/familes/friends/couples etc.
Pics to follow….
Chasseur
The Igloo exit from chalet
The Igloo entrance to chalet
The reason for the "Igloo" effect - took 3 guys, 2 days to clear the snow of much of the roof over the chalet building entrance.
View from the bedroom/balcony
Santa and a "rigger" running a little late it would seem....
Hot chocolate and rum stop in the Hotel Carlina right by the piste on the way down to Bellecote - expensive at an eye watering €8 a go....but the roaring fire inside sort of made up for it on the cold, cold mornings....
If anyone from our chalet wants to add to the report or sling in any more photos, feel free.
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Wed 15-02-12 17:22; edited 4 times in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Good report, cheers. Will have to go back to BP myself.
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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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Photos added....well a couple.
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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 report. Out to BP for my first visit in just under 4 weeks, and after reading the above I simply cannot wait!
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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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Peterjones3, welcome to snowHeads
It really is amazing out there - hard to see that it won't be in 4 weeks time too.
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