 Poster: A snowHead
|
Prompted by
choose one place you've been skiing you'd go back to tomorrow..
I have never been to La Grave, and the plan is to go to La Grave this season. There will be 4 of us and we were thinking of doing a couple of days with a guide and stay over. So any tips on Guides to use, places to stay or decents to do. Thanks.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
| jbob wrote: |
| So any tips on Guides to use, places to stay or decents to do. |
Guides - Don't bother with a guide. Unless you're first off P3 on a powder day, there'll be plenty of other tracks to follow anyway. If there's been a big dump and you can't make out any tracks, use your iphone maps application for navigation, mobile phone coverage is pretty good.
Accommodation - The village is full of ski bores. A much cooler place to stay is in a snow hole under one of the pylons but as most people won't have a shovel with them to dig one anyway, stay near one of the restaurants. One of those Halfords or Argos festival tents can be had for less than £20. Otherwise a Crystal catered chalet in LDA but do watch the time and consider packing a headtorch. If you miss the last drag lifts, it's a fair hike up to the Dome de la Lauze even taking a short cut right across the open glacier.
Descents - Turn hard right as you come off the top from Deux Alpes, follow any tracks you find and see where you end up. Supposedly several good route variations that lead down into Vallons, after a wee traverse.
Have fun, and don't take any of the above seriously. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
| moffatross wrote: |
| jbob wrote: |
| So any tips on Guides to use, places to stay or decents to do. |
Guides - Don't bother with a guide. Unless you're first off P3 on a powder day, there'll be plenty of other tracks to follow anyway. If there's been a big dump and you can't make out any tracks, use your iphone maps application for navigation, mobile phone coverage is pretty good.
|
wow.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
moffatross wins.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
haha.yeah ok
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
Yeah, Wooow to new guides.... La Grave is for sure the place where you want to hire guides. Not only because of glacier, but a lot of tracks leading down to coulours where you must use a rope and harness. On top of that, the guide will show you the best lines.
La Grave is such a awesome place so you have something to look forward to. Total different mountain experience! I was there las season and stayed 4 days at skiers lodge. Guides are included and are some of the best. I know also that there are some other decent places to stay that are cheaper.
Anyway, have an awesome trip and great winter!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
now now Ross 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Am glad the first reply was a joke!
Stayed at the Lodge 2 years ago during a poor snow spell and I was always being guided past literal death traps, never mind the fact that you simply couldn't get to the places you want to without a guide.
This place is amazing, a must for anyone who spurns resorts or simply likes all mountain skiing. We skied (i Boarded) mostly ice in fairness, though actually grass and mud in parts too. Unbelievable technical challenge, not one for the unfit.
We had a payoff on our 3rd day which was lots of powder - basically some of the only snow they had that year in dump form. This was the only day I actually enjoyed, it really isn't a place for boarders, too much traversing. A visit to the boot room proved enlightening to us all - ski's near enough the width of my board, and boards taller and wider than I've ever seen.
Try and grab Eric from the Lodge as a guide, and avoid Vallone as he's nuts!
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
Don't think there are many bad guides there - Francois Pinatel is very well respected (but sometimes not available due to ski instruction commitments), Manu Lestienne is fun.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
| fordy11 wrote: |
This place is amazing, a must for anyone who spurns resorts or simply likes all mountain skiing. We skied (i Boarded) mostly ice in fairness, though actually grass and mud in parts too. Unbelievable technical challenge, not one for the unfit. |
I grew up skiing that sort of terrain....
Welcome to Scotland 
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
Skierslodge do weekends/short breaks now which would be an easy introduction.
x 2 on Messrs Pinatel and Lestienne unless you are very sensitive to the smell of roll up ciggies
in terms of descents, just leave it in the guide's hands. you'll probably warm up with one of the classics and they will take it on from there. not much point going with pre-conceived ideas of stuff you "have" to do - best just to go with what is in condition
for staying, if you don't go with the skierslodge, the Castillan is very handy for the lift; the Edelweiss is a bit more of a walk (5-10mins so not bad) and has nice food, good wine list and a cosy bar
have fun!
must get back there myself this season...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Must get back there myself. Nothing like a good day there. Amazing how you forget the bad days though, and my God they're bad days in LG.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
|
Just booked a pre Christmas week in Deux Alpes flying out 15th Dec , anyone know if links to La Grave likely to be open by then? Based somewhere near the Jandri express.. Any recomendations for off piste guiding /courses from Deux Alpes side ?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
Take a look at the Auberge Edelweiss, which is further up the road away from Grenoble, opposite the Tourist Office. It's run by an English / Dutch couple who do excellent food with a good wine list ... maybe, a bit more pricey than the Lodge?
Also, if all the guides based in La Grave are booked up, consider going with one from the Serre Chevalier area - Jean-Yves Hubaud is good.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
| duncan wrote: |
Take a look at the Auberge Edelweiss, which is further up the road away from Grenoble, opposite the Tourist Office. It's run by an English / Dutch couple who do excellent food with a good wine list ... maybe, a bit more pricey than the Lodge?
Also, if all the guides based in La Grave are booked up, consider going with one from the Serre Chevalier area - Jean-Yves Hubaud is good. |
I agree with the you about the Auberge. I have stayed there a few times.
I also think Jean-Yves is superb but I suspect that he is likely to be well booked as well. Although he lives in Serre Chevalier I always think of him as one of the La Grave guides.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
Phillipe Andre and Pierre Rizzardo are two of my favourite guides but they were probably booked up a while ago for this season. Certainly Skiers Lodge would be a good bet if they have space.
It really isn't a place to ski without a guide when you don't know it quite well, and even then I would be reluctant to go down more than a few of the best known routes on my own. As you probably know, it is all off-piste. There are no pistes. There are two or three major ways down which are the easiest and which come close to being pistes since so many people ski them. Other than that they all involve very steep couloirs and often the glacier. In several places following tracks might lead you completely stuck when you came to somewhere where people use ropes to get down a cliff or a very exposed extremely steep slope where a fall would be fatal.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
|
How easy or difficult are the "major ways" down? I am not that experienced an offpiste skier but would love to "do" La Grave, meaning I would want to do the easiest safest way down and then sit on my laurels in the bar- could a black piste skier manage things ok under average conditions or is a lot of off-piste experience a prerequisite?
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
I went to La Grave in 2011 for the day with hubby, son, Maggi and Thumbstruck, Easiski and a couple of others who came over with her from Les Deux Alpes. We skied Vallons down to P1. It was the most wonderful experience, but I admit to being quite scared and feeling a bit out of my depth at times, and I didn't cope to well with trees and huge moguls, mainly because I was already very tired when I got to them. Would I do it again? you bet I would , but I would make sure I was fit enough to enjoy it even more, although I don't think I would enjoy steep couloirs.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
patricksh, Can you ski moguls, a bit of windslab and hold a line on very bumpy traverses? If so you'd probably be ok in the hands of someone understanding like easiski.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
fatbob, those bumpy traverses were nearly my undoing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sharkymark, but what about Charlie Big potatoes?
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
moffatross, great photos, and boy did my beer at the bottom taste good.
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
|
fatbob, what do you mean by windslab? One false move and the slope avalanches?
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
Nah - just a wind scoured crust. A guide won't take you where avy danger is very high and on high risk days the guides will often go up first and "manually" control the main routes to make the rest of the day easier.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyone can do the easier bits in my opinion - at least anyone truly competent on Blacks etc. What is paramount in my opinion (and those above) is having a guide to show you away from the bits that could kill you. Simples! YOu simply CANNOT just follow tracks and shoot anyone who suggests you can. Even the 'main' routes will have crevasses which you simply won't see.
Don't bother boarding there unless your very, very good or unless the snow is great. I did and it was above my pay grade until we had a dump, then it became the best experience of my life. The runs, the liners, the solitude, the all mountain element. Just fantastic. When it was all ice it felt like boarding boot camp.
I fell getting down coulior patou on my second day, after being told a fall would probably kill me as there was no snow just ice and rocks down to the lake and not much chance of stopping. Hated it, though getting down it felt like a great achievement at the time.
The next day I it was so much easier it was laughable and it remains my most enjoyable day ever.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
|
If you carry a few too many pounds or and extra stone or two- lose it, get fit, be prepared to sweat and improve quickly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
great vids
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
Woosh, when were you there last season? I was there last season and stayed at the, lodge from Dec 26 th to New Years eve, in fact I was their first guest last season. Were you in our group by any chance??
La G was simply awesome, the lodge was great and the whole experience incredible. I swore to myself I'd go back this year, but the wife would kill me if I brought her there so no can do this, time unfortunately...
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
Hello me and my friend were thinking of trying some proper off-piste this year and often ski at serre chevalier, so were thinking we might try and head over to la grave. Neither of us have ever done this kind of skiing though we're both fine on blacks and have done the adventuring off the sides and in between pistes bits that everyone does, so I was wondering if the guides recommended above would be good to take us and offer a few pointers and things as well as showig us where to go or are we better doing some sort of off-piste course with a ski school?? if its the latter does anyone have any recommendations for one round the serre chevalier or montgenèvre area?
Thanks
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
I would email skiers lodge and ask them to suggest a week when they will cater to skiers at your level. Pele Lang is a great guide and he will sort something out for you.
Alternatively the SC of GB organise 1or2 trips there during the season and they normally have 2 groups at different levels with a few guides on hand and you may find that good.
enjoy
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
ozbozz123, sounds like you should be OK with the classic routes on LG. Definitely get a guide - the ones mentioned above I am sure would be happy to take you if they are free
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
ozbozz123,
You could probably handle La Grave but if you want to learn I think Serre Chevalier would be better.
In La Grave there is a lot of time spent at the end of the major runs getting down through the forest which can be tricky, plus the fact that the lift is slow (not a bad thing sometimes because it gives you a breather!), but it does mean you have less actual time in the snow conditions you want.
Serre Chevalier has excellent off piste as well with fresh snow, including easier runs which are great for learning and with a guide/instructor you can repeat them quickly and easily. There are a number of longer off piste routes as well which are superb, meaning you can start with the easier stuff and then progress to the more demanding runs when appropriate.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
DB,
Great, great, videos. they really capture what true backcountry skiing is about.
Has anyone ever stayed in the refuge on the mountain?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
horgand,
I was there in the middle of February last season. It was very cold, but what an experience. I skied with Matt Farmer and he was excellent. And the whole setup of skiers lodge is so great. All credits to Pelle Lang. I can guess that the New Year stay you had was great as well.
ozbozz123 : I think that you can have some runs in La Grave and enjoy the experience, but not the best place to start.
Montgenevre has some great offpiste areas. On top of the lift in Montgenevre just on the border, run into Italy. Then a small hike will take you back to the border and from there you have some great options going down the French side or the Italian (French steepest). Or you can take the lift up towards Briacion direction and go down in the woods. Awesome run, but you will need a car when coming down.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
Woosh, yes, I'm going to Montgenevre in early February. Some good tree skiing.
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Thu 29-11-12 14:41; edited 1 time in total
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I can second Matt Farmer. Probably the youngest guide that i have skied with, very well rounded chap with a uni degree in geology, experience as a paramedic in the states and a staunch Obama supporter; a thinking mans guide. A top bloke who also has a healthy respect for the mountain (as any guide has) having had the misfortune of skiing with Doug Coombs when Doug fell to his death a few years ago.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
