 Poster: A snowHead
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La Plagne is disaster for long queues and slow lifts, and boring blues to come down after all that trouble (disclaimer: yes I know La Plagne has some of best off-piste in France, but pistes offer little challenge). That is fact pure and simple
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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patricksh, how many times have you been to La Plagne. I think if you are saying this you do not know the place very well. Although I am over on the Les Arcs side, I go to La Plagne side every week and do both pistes and off piste. If you are coming there again, send me a PM and let me kow in advance and we can arrange to meet. I will show you some pistes that will make you change your mind about your last post. Hope to meet you one day! 
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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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snowcrazy, twice both in March when I would expect it to be quiet. Comparison and contrast with absence of queues in Les Arcs at the same time was telling.
Actually I would love to go to La Plagne for a week, do an off-piste course while wife and kids skied gentle terrain on-piste, but I know the queues would drive them bananas so won't do it.
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snowcrazy, and both times I was there the black pistes on the Aime side were closed (except etroits), which I assume are the pistes you are talking about; but as they are west-facing I assume they must have short season anyway.
I am regular in Les Arcs (hope to do either that or Tignes at Easter) so I will take you up on that if I'm around and you don't mind!
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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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| Quote: |
twice both in March when I would expect it to be quiet.
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the first two weeks in March are the Paris holidays this year, and nobody would expect any French resort to be quiet then. 
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pam w, late March both times after all French holidays over
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We find here that mid January is much quieter than late March. The week or so after the end of the French hols are fairly busy (though nothing like the holidays) then it all falls off very quickly at the end of the month. Early/mid April is very quiet again.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I go to La Plagne most years for the last 10 years. Yes you can get caught in bellcote in some horrendus ques but they are normally predictable in the sense of what time they occurr. The worst time is just after the 2 hour lunch break around 1400. We simply avoid this time, easy. We go out early and go through lunch and rearly return to the belcote area at that time. There is plenty of mountain to ski without going back to the bottlenecks.
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I think over new years the longest que was a 40 minute wait for the gondolla at bellecotte. other than that it was accepted that late afternoon bellcotte would be a mare. Aside from that, so long as you get amongst the chairs and dont mind not being with your group its not an issue.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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any tips on avoiding queues in La Plagne at half-term appreciated ??
Lunch at 12 is usually a good idea!
Looking at ski-hire at the moment looked at Alpine Resorts (code SNOWBALL), SnowBrainer (BLUERUN), Skiset (ECUKN012) plus couple of others - AR comes out cheapest - their shop is referred to as Sarl PRS, can't locate it on this map though:
http://www.laplagnet.com/item_files/plagne_soleil_village_town_map.pdf - anyone know - if you happen to know roughly where Silverski's Chalet Topaz is roughly even better 
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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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Lunch at 12 is usually a good idea!
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I'd say stop for a snack earlier than that, then ski 12 - 2, then have another break while the queues are extra busy.
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simonx, As pam w says. La Plagne is still very French and the French like lunch. It will be noticeably quieter between. Instead of lunch, ski between 1-2.
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You know it makes sense.
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We've been to La Plagne the last two seasons in January and never seen so much as a small queue worth a mention. The area is so big that it is easy makes sense to simply avoid the obvious bottleneck at Bellecote or the glacier at peak times. while everyone else is queing just be some place else...simples!
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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awful resort always huge queues for the lifts and really busy dangerous crowded pistes half term is horrible, for boarders there are lots of flat pistes which is not good the restaurants are huge rip offs with poor food and well over priced drinks even the snow looks dirty and over used its like a northern factory town. All in all all that can be bad about ski holidays can be found in La Plagne. never ever again.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Ford wrote: |
| awful resort always huge queues for the lifts and really busy dangerous crowded pistes half term is horrible, for boarders there are lots of flat pistes which is not good the restaurants are huge rip offs with poor food and well over priced drinks even the snow looks dirty and over used its like a northern factory town. All in all all that can be bad about ski holidays can be found in La Plagne. never ever again. |
Mmmm. You sound like someone from the Austrian (or La Ros) tourist board?
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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've always liked La Plagne, I don't find the pistes boring at all. Yes there can be some busy areas, but it's easy to avoid them.
I'd suggest it's perhaps a resort to avoid at peak weeks, but all four times I've been (pre-Christmas x 3 and mid-March x 1), the queues weren't too bad at all.
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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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I think the solution is to strap a high speed, single person lift on the side of all the existing lifts. The real problem with queues is the people using them, not the lifts themselves. You can lose over 50% of the capacity of the lifts by muppets holding things up in the pass-checking point queues and at the lift mounting points by insisting that they have to travel with the 2/3 other members of their group thus making lifts depart empty or with 1-2 people on them. I hate to say it, but the English are particularly bad at this. It's self centred and ultimately self-defeating behaviour since it just encourages others to behave the same way exacerbating the problem.
If you strapped single seat, high speed lift on to the existing pylon structures and have a seperate entrance to it, you would double the lift uplift figures for very little additional cost and the serious skiers could keep skiing whilst the dopey glove and pole dropping brigade can stick to the main queue (p.s. boarders and ski schools, the other scourges of the lift queue would be forbidden on the single seaters but all the ski rescue/pisteurs would be welcome - they push in anyway).
You know I'm right!
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| Dr John wrote: |
| Story I heard is Les Arcs and La Plangne are having a bit of a tiff since the big cable link went in and it's causing tension between the two resorts. |
Are the peaks getting pulled closer together causing the runs to get squashed?
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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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simonx, might be the shop marked 20 on the map, Give them a call and ask them where they are.
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Layne, the VE was a bit of a layered concept. One of the largest shareholders of Compagnie des Alpes - the largest lift operator in the Alpes and in Les Arcs and La Plagne - was Intrawest who were also - not coincidentaly - the builders of Les Arcs 1950. In order to underpin the prices they wanted to charge for apartments 1950, Intrawest leant on CdesA a bit and thus the VE and various upgrades to the lifts in and around 1950 (c.f. the passenger link between 1950 and 2000). Intrawest is no longer involved in Les Arcs 1950 in any major way so that influence on the lift stucture is now history but I would imagine that the La Plagne side of Paridiski is feeling a trifle miffed that more was not spent on their side of the valley.
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| Ford wrote: |
| awful resort always huge queues for the lifts and really busy dangerous crowded pistes half term is horrible, for boarders there are lots of flat pistes which is not good the restaurants are huge rip offs with poor food and well over priced drinks even the snow looks dirty and over used its like a northern factory town. All in all all that can be bad about ski holidays can be found in La Plagne. never ever again. |
great resort always small queues if any when I'm there with largely quiet pistes.......don't care about boarders flat spots.....restaurants no worse than anywhere else reasonable food at average fFrench prices. Beautiful white snow with stunning valley views and not a factory in sight. all in all great family resort La Plagne will probably visit again 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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RattytheSnowRat, A lot of projects happen like that don't they. It's always of idle interest though. I went to La Plagne a couple of times and to Les Arcs for a day iirc before it opened. And there is no doubt they hold up pretty well as resorts in their own right. But even so it really opens things up.
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ah found it #14 Intersport - Sun Valley is the clue!
So what are the lifts to particularly avoid at peak times?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I'm with jirac18. I've never been peak season, when every big resort is busy, but just get out of the centre and up high and apart from Roche de Mio it's great. Some slow chairs (e.g. Inversons), but lots of gentle off piste.
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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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reasonable food at average fFrench prices.
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average for the small number of very big French resorts, that is. ie no worse than the Espace Killy, Grand Massif, etc. But quite a bit more than the average for the other few hundred, I'd say.
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Layne, no argument from me - I think the VE is a nice trip in and of itself and I've done it a number of times in order to pop over to Bellecote. I really should play a bit more on the La Plagne side but I find the pistes an bit tame in comparison with Les Arcs and the lift network def. needs a re-think/up-date. The off piste is good however so I still make the trip!
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You know it makes sense.
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Had a good week of skiing in La Plagne, thought the pistes were great and plenty. However given the masssive cost of lift passes, the lift system is slow and antiquated - no chair lifts have the bubble covers for example which would've helped given how freaking freezing cold it was last week, and how slow most of them are! They also need a couple of new lift connections and/or pistes to make it easier to get around, things get convoluted at times especially when trying to avoid the massive queues in P. Bellecotte. The gondola from Roche to Mio to the glacier is slow, had big queues and was really ineffeciently used (cabins seat six but most have 3 or 4 in them). In fairness I should point out that the Funiplagne from P. Centre is fast and efficient.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Ski La Plagne on a Saturday if you're in Les Arcs as it's changeover day for most of the resorts. It was very quiet when we were there 2 weeks ago (1st UK half term week) on the Sat, with no queues at all.
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Poster: A snowHead
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skichampcouk, i know the one you mean out of Montalbert i think its called Fornet. The longest slowest lift i've ever been on i managed to get on it as the snow and fog came in and it was horrible lol
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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La Plagne is no different to any other resort. If it's busy the lefties should enforce that each chair is full.
Disgruntlement in a lift is just part of the course, just get over it.
La Plagne is busy over the school holidays, especially When the Parisians come to town.
The bubble out of Bellecote is a bottleneck but can be avoided by using two chairs easily. I think it's faster too.
There are flat spots is La Plagne but as an experienced border I can state there is just one run that gives me real grief and that now has a rope pull at the end.
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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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Welcome too snowHeads Whisky_priest
| Whisky_priest wrote: |
La Plagne is no different to any other resort. If it's busy the lefties should enforce that each chair is full.
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Plenty of those on snowHeads...cracking idea
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Chasseur, I reckon theres a few righties as well 
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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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You'll need to Register first of course.
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I think I have to side with James.
The main contributer to uplift is the number of (and thus) space between chairs, rather then the speed of the cable. Detachable chairlifts being easier (safer?) to get on and off and faster to get up the hill being the reason that skiers/boarders prefer them.
I'm sure that if it were upto the companies involved, they would prefer fixed grips as they are surely cheaper and easier to maintain.
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Was there low season mid Jan, only queue was one day of 6 when trying to get the bubble up from bellecotte which could be avoided by using three chairs, from memory think it's something like collussus? Worth remembering the gondola up to the glacier stops uplifting around 3.30 so probably gets busy in its last hour.
Whisky priest is that the bottom of the black/blue off carella lift?
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Yes mate. Nearly did it once on my big board
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FAQ
Jeez, schoolboy error.
