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Another great week in La Plagne with more snow on the forecast

An incredible week of snow

featured in Snow report Author Anita Gait, La Plagne Reporter Updated

What a beautiful week we’re having in La Plagne! We started with sunburn weather on the weekend switching to three straight days of snow and now here we are, back with the sunshine and toasty temperatures once more. We've had the best of both worlds this week

We’ve enjoyed powder day after powder day as the snow kept on coming and fresh tracks could be had on the pistes for three days straight. Wednesday in particular was a beautiful day and I joined the ranks of people who spent the morning session-ing the Becoin chair to make the most of the powder pistes on offer.

tree lined piste in la plagne

The Becoin leads to the Stade Olympic a beautiful wide straight red flanked on either side by the red run Java and wide blue Mont St-Sauveur. All three pistes were knee deep in powder and despite the volume of people heading up there, we got several runs down each of them before they eventually became tracked out.

Once that happened we decided to head for Montalbert to get into some trees. Visibility was not the best due to the low hanging clouds and when that happens getting into some trees is always the best idea. We did have a slight concern that the snow that was falling at 2000m would be falling as rain down at the lower altitude of 1350m but our fears were unfounded.

snowy la plagne

The narrow winding tree runs of Montalbert are always beautiful but when the trees are thick with a foot of fresh snowfall they are incredibly atmospheric, we seemed to be one step ahead of the crowds that day too and we had the fresh snow all to ourselves, fluffy an untouched all the way down to the village. It was an absolutely beautiful morning on the mountain, any fair weather skiers who staying in to avoid low visibility and chilly winds definitely missed out on some beautiful snow.

Thursday was another great day with some incredibly dramatic scenery as layers of grey and white clouds swooped and swirled through the valleys and over the mountains. Visibility dropped in and out incredibly quickly as the clouds rolled in and out and it regularly happened that we joined the queue for a chairlift in the sun and were wreathed in mist by the time we took our seats.

la plagne mountain views

The snow took a change on Thursday too, noticeably different to the light and fluffy stuff of Wednesday the snow that fell on Thursday was substantially denser - wetter and heavier. It was still great fun to ride and it still covered the mountain beautifully all the way down to the lower villages, but it was somewhat on the sticky side and my god was it hard work to climb out of if you fell over in it, and fall over I did. After three straight days of powder riding my legs were just not up to the challenge and I regularly found myself running out of steam, toppling over and having to trek out of the heavy, heavy snow. Exhausting work but well worth it.

Unfortunately another side effect of this heavy snow is that the avalanche risk has gone up around resort and with good reason, cracks are appearing already especially on any sunny, south-facing slopes. Slips and slides have occurred over in Champagny and an avalanche on the St Jaques off-piste route scared a lot of people yesterday as volunteers spent two hours searching the slip for a skier who was thought to be buried. Luckily it turned out that he’d managed to ski out of the slide and was OK, but the incident made a lot of people think twice about their off piste plans.

skiers in bellecote

Nobody should ever be off-piste alone and never without the correct equipment; transceivers, probes, shovels, off piste insurance and a thorough knowledge of the area and conditions.

The snow conditions change from morning to afternoon as does the avalanche risk, especially in the warmth of the sun. One transceiver between three people will not help you and heading off piste alone, without telling anyone where you’re going is just dangerous. Think it through and be safe out there. If you don’t know what you’re doing, if you don’t have the right gear, stay on piste you’re not missing out there’s plenty of fun to be had.

la plagne mountains

Speaking of which the week to come is looking like another awesome one with snow predicted the next 4 out of 5 days and good quantities of it too. Make the most of the sunshine today because it may be the last of it for a while and put those layers back on for Sunday and Monday, as the temperature drops back down.

Here’s to another week of fresh snow and fun in La Plagne!

Location

Map of the surrounding area