Snow boarding in La Plagne leaves us comfortably numb
Currently suffering from back to work blues after two weeks snowboarding in La Plagne, enjoying incredible conditions: La Plagne
Both weather and snow were awesome. The first Wednesday and last Tuesday are possibly the best conditions I have ever seen! This made being the only boarder in a group of skiers bearable. The debate for which is better will rage on for a long time! I have to confess to taking out a nice skiing lady (sorry again), which didn't help the greater cause.
La Plagne is a large and very scenic resort (if a little pricey). Eating out is expensive, but well worth it! By far my favorite restaurant, called "Restaurant", is tucked in behind the gondola station in Bellecotte. Their cod house dish is out of this world and well worth the trek to it!
La Plagne has a diverse amount of runs, many of which are not ideal for boarders. After a quick overnight waxing the numerous flat areas became less of an issue. Keeping enough speed to get past them proved more interesting! Skiers seemed hell bent on weaving around at a slow pace across my path or stopping in large packs to spite me. Large chunks of my time were spent waiting for big enough gaps to go uninterrupted or taking random lines and off piste sections just to avoid the skiers. It's definitely not a friendly place for beginner boarders. Of the resorts I have been I would say it is easily the worst for boarders, evident by the sheer lack of numbers compared to skiers. The large flat areas make for a lot of un-clipping if they are busy or if you'd lack the confidence to carry a lot of speed on to them! It's ok for the likes of Terry (skier) who makes his own space, but I struggled when it got busy and had to get closer to skiers than I would like.
The Glacier and the lower villages are well worth a trip and we had some of the most fun red and blue runs (these areas weren't that crowded)! The Glacier itself has some of the most stunning views (See left for Pete enjoying the scenery).
Apresski wasn't that apparent, but we didn't venture in to 1800 or Center in the evenings and the local bars charged a fiver a pint! At that rate it was never going to be rammed full of apreskiers/boarders. We did succeed in one night out in what we initially assumed was a gay bar, called "Le Saloon" (thankfully no one got a pic of me sitting on the bar saddle :D). In the end it turned out to be one of three regular "night clubs" in our area.
Big thanks to Terry (Red Leader) for organising the Trip, Pete (Red 5) for providing a good influence for pushing it and Chris (Rubber Duck) for ordering "Le Chicken Burger" and "proving" money can indeed buy happiness, donkeys and potentially Jon (and for the photos included in this blog).
Olly (Not Si :D)
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