Minimum altitude: 1,210 meters
Distance: 90.6 km
Slope Aspect: North-West
Vertical Climbed: 9,433 meters (30,950 feet)
Vertical Descended: 9,462 meters
We profited from the end of the school holidays to ski all day for 42 euros (weekend price) in calm conditions. First time I've seen la Plagne so empty, a real pleasure not to have the hussle and bussle of lift queues and crowded pistes. The aim was to ski over to les Coches and do some nice tree skiing over there. However the Crozat lift was broken for a while so we had to do the long flat Bauches road to get to Montchavin. Below les Coches the snow was practically unskiably soft.
We did a couple of runs down here, taking the les Coches red which advertised "weak snow cover". It was true and there were a few difficult sections of ice and grass.
After a piste picnic we headed up to the glacier but were disappointed that you can't ski down from the Roche de Mio and the black run off the glacier was closed - maybe following the fatal accident last week?
We then decided to ski down to Champagny but again, the final run down was closed due to lack of snow. So after a bit of skiing around la Plagne center we tackled the long Etroits black. Steep and heavily mogulled in places. A good challenge and a nice, wild run.
Slushy below 1450 meters on NW facing slopes in the morning. Pistes to Champagny closed due to lack of snow. Generally good skiing above although some ice on steeper slopes: les Coches red, le Mur black. We didn't ski the glacier as the run off was closed.
