Take one fresh maggot…Trip Recipe: La Plagne 10-17 February

**horizon** · 03-23-2007, 02:01 PM

Take one fresh maggot, a slightly more matured one, his young son and green lady, and two seasoned parents. As an exotic ingredient, add a Romanian who had never skied outside his country.

Put them together at an altitude of 2,000m, on a cooling layer of 3 feet of snow. Let them warm gently under blue skies and sun for a week, until they are slightly browned.

This is what you get (no, NOT the first photo in the thread!)

Getting there:

Driving from London with Mrs horizon. We slum it, sleeping in a parking lot by the motorway. Irbis (the fresh maggot) and Offroad (not a maggot…yet), who are driving from Amsterdam, lord it in a Hotel Ibis near Dijon. We arrive there in time to eat breakfast at the hotel.

You know what happened next - I (and the mrs) didn't pay for breakfast. (despite trying to!)

(If you don't know what I'm talking about, reread Roo's TR from Chamonix last year. Even if you know what I'm talking about, reread Roo's TR from Chamonix last year. It's hilarious, and a worthy use of half an hour)

This is what zero Euros gets you near a French autoroute (phone quality photo, sorry):

The place
La Plagne is supposed to be great for beginners and intermediates, not so good for advanced skiers. Which is perfectly correct. What isn't usually mentioned, but you can find out referring to davidof's pistehors.com website, is that "the area features some of the planet's most awesome off-piste skiing".

So we decided to test that.

Getting into action:

Two days after new snow, there are fresh tracks to be had thirty yards from the lift. So I give it a go:

For most of the photos, Offroad is the photographer. He's a budding sports photographer – mainly basketball, this is his first time taking skiing photos. Thanks Offroad!

Even better stuff awaits on the other side:

Trees 101 for Irbis:

There are more routes to be found from the Bellecote Glacier and Roche de Mio, and I'm enjoying it:

Powder to powder, dawn to dusk:

No that wasn't a fall!

I spend either the mornings or the afternoons with horizon Jr. He seems to like it:

...while Mrs horizon, who four years ago blew her ACL on her fourth day of skiing ever, is taking her return to the slopes very seriously:

...and plays the Roman Imperatrix:

The two of them are enjoying the Grotte de Glace (since she's not his mother, that's especially touching for me…)

…so Offroad and I join an ice wolf and howl at the moon a little (so what if we can't see the moon under 90 feet of ice?)

Then there's some corn to be skied and Irbis is up to the task:

There's one thing that Irbis and Offroad didn't like about La Plagne: no chicks. They all seem to have come with their families, and they're staying in at night. (I know what you're going to say, but even the mothers stay in at night!) We tried two nights out: the first we had to trek to a bar a few hundred yards away, across snowbanks steeper than anything we skied at day (the trip BACK, going uphill, was too much for Irbis and his dancing shoes. He keeled over about five times, and still can't remember a thing). The second night we went to every single bar in Plagne Centre and Aime La Plagne and counted about 10 girls (of which 3 good looking ones) and 300 barely pubescent French guys. Irbis and Offroad chickened out. So we decided to drink in our flats – here's how Irbis and Offroad left the Horizon residence around midnight:

And incidentally, here's the only chick that Irbis managed to pick up during the entire holiday (I wish the tracks behind were ours…but we'll be back).

The next day, Horizon junior decides to do some offpiste sledging:

…while Irbis rips a binding out of his rental ski (He wasn't doing anything remotely difficult at the time. These bindings were mounted by the manufacturer at the factory – do you think he can write to them and sweetly ask for a deal on new skis?)

Four days after the last snowfalls, we find a good place for fresh tracks, accessible with no hiking. So I'm going in:

..and so is Irbis:

When Irbis and Offroad spot the little couloir in the centre of this photo, and realise no one has skied it yet, we decide the time for bigger balls has arrived:

Soon after, we get there, Offroad sets himself up for some sunbathing, and Irbis and I start climbing it.

We get to the top. It looks good up there! Here's Irbis - the other side is a little intimidating, better stick to our couloir:

I'm safe...still

It looks less good looking down. Miss a turn and there's a rock field waiting for you. I wish I was a better skier.

Irbis feeds me some candy. He looks down again and gulps a candy himself. I turn to him and ask 'Do you think this was a good idea?'

But there's no honourable way down except on skis. So here we go, with yours truly opening the way:

and exiting in style

The week is ending, but Irbis gets some more fun time on some mushy snow…

While Offroad makes a rare appearance in FRONT of a camera, as he starts enjoying the offpiste under the Roche de Mio:

On the way back, Irbis apprehends a suspect citizen. He proceeds to interrogate him using the Shock and Awe method:

…while Mrs Horizon and I pass by an intriguing offer, but decide to go on:

...to get to this French castle (private property, never visited by the villagers)

Well that's about it, hope you enjoyed the photos…10 MONTHS until we ski again?

**Poop~Ghost** · 03-23-2007, 02:10 PM

NICE!!! thanks for sharing

**irbis** · 03-23-2007, 02:11 PM

10 months??? I just spoke to a certain lady ski instructor in St Anton whom we both know. She says it's been snowing, that she skied powder yesterday and that the temperature is 11 celsius below zero at the moment. I guess the weekend of 8th of April is just as good as any

don't know about you horizon, but I am very, very tempted :-))

**hemas** · 03-23-2007, 02:19 PM

I'm gonna say that you should have taken the gondola to Les Arc's...

And hit the bars at LA 1800, atleast when I was there, there were more than enough chicks

.

BTW. some good skiing at LA as well.

**irbis** · 03-23-2007, 02:36 PM

Very good idea, but does that gondola operate after skiing hours? I don't think so...

**hutash** · 03-23-2007, 10:12 PM

La Plagne has the worst night life of just about any resort, at least when I was there. It is a nightmare of traversing, but there are some goods to be had, as you showed. The hike over the top, off the Belle Cote glacier has a great off piste run that takes the better part of a day to do the whole round trip, (with a great French lunch and wine to linger over.)

**cramp** · 03-24-2007, 02:21 AM

Nice TR. The couloir looks really cool ...

And I like this one. A great ski and not to be seen very often on the hills ...

**Roo** · 03-24-2007, 03:09 AM

I'm glad you've indoctrinated the wife in the way of the free French breakfast.

Nice work! Looks like you scored some OK snow to boot.

**hemas** · 03-24-2007, 03:16 AM

Originally Posted by irbis

Very good idea, but does that gondola operate after skiing hours? I don't think so...

I think you'd get a ride to the other side in early evening... But return would be a taxi-ride via Bourg-St. Maurice (did I remember the real villages name correctly?).

**horizon** · 03-26-2007, 04:18 AM

Originally Posted by hemas

Quote:
Originally Posted by irbis
Very good idea, but does that gondola operate after skiing hours? I don't think so... [/I][/I]

I think you'd get a ride to the other side in early evening... But return would be a taxi-ride via Bourg-St. Maurice (did I remember the real villages name correctly?).

Of course, one could gamble, take the last cable car to Les Arcs, and once there come up with his best game in order to get a chick and secure a warm bed for the night...

High stakes...but possibly a good story to feed to a lady in the bar.

**ulty_guy** · 03-26-2007, 04:42 AM

great stuff!

**Hayduke** · 03-26-2007, 05:28 AM

nice looking Mrs. Got any nekkid pics? Swap you for your stickers?

**horizon** · 03-26-2007, 07:17 AM

Originally Posted by Hayduke

nice looking Mrs. Got any nekkid pics? Swap you for your stickers?

Answers in order:
1) Yup, agreed. 2) No comment 3) Nyet.

**BeanDip4All** · 03-26-2007, 08:47 AM

This TR has it all, powder, chutes, kid stoke, family, good food shots

**skier666** · 03-26-2007, 11:49 AM

Looks like some awesomeness was had by all!

This one is tits....

The terrain in the back looks kinda fun

**Mrs Roo** · 03-26-2007, 03:28 PM

Looks like a lot of fun. I take it you were too busy for scrabble.

**irbis** · 03-26-2007, 04:50 PM

Horizon's well thought winning strategy for scrabble turned against him. Every night he would invite us over for a game of scrabble. Then he would try to reduce our abilities by giving us some alcohol. We pretended to take it quite well. So he would give us some more. By the time he thought we were an easy prey we were so pissed we could barely find the door (so we normally used the balcony as a way out, as you may gather from some of the pics above).

Oh, and next time you talk to him ask him if he enjoyed being called on the walkie talkie in the morning...