As some of you, my fellow NSCers, know, I’ve run away from home and have been living the good life in Paris since December. Here’s my report from a recent ski trip to Les Deux Alpes
(http://www.les2alpes.com/index.php?L=1). Unfortunately, the Alpes are LOOONG way from Paris (over 400 miles away!), so I haven’t skied much. I will be at Chamonix at the end of March after I get back from the World Figure Skating Championships in Göteborg, Sweden. It’s been a few seasons since I’ve skied last in Chamonix so I’m looking forward to it. For now, there’s my report on Les Deux Alpes.
This past January, I skied at Les Deux Alpes, my first time there. It’s not quite as large as many of the gargantuan ski domains ( areas) in the French Alps, but much larger than those we normally find in the US - it “only” has 51 lifts (including cable cars, gondolas, quads, EIGHT seaters, and some surface tows).
TERRAIN — As a Californian, one aspect of Alps skiing that has always struck me is the lack of trees. Almost all sking is above the very low tree line - trees don’t grow above 2000 Metres (~6,000 feet) in the Alpes. Check out the pictures — il n’y a pas des arbres — there are no trees. The good part about this is that there is a lot of surface area upon which to ski. The other thing that has always amazed me is the size of the mountains — both in terms of acreage and vertical drop. The vertical drop here is 2300 metres ~ 7,500 vertical feet, although, the bottom is not very interesting. Les Deux Alpes base is 4,200; summit = 11,900. The village is actually at mid mountain at about 6,000 feet. As I described above, there are 51 lifts, almost twice as many as that of Squaw Valley!
POWDER — did you say POWDER??? In between the groomed runs, there is a lot of “hors piste” (off piste) skiing — these are not necessarily out of bounds, although some are. Frequently, out of bounds skiing is permitted at your own risk, of course — NEVER go without a guide!!! There could be crevasses in the out of bounds areas. You can see in the picture below one of the huge off piste powder fields — that’s a member of our groupe, Christine, getting her skis back on. Our group made the first tracks on this slope!
WEATHER — The temperature is not much different from that of Tahoe, yet it has a lot of fairly dry powder, much lighter than our “Tahoe cement” as you can see above. At the top of the mountain, reachable only by “gondola” (just over 11,000’ @ 3600 metres) it can get fairly cold. The top is a powder covered glacier where one can ski during summer. The summit can be above the clouds!
EATING — what can I say, Viva La France
COSTS - Day pass — 36.40 € (about $54); 5 day pass — does not have to be consecutive costs 145 € ($225) — lower lifts are free — OUI! free skiing for beginners. So despite the unfavorable €uro to $; the lift costs are still a lot lower than Tahoe skiing!
See you back in California this summer!
A bientôt!
Dan
