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squiz Member Member#: 7693 Location: Registered: 29-06-2008 Diary Entries: 381 |
27th March 2014 Skiing: Les 7 Laux Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny Max Speed: Distance Covered: Thursday 27th March – skiing ***** Sunny :) Woke to clear, blue skies and some sun! Cloud in the valley like cotton wool. We just had to go up again at Pipay Les 7 Laux:) We got a morning pass (59 euros for us both) which runs from 9 until 2 so 5 hours to enjoy all the runs we loved yesterday and actually see where we were going! We were waiting for the lift to open at 9 and were on the third chair:) We had two of the best runs we have ever had down the empty, brand spanky newly pisted red run called Matura – perfect piste, perfect snow (no ice at all), perfect slope for the whole of its very long length and not a sole in sight. The lift man even had some banter in English:) We tore ourselves away and went down some cracking reds into Le Pleynet (which is amazingly 50 miles away by road!!!) and came back on the green run all the way to Prapantel. We went up to the red ridge called Clapierre which we so wanted to see in clear weather when we went over it yesterday – it was beautiful:) We were worried as some cloud was coming up from the valley but it was only thin and had past by the time we got up there. We spent the rest of the morning up and down the lifts at Prapantel and at about 12 we went up the TS Pouta lift to 2400m - the resorts highest point and the starting point to a huge area of Black runs and off piste. The view at the top was stunning and I decided to give the right hand side a go (the Jasse). The only way to start off from the top was a narrow path up from the side of the piste. As soon as I rounded the corner after about 100m I realised my mistake!!! To get to the powder bowl you had to ski 200m + of narrow path with a sheer drop to the right!!! I should have turned back, my heart was in my mouth as one mistake would mean no coming back!!!!!! (this is not being over dramatic it was very very scary!!) I made it about half way before getting too much speed up and falling! After realising I hadn’t plummeted to my death I saw that I had lost a ski and it was 3 or 4 metres below me on a steep slope. If I tried to slide down to get it I was going to be in big trouble. Then my guardian angel arrived on a mono ski. I take back all I have ever said about mono-skiers as he managed to throw me my ski back after two attempts!!! He then made me feel even better by telling me that we were on the ‘forbidden entrance’!!! Not a good place for me to be. I just managed to get my ski back on on the narrow path and then made it to the powder. Although steep I managed to get all the way back to meet Mag at the bottom of what we now call the Death Lift – this was originally because it was a very fast chair and came round and swacked Mag on both calves! Painful! But after my near death experience it now has a double meaning. Fantastic experience – I think!! While I was doing this Mag was obliviously going down the very steep and partly unpisted red and back down to the town and back up the big lift to ski down and meet me just as I finished my epic journey! There was a practice rescue going on too and a rescue helicopter was putting up loads of powder trying to find somewhere to land! We see it all! We skied down to the bottom together and then on the way back up we decided that I would meet Mag down in Le Pleynet and that now with a taste for the dangerous I would give the black Vallons du Pra a go – starting again from the 2400 death lift and ending up at Le Pleynet at 1450. Although the run in was hard it was nowhere near as difficult as my last adventure! The run was steep powder and then a long wooded path. Fantastic. Sadly an injured girl had to be taken down the black in a blood wagon! Terrible for her and she had only just started the run too:( but they are amazing skiers to watch! Mag had a great time going up the lifts and down the pistes she hadn’t done yet including Les Oursiers which takes you up very high so she could look down on where I was skiing off piste (somewhere!) and also saw a speed skier up there and watched him get ready to take off but then get wrapped round the blue run poles! Amazingly we did meet up – we had arranged to meet at 1 but it was nearer half past by the time I got there and Mag had gone up and done the border cross instead of waiting at the bottom:) We came back over to Pipay and did our favourite red run Matura down to the lift for one more go. The lovely lift man said he would let us have one more go even if it was after 2 but we didn’t take him up on his kind offer because by the time we got to the top and started to come down again the cloud had come right in and was very very thick. So instead of going up again for our freebie we went back to the van for lunch. 5 hours solid of hectic skiing – it was magic:) We really love this place and will definitely come back. We packed up and left because we really thought that if we stayed we would want to go again tomorrow and we are knackered! On the way out we detoured to Prapantel to buy a t-shirt with the Les 7 Laux on and the progress of evolution through gorillas turning into a jumping skier:) We saw them the other day and just had to have one as a souvenir! We set off down the mountain to find somewhere to park for tonight and ended up travelling a lot further than we wanted (around 50 miles to the road where you turn off to Le Pleynet ironically!) but there was nowhere to stop. So we have come up to the ski resort of Le Collet d’Allevard and the car park of a tiny little drag lift satellite area called Pre Rond. We are both exhausted! There was a lovely sun set and after a coffee felt human again so went to take photos. We had shop bought cheapo lasagne for tea:) |
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