Another Chamonix, La Grave TR. Good times were had

[babybear]

*was able to fix some of the attachments and added some more info. although a few pics are still pio'd dammit

we decided where we wanted to take a honeymoon even before we decided the wedding date/ details. but ullr blessed us with a blizzard on the day


we arrive in chamonix first. splurged on an excellent airbnb at the Majestique the big hotel looking building below brevent.
It's now converted to apartments but the location was perfect for us. 1 min walk to bus stop. walk to brevent and all restaurants but a couple streets off the main zone bc people there like to party.
We saw people dancing on the tables in ski boots at like 5:30pm

afternoon views- mountains galore+ view from Brevent



We went to Grand Montets and then the clouds rolled in- Luckily I've been to Targhee a few times so I know how to ski by braille
for anyone looking at this TR for info for their trips- GM is probably the worst choice on a bad visibility day as it's one of the most open areas



went closer to the rocks and got some viz


Another challenging viz day so went to Les Houches. we don't have enough surface lifts/ pomas around here. this one has a curve in it too so ups the skills for upcoming more challenging pomas


andrew still loves jumping off stuff. I saw a glimpse of a thread recently where someone was saying 30yo were over the hill. lolol.


back to town via adorable little red train. good thing my technical gear has an excellent beer pocket. bc I am on vacation


Next day it got sunny so we decided to do the vallee blanche.
It was andrew's first time and although it can be touristy, it's bc the views are pretty ok.
trying to not appear gripped walking down the arete

we weren't 1st box but we found some fresh & skied through some ancient ice
With all the snow this yr, the ski out went way faster than in times prior where you end up skiing for miles on snow soup.
and we were able to ski all the way to town, which I've never been able to do before



lots of snow sluffs as it was late day but we were up on an opposing ridge so just got to watch


Enjoyed a nice sunny day at Courmayeur and managed to find some fun turns. an old man told me the locals call it combmyhair lol


We saw a lot of James Bond era looking gondolas and trams but this was the best. 6 or maybe 7 people max


The black crows of the alps have a much nicer little "tweet" vs the Caws of our more enormous black crows.



Continued below.....

[Tye 1on]

Great TR, thanks bb!!! Looks like you two sent it, well earned and deserved- cheers!!

[SkiBall]

Love it.
Maybe someday...

[mcski]

Pics up to attachment ...75 weren't working. B+ until sorted out

Were you on alpine gear ?

[Buster Highmen]

Glad you had fun. Did you use guides every day?

[Core Shot]

Dream trip. Inspiring pics.

That standing lift is bizzarro

[babybear]

not sure why the first few pics won't load.....?? rats will figure out later

Were you on alpine gear ?

alpine boots and touring bindings.
that's what I end up use for most of our tours around here anyway- I have never loved my touring boots so it takes a long tour to get me into them

Glad you had fun. Did you use guides every day?

we ended up not using guides at all. had an acquaintance that showed us the lay of the land on the 1st day and andrew basically has a photographic memory for terrain so we went with that
He ended up skiing a couple things that I passed on- the Rateau etc. will get a couple more of his pics added too.

yes dream trip but we are already scheming for when we can get back there hee hee

[grinch]

Good stuff. A good friend lights up when he speaks of his la grave trip. Congrats too!!

[mogul5480]

Next time hit Tours / Col de Balme on the fog day instead of Les Houches. Otherwise damn near perfect execution. That looked awesome.

Si tu tombe, c'est la chute, et si tu chute, c'est la tombe!

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[babybear]

*ok split the post and attachments work now + added more info
mogul ^ yea we hit Le Tour as well just didn't want to overload with every day of our trip since we supremely milked it and took 3 wks
Plus Andrew is one of those people that must hit every area available on our passes, ride every lift, etc (when you can fit it all in as you all know how absolutely sprawling these places can be)
He even claimed checking Le Planards off the list bc when we skied off the VB it ends on planards trails lol

then p/u a rental car and head down South towards La Grave. Driving the windiest roads ever and passing under a variety of avalanche barriers and made a stop in alp d'huez. home of the famous tour de france switchbacks


this is what the gps looked like. it was fun bc we also had a manual


funny people mover at alp d'huez


finally arrive at the main objective. this place has been getting built up in my mind for a long long time


it was awesome. exceeded my expectations of it's fun and charm
go- to's were the lac couloirs- banane, lac and patou and trefides 0/1. lots of open fields of powder in between
Andrew skied trefides 2 and a couple more lines that I passed on- rateau etc
but as Buster and plugboots etc have mentioned, if you are on it- studying ahead, good at route finding, aware of weather etc, it is not as intimidating as I expected it to be and lots of good, fun, challenging terrain to be had as a visitor . although there isn't really much lower end terrain so I think that is where an intermediate might get more bored? but we also saw multiple occasions of jeans skiers there so they still enjoy it. We also downloaded the Fatmap app and that was quite detailed
We also had the extra bene of a ski angel meeting up with us on our first lift ride up and he showed us the lay of the land. We never saw him another day so we even debated whether he might be a wedding gift sent from Ullr. Here he is after skiing powder in the trefides


The real draw to this place is the slower pace. The mtn is obviously large- 7k feet of descending if you can ski to the base. Most people stay on the upper mountain but even those laps take awhile. Not many people there so you just relax. Our running joke became if you could fart at the top of a line, then you were relaxed enough to ski it.

[Buster Highmen]

we ended up not using guides at all.

Is this where I can continue ribbing you about that?

[nicojohnson1234@gmail.com]

Guides, don't need no stinking guides.

[babybear]

Is this where I can continue ribbing you about that?

go right ahead I credited you above w/ my enhanced write up bc I wanted to note that but I'm a pretty risk averse person so this is usually my default and it's worked ok for me so far
I yam what I yam

[plugboots]

Having a ski buddy with a photographic memory doesn’t hurt when picking lines. No dog pics?

[Buster Highmen]

go right ahead. I credited you above w/ my enhanced write up bc I wanted to note that
I'm a pretty risk averse person so this is usually my default and it's worked ok for me so far
I yam what I yam

It's funny how the unknown grows in our minds.

But really, so glad you had a good trip - the snow this year is truly fantastic.

I have this problem of getting sucked back to LG all the time when there's so much great Alps skiing.

May I recommend putting Engelberg/Andermatt/Airolo/Disentis in your queue as well as Alagna/Monte Rosa, just be sure the snow is good for the latter.

[babybear]

ok some more- we stayed at this place in La Grave- Le Castillan which is right across the street from the telepherique.
It's old school ski lodge- our room tilted, the walls are thin but it is the best
It catches the afternoon/ apres sun and everyone gathers there to drink beer after skiing.


good foods and me loves food


we got to get waterski pulls from the groomers.
other times they wd have you go inside an enclosed cat. either way always a blast to try alternatives to the everyday ski transport


we took pocket cheeses and cold cuts from our breakfast every morning so that Benny might be proud


back to skiing. Andrew flipping off stuff.



We got snow the first day then almost every day there after was sunny. winds reset some of the snow fields



this one is for you buster lol. I am truly flattered that you guys have so much faith in my route finding abilities. I grabbed extra la grave stickers to send you and foggy so pm me your addresses. I'm sure plugboots is set since he was just there but lmk

May I recommend putting Engelberg/Andermatt/Airolo/Disentis in your queue as well as Alagna/Monte Rosa, just be sure the snow is good for the latter.

yes you may and I look fwd to seeing these places. thank you

[N1CK.]

Views? what views?

[plugboots]

All good, bbear, I got lots.



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[Buster Highmen]

pixchures phixed.
The black birds are called choucas and yeah, independent of being in the same genus Corvus as the NAm crow, their chatter is so melodious.

thanks for the TR...

[plugboots]

AAAh, nice pics. All good.

[SkiBall]

Any closer pics of those funny people movers? Guess I could just look for a stock photo if not. What are they called?

[Foggy_Goggles]

So sick! You have been La Grave-d. It is a pretty unexplainable place. Good vibrations.

[babybear]

Any closer pics of those funny people movers? Guess I could just look for a stock photo if not. What are they called?

shoot no and I never rd that one either so I am also somewhat curious about how they worked

So sick! You have been La Grave-d. It is a pretty unexplainable place. Good vibrations.

yea for sure. I also realized that andrew has always been on la grave time...
so I think about how that cd work.... the stock mkt opens at 3:30pm la grave time/ 10pm closing which is kinda a perfect work schedule....and I already work remotely sooo...

here's a few more- went to serre chevalier one day and it looked like such good terrain. Buster and guys- curious what this place looks like on a powder day? as the towns are still pretty small around them
I loved the look of everything (snow was shiz the day we were there though)


went up a lift named gauthier- which is also my last name. my dad was psyched- he said "I knew we were a world renowned family".
when I loaded I said to the lifty in my best french. casually-" je m'appelle gauthier" and he said back in english- "then this is your lift"


skin a little and get fresh pow run. ok. I'll even get selective bc you can


here is another silly poma at serre chevalier .I got mild whiplash on this one on the take off


the little black crows around the mountains are cool


barely not flat 20-30 minute skin back to town from the freaux run= excellent way to roll into a beer
with the iconic little gondi cars. "pulse lifts" int he background
They stop and also go backwards so I tried to avoid reading that thread about the failing lift in Russiastan or wherever it was. ok going to read about that now

[wyeaster]

super happy for you two!

[::: :::]

#jelly


Congrats!