Ice Grotto

Having skied past the Ice Grotto numerous times I decided to visit. It is under the Bellecote glacier and accessed through a tunnel into the ice. It was actually very interesting and for 4 euros well worth a visit. There ia a labarynth of tunnels with assorted ice carvings and lighting effects. The ice was 30 metres thick above our heads and had taken 100 years to form. Shame there wasn't anywhere for a vin chaud, had to go in search of a suitable watering hole to round off the afternoon!

Good Friday!

The first day of Spring is looking more like the first day of Winter. The snow started at 6am and hasn't stopped, so far we have had over half a metre which made our shopping day a challenge. I have never seen Bourg St Maurice so deep in snow,the supermarket car park was ankle deep. Andy had to get busy putting on the snow chains ready for the return journey up the mountain. The top road to the chalets was barely passable and hadn't been cleared but then I remembered it was lunchtime and everything stops for lunch! Sure enough at 2.30pm a snow plough appeared which made unloading the shopping a lot easier.

Snow

Well we wanted more snow and we've certainly got it! It started snowing last evening and we had about 25cm overnight. Today it has been snowing for most of the day with a huge dump this evening. The road between Les Coches and Montchavin looks like something from a horror movie with cars abandoned all over the road. I just made it back to Les Coches but couldn't make it up to the chalets. Winter has certainly returned with a vengeance!

Peisy Nancroix

The Peisy Nancroix National Park is in the valley between Les Coches and Les Arcs. I visited iin the spring last year and was lucky enough to see chamois and marmottes. On a rather grey day last week I decided to return and see what it looked like in winter. It was a very pleasant surprise, there is a track which leads through a deserted village to the head of the valley where in the spring the waterfalls cascade. There is a very high avalanche risk in winter so the houses are uninhabited.
On the steep hillside we spotted ibex and a rare bird which has been reintroduced to the area. During the winter months there are horse drawn sleigh rides and on Tuesdays there are night rides from 6 to 7pm. It is a very popular area for cross country skiing which looked like very hard work to me !
Jenny (Chamois) and Jools (Renard) decided to do a spot of river hopping to investigate a privvy to check it it was Finlay clean!

Torchlit Descent

Last evening 21 of our guests booked dinner followed by a torchlit descent back to their chalet. They skiied to La Plein Soleil,a mountain restaurant situated on one of the blue tree runs above Les Coches for a bit of apres ski. This was then followed by an aperitif, dinner and much vin and beer! To round off the evening they were guided back to their chalet holding flaming torches. The restaurant employs a ski instructor to ensure the safe descent of everyone - probably very necessary!
To add a certain something they all dressed up in 80's all in one ski suits I just wish I had been there with a camera.

Morning Chores!

I snapped Tom heading out of Chalet Campanules this morning for his first journey to the poubelles. We have a very smart new recycling system in Les Coches with 3 bins for glass, cans and other. The bins are dug very deep into the ground and lined with a huge black bin bag. They are emptied daily by a lorry which hoists the whole bag out of the hole. It is a very interesting system which works well. Tom reckons he knows the bins intimately as he always there!!

Glacier Birthday

It was Michelle's birthday today and she wanted us all to meet at the Glacier for champagne and birthday cake.
It takes about an hour to reach the glacier from Les Coches via 2 cable cars from Belle Plagne or by skirting round the back you can reach Roche de Mio by the Inversens chair. The cable car ride to the glacier is truly stunning and can also be taken my non-skiers if they catch it from Plagne Bellcote. There is an ice grotto at the top with various ice carvings which I keep meaning to visit.
It was a stunning place to celebrate a birthday and one I'm sure Michelle won't forget.