La Plagne and the North Face of the Bellecote

There’s a right hand turning that I’ve never taken before, and now that I have, I wish I’d hooked that right years ago.

I’ve sped between Moûtiers and Bourg Saint Maurice more times than I can remember, always head-down driving straight towards Tignes, Saint Foy or Val d’Isere, and I’ve never even noticed the sizable town of Aime before, but here I am slowly cruising through its streets in January sunshine before climbing up to the resort of La Plagne.

I’m with a small group of journalists, here to attempt the somewhat legendary North Face of the Bellecote. It’s a bit of an Alpine off-piste classic, a knee trembling descent of 2,000 vertical metres with a whole host of entrances and dozens of lines to choose from, all with varying pitch and exposure. All routes are fully committing once in, and all in avalanche terrain, so there’s no easy option, and once you shuffle off the summit ridge you’re in, with little or no chance of turning back.

There’s a lot of slack country riding in the area, we’re based out of the La Plagne villages, of which there are eleven, mostly purpose built with 70’s charm (although some may not describe it that way), one of which actually looks like a ship. There’s now plenty of cash being injected into La Plagne, with many of the hotels being, or having been, recently renovated. It’s a quality mélanger of 70’s chic and 2020’s hipster.

We’re guests of Inter Sport and as such, we’re being guided by an ESF local, Gilles Olivier. Who, after a few laps of the chairs, directs us towards the Belle Plagne Gondola, which deposits us at the top of the Roche de Mio (2739m). From there it’s only a short skate before we’re in a huge off piste bowl, the Veliere Valley.

We’re soon getting pow turns all the way down to 1900m. But, unfortunately, just as we get close to a Summer refuge, the riding becomes a bit of a battle down a summer 4x4 trail with patchy snow cover. On the plus side, we did see a large herd of ibex munching on the exposed vegetation, which was very cool. After a few sections of hiking, we rode down into the small village of Le Bois, stopping at the somewhat eclectic Refuge Le Bois for a quick beer, before catching a taxi at €8pp back to Champagny-en-Vanoise and the lift system.

Before we ride back up, we grab lunch at the not to be missed Ristorante Alpina, which serves up excellent Italian inspired food with some great vegetarian options.

The afternoon is spent in the resort’s slackcountry, riding powder between lifts with the odd easily accessed couloir.

The 2023-2024 winter season saw the opening of the new Les Glaciers gondola (not in the photo above). While the departure point is still the same (Roche de Mio), the lift will now follow a new trajectory, arriving at an altitude of 3,080m above the Glacier de Bellecote and on the North face’s ridge, some 400m short of the Bellcote’s summit.

The work was almost completed on the new gondola, but it wasn’t actually running mid-week while I was there, so the following day saw us needing to skin up towards the North Face. It was cold in the shade, but we soon warmed as we headed uphill and into the sun, which had some surprising heat for January. In fact, the sun’s warmth and a sketchy weak layer made it imperative that we got onto the North Face before the possibility of the snowpack becoming unstable.

With this in mind, and the odd kit failure which had made us late, added to an already high avi risk, we stopped at the Petit Face North. Which, at 2800m, still offered us a 35 to 45 degree slope that dropped around 600 metres of vertical before we’d have to traverse right to reach the Nant Fesson stream valley.

I was only a week into my season, as I’d stayed in the UK for Christmas, and, standing on the summit ridge, albeit a long way from the actual summit, I was intimidated. It’s one hell of a large face, and, off to the right, towards the summit, there was fresh (ish) avalanche tracks. There’s always a time to turn around, and, while I was tempted, I was assured by our local guide that it was all cool. Once he went first, and I saw that the snow looked good and nothing moved, I dropped in.

There’s something about riding wide open steep slopes that feels otherworldly, the speed comes so quick it’s simply like falling. I love the way most of your board leaves the snow, and that you can’t feel any resistance from the small part that’s still in contact with the snow.

It’s over before I know it, I’ve slashed some turns into the mountain at full speed, and had to stop at the guide just as I was getting going, but, to be fair, it was time to break right to be able to make the route out.

As we reached over the next ridgeline, the debris of the avalanche tracks we’d seen from the top was suddenly visible. It was very deep and bloody terrifyingly wide. The steeps below the Bellecotes peak had presumably naturally triggered in the last two days, as that had been the last snowfall, and the debris now had fresh snow on it.

Picking our way through the rock-hard detritus was awful and extremely hot work, but we got there in the end, and, on reaching the tiny hamlet of Les Lanches, I treated myself to a large, and very cold, panache.

The adventure wasn’t over just yet, as we had to get back into the La Plagne lift system, which was a bus, a weird open air gondola and a double-decker cable car from Les Arc (€9 one way), back into the La Plagne lift pass zone.

How do I?

For more information about La Plagne visit: en.la-plagne.com

Ski Hire

Intersport have over 700 ski hire shops across the Alps & Pyrenees, renting award-winning skis and snowboards (splitboards are available but should be pre-booked). Why rent in resort? Because you can save money on any airline baggage fees, have less to carry to resort and you have up-to-date equipment that’s serviced regularly by qualified professionals. Want more? Swap and change your equipment as conditions demand, and get your feet accurately measured with the Boot Doctor scanning machine - guaranteed comfy, new boots.

Book via www.intersportrent.com

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Intersport shop in La Plagne Bellecote. Find out more about Ingrid Lafforgue, World Champion Slalom skier, owner of the shop here

Ski and board hire starts from €26 / £22 per day, boots included (helmet €4 / £3.40 extra)

Accommodation

A seven-night stay at Araucaria in La Plagne costs from £511pp based on two sharing a room. Breakfast is not included, but is very good so worth booking.