La Grave 2023

目的地:法国拉格雷夫

Dates: January 23, 2023 to February 7, 2023

Since the early 2000s, we have been traveling to the small ski town of La Grave, France. La Grave is home to some of the biggest lift-accessed and backcountry ski terrain in the world. This is also a great opportunity for athletes to experience a foreign culture and explore a new region of the world.

We were lucky enough to have Joe Vallone, American ski guide and La Grave resident, 加入我们的旅程吧. His local knowledge and experience is incredibly valuable for our athletes. Joe is an AMGA Certified Rock, 高山, and Ski Mountaineering UIAGM/IFMGA Licensed Guide. 

We also had a surprise guest join us for three days. Glen Plake, the pioneer of extreme skiing, spends his time between Mammoth, CA and Chamonix, France. He is well known for being featured in films like “The Blizzard of Aahhhs” and for his mohawk. Our team was incredibly excited to meet and have the opportunity to ski with him. 他的风度和知识令人惊叹!

Although everyday of this trip brought smiles to the athletes faces, 以下是我们最喜欢的一些日子:

第二天:

The first day on snow definitely didn’t disappoint. As we rode up the gondola on our first run, everyone’s faces lit up; a combination of excitement and maybe even a little bit of fear. 是的，山脉有那么大. 首先, Joe brought us down the 2 main runs on La Grave to understand the main flow of the mountain and how to get back to the lift. The runs here are long and tiring, but full of fun and excitement. A recent wind event over the last few days created a chocky, wind buffed surface. Although it wasn’t exactly the powder that we all dream of, 这绝对是经典的升级版, 东海岸冰. We looked at some off the crazy ski lines here in La Grave, and learned about the glaciers on these mountains and how fast they are receding. It was a great first day on snow and we’re ready to do it all again tomorrow.

第五天:

The crew tackled two couloirs with Joe, the Banane, and Raphael today. Both of these couloirs fall in the 45+ degree pitch and had firm edgeable snow with some surface facets which allowed for some awesome turns.  After disembarking the gondola we traversed the Cote Fine to gain access to Couloir Raphael. The crew loaded the gondola at P1 and had a long lunch break at the summit lodge soaking up the sun and enjoying a cup of mountain coffee. Run number two found us standing at the top of the Banane Couloir. Our final turns of the day found top of boot deep facets in the trees all the way down to the village. -Garrett Morrow，项目主管

第六天:

多么美好的一天! We decided to try and find some better snow today, so we took a quick drive down the road and skinned 5 miles into a new area. We were very successful as we found nice soft powder. 兴奋是显而易见的. 再加上这令人难以置信的滑雪, we were joined by two more ski legends: Glen Plake and Ptor Spricenieks. They shared tons of knowledge and stories with us, and also brought great energy to hype up the team on a long day. We’ll be skiing with them, and Joe, tomorrow as well. 这可能是我们最好的一天了, 就像斯图教练说的, “That may have been the best snow of my life.”

7天:

Today we skied with Glen Plake, Joe Vallone, and Ptor Spricenieks once again. We spent the day riding at La Grave, where Glen taught us how to be better and more confident skiers. His advice and knowledge was extremely helpful. Our first run brought us back to the Banane Couloir. We skied the chalky snow down to the lake and through the woods to P1. Once we reached the top, we took a nice lunch break in the sun. 格伦和普托一边吃饭一边讲故事. For our second run, we went over to the other side of the mountain, known as the Vollone. Ptor snapped a bunch of photos of us as we made our way to the base. 

第十天:

Today we did one of the largest possible ski runs at La Grave. But before this, we took a run from the top of the gondola down to the midstation at 2400 m. This run brought us down one of the main areas that we have already skied a few times on this trip. 然后我们的超级长跑开始了. From the top of the gondola we skinned up under the closed teleski to the top of La Grave. From here, we dropped of the backside, down a steep, classic run. This side of the mountain is south facing so we were treated with some nice corn snow on the day down. 当我们终于到达谷底时, we skied a slight downhill traverse about 12 km out to the town of St. 克利斯朵夫. We visited a small shop and restaurant in the small village before making the 45 minute drive back to La Grave.

日12:

最后一天的滑雪棒极了. 我们在圣. 安托万在半路上. Above this point had exposed rocks so we decided to stop short of the top. This couloir has huge rock walls and is narrow compared to some of the other couloirs we have skied as a team. This was also the steepest terrain we have skied at La Grave, and the steepest line most of our team members have ever skied. 每个人都做得很棒! 我们爬上贡多拉进行第二次跑步. 在顶端, 我们停下来吃午饭。, took in the incredible views above the clouds, then headed to the Patou Couloir and skied back to the village. 这是结束一次美好旅行的好方法!

——由2023届毕业生Kai Glidden撰写