First tracks on the Belcotte

After 4 months in the Alps there was still one mountain face we had yet to take on - the north face of the Belcotte.

Our chalet was named after this very mountain, and we saw it every day as we walked to work, often thinking about how good it would be to ski/ride it. It stands in the neighbouring resort of La Plagne and is rated one of the longest and best off-piste trails in France. It is also quite dangerous if attempted in the wrong conditions and without an experienced guide and had already claimed some lives this season.

And so it was with much excitement, but some hesitation, that we accepted an invitation to ski the mountain with one of our friends at the local ski school. Fred P (a local legend with about 25 years of local guiding experience and a squeaky clean safety record) kindly offered to take the whole Ski Hiver team on a guided morning descent of the mountain for free, complete with our own avalanche rescue beepers.

It takes about one and a half hours to get to the top of the mountain via a series of long cable cars and it almost went disasterously wrong for Gav when one of his snowboard toe bindings broke on the way over there! Fortunately he was able to tie it back together with a shoelace without too much trouble.

Despite being one of the last weeks of the season there was still plenty of snow and we were very blessed to have 25cm of fresh powder the night before to help us on the way! Pics below don't quite do it justice but let's just say, the almost 2000m descent, getting first tracks with not another soul in sight (apart for our group of 7) the whole way down was easily the best and most exhilerating run of our lives! It was an experience that we will definitely never forget.

Fred P, our guide for the day, giving us a few pointers before we started the descent.


Em carving up the fresh powder at the start of the descent.

Gav in action.

The team; Mel (our boss), Paul, Em, Nick, Dom and Gav taking a rest 3/4 of the way down.

Em

Gav, making first tracks down the Belcotte

The Belcotte North Face. The red line tracks our excursion, from 2600m down to 1000m!

Taking a breather at the end as the snow started to get pretty dodgy.

Feeling very stoked having just completed the run of our lives! The avalanche rescue beepers are the blue devices strapped around our chest. Having to wear this gear, combined with a quick run down on what to do in an avalanche, was certainly a good way to get the adrenalin pumping pretty hard before we took off!