Greetings from La Grave
Posted on Tuesday, February 17th, 2009
Greetings from La Grave – La Meije, France … Where ladies ski for free during Reins de la Meije! Well not all the time. But, this weekend (February 14-15, 2009) the area hosted its first women’s weekend where if you are female all you had to do to get your complimentary lift ticket is to walk up to the ticket window. It seemed that ladies came from all over France to participate. The ratio of ladies to men on the mountain this weekend seemed to be weighted more on the side of the ladies!
The ski area is renowned for its steep skiing relentlessly long runs 2,150 meters of fall line skiing with 99.9 percent of the resort being off-piste. Because the area is known specifically for not being easy, resort visitors seem to come with a sense of adventure. The La Meije Glaciers Aerial Tramway (Téléphérique) takes skiers to the Ruillans Pass at 3,200 meters in 30 minutes. Then skiers can catch a quick ride behind a snow cat (a temporary replacement of the lower poma) to the Dome de la Lauze poma which reaches an elevation of 3,550 meters and the mountain’s only two groomed and marked runs.
Other than that, everything is unmarked so route finding skills are essential; there are lots of steep couloirs and tracks to questionable places if you are not carrying a rope.
For the rest of the week I’ll be here with Jessica Baker and her Ski Diva’s Camp. Jessica has been coming to La Grave almost every year since 2002. Over that time she learned the area well with her mentor Doug Coombs and with local guides. During the course of the week we plan on exploring La Grave, the surrounding areas and the numerous couloirs in the valley and, yes, we will have a rope with us at all times.
Susan Medville is a Cloudveil athlete, museum curator and badass freeskier.
