Precious homemade skills and savoir-faires

La Plagne’s teams have precious skills and savoir-faire which makes them perfect for working on highly specialist missions. The resort also supports talent in the form of its athletes.

Circular economy When whey becomes a first-hand source of hot water

All year round, during the production of Beaufort cheese, a very cumbersome residue is created: whey, which in volume represents more than 90% of the milk produced. The spreading of this by-product is prohibited. Various recycling solutions exist, but the Plan Pichu pastoral cooperative in Granier, on the Versant du Soleil, wanted to go further by thinking in terms of "recovery" whereby the waste is not simply recycled, but is transformed into energy. After an initial trial season in 2022, the transformation of whey into methane will provide near autonomy for heating the water and milk from this summer.

Plan Pichu Alpine pasture – Key figures

• 1,600 m to 2,600 m above sea level
• the bovine workforce: 430 cows, divided into 3 herds
• the human workforce: 2 cheese makers, 8 cowherds and 1 overseer
• between mid-June and the end of September: 55 tons of Beaufort cheese produced on site
• 550,000 litres of milk produced over the summer, producing 500,000 litres of whey
• around 1,000,000 € investment to create a tool that will last for the next 30 years.

Find out more 

There is no school where you can learn to be an ice specialist!

The bobsleigh track is part of La Plagne’s inheritance from the 1992 Albertville Olympic Games. It is the only track in France and aspires to be an example of how to re-use a site post-Games. It employs a team of refrigeration and ice specialists whose jobs are unique in France and come with a major challenge: to model the most perfect and perfectly smooth ice profile down the track’s 1 500 m length, 19 bends and 125 m vertical drop. From October, the team of 12 to 26 ice specialists and 4 refrigeration technicians works painstakingly to achieve this result with precise gestures and a savoir-faire that is passed on and acquired only through experience.

> Behind the scenes of France’s biggest skating rink

Objective: to ice the 6800 m2 surface area (4.7 skating rinks) in just one month in 4 steps:

1. start up the 3 compressors that have been in hibernation for 7 months
2. cool the 1500 m long concrete structure with 90 km of pipes running through it using a refrigeration fluid composed of 50% water and 50% glycol
3. spray water (from the source of an old mine and not suitable for consumption) onto the concrete at between -4°C and -5°C, then fill in / shape using 180 m³ of crushed ice
4. refine the profile

The last ski resort that is putting up its own ski lifts

The Société d’Aménagement de la Plagne is proud to say that it assembles all of its lifts in-house from A to Z! From the civil works to assembly, ten or so workers are on each site. This decision not to use subcontracted workers is unique these days in French ski resorts. Over the past ten years it has allowed the company to keep year-round jobs and to keep skills in-house for greater reactivity. Above all, it guarantees a total investment since, as the SAP’s general manager, Nicolas Provendie says, ”We never build things as well as when we are doing it for ourselves”. The SAP Montage team is currently working on the construction of the new Les Glaciers gondola.


 

 

La Plagne sponsors a pool of 17 athletes

La Plagne has a policy of sponsoring local top-level young athletes and distributes an annual budget of 270 000€. These win-win contracts mean that athletes can contribute financially to the organisation of their season and the resort benefits from visibility through select ambassadors.

The athletes under contract for the 2022/23 season are:
Freestyle: Tess Ledeux, Antoine Adelisse, Kevin Rolland and Fantine Degroote
Downhill skiing: Brice Roger, Maxence Muzaton, Léo Ducros, Marion and Axelle Chevrier
Ski cross: Ollie Davies and Alexis Jay
Bobsleigh: Margot Boch 
Skeleton: Agathe Bessard
Ice climbing: Louna and Tristan Ladevant

All information about the athletes

Skiing with "Gueule de Bois"

Wooden skis, but not like the ones you use to decorate your chalet! These are highly technical skis, nothing like the old-time “planks”, even if they are also made with noble wood and are “lovingly fashioned by hand”. The man behind the “Gueule de Bois” brand is 46 year old Manuel Chalopin, originally from Brittany but Savoyard by adoption. Manuel set up his workshop in the old sawmill in Longefoy (Montalbert) to make skis made from local species of wood (maple ash, spruce, poplar and chestnut). He designed two models: the “90” which is perfect for on the piste and the “100”, more suited to off-piste. “I worked as a ski man in a shop for a long time, From having tested the equipment, I know almost every model of every brand, with their good and bad points. With my models, I am looking for perfect skiing sensations". Also a musician who makes stringed instruments, Manuel discovered the pleasure of working with wood when he worked on the construction of log chalets in a previous professional life.

850 € for a pair of skis made entirely by hand.
https://www.gueuledebois-planchesetguitares.com/