Vegan Skiing

There are 2 reasons I am not a food blogger:

1. I don’t have a camera phone, so if I wanted to take a photo of my food I’d have to pull out my full size SLR camera. This can be slightly awkward in restaurants, especially when you’re eating with other people.
2. On the odd occasion I have managed to take a photo of my food, I’ve always forgotten to take the shot until I’m already halfway through eating it. So, the photos don’t do the food justice to say the least.

With that being said, as a gluten-free vegan who likes to travel, probably the most common question I get asked is ‘what are you going to eat?’ So, I try to include some posts on my blog about what I’ve eaten and where on my trips.

Ski trips in particular seem to confuse a lot of people. I guess they have assumptions about what there is to eat in ski resorts. And, if it’s all pasta, fondue and pastries then I will surely starve!

When I’m the one planning the trip, I tend to opt for self-catering accommodation unless I’m staying somewhere that is specifically aimed at vegans. That way, I have much better control over what I’m eating. Unless I’m staying miles away from the nearest supermarket, preparing my own food is the easiest way to go. On my recent ski trip to Les Arcs and La Plagne, however, I was travelling with omnivores who did all the booking. I made sure to check out our hotel’s website before we left, and I was pleased to discover that the L’Aiguille Rouge serves all buffet meals. This is the next best option for me after self-catering. L’Aiguille Rouge is part of the Belambra chain, and there was plenty of food for me to choose from on the buffet at every meal. Apart from checking the ingredients a couple of times, I didn’t have to make any special requests for my meals. I’m sure, though, that had I needed to ask the restaurant staff for suitable food they would have happily obliged. They were all super nice, and nothing was too much trouble for them. They even had soy milk on the breakfast buffet, so I was able to get my morning coffee!

Out on the slopes, I would recommend the vegetable stir-fry with rice noodles at Le Sanglier Qui Fume in Les Arcs 1600 and Le Chalets de l’Arc at Les Arcs 2000 for their quinoa salad.

PENTAX DIGITAL CAMERA

PENTAX DIGITAL CAMERA

 

Advertisement

La Plagne

When I go to ski a new area and the rep asks me if I want to upgrade my lift pass, it always seems like a rhetorical question to me. Of course I want to explore as many slopes as I possibly can!

Thanks to the shiny, sparkly Vanoise Express (with 2 levels to choose from and a glass floor) the ski areas of Les Arcs and La Plagne are now connected to make one super snowy playground. I had been to La Plagne once before, but it was pre-season and for a training course. Unfortunately, that week had consisted mainly of sitting in boring workshops in the hotel and eating awful food (the catering team were on a training course somewhere else). So, I was interested in going back to La Plagne and seeing what it’s like when you’re actually allowed to enjoy it.

I would recommend skiing from Les Ars to La Plagne, or vice versa, only for advanced skiers. For one, you have to give yourself enough time to get back otherwise you’re stuck on the wrong side of the mountain for the night. Also, it’s a bit of a bottle neck either side of the Vanoise Express. Even after all the snow we’d had the week I was there, these connecting areas were both very icy and full of bumps. I can only imagine how tricky it is in poorer conditions. Once you get into La Plagne proper, though, the skiing is as nice as it is in Les Arcs (although I have heard the higher elevation of Les Arcs is a more popular choice when there isn’t much snow).

I loved the limited time I had skiing in La Plagne, and I would definitely return there to explore more.