Russian Ski Stars

Алексей Логинов (Alexei Loginov)

I climbed a mountain, and found a ski movie actress from Russia on the top!

I met with Катя Коровина (Katya Korovina) and Алексей Логинов (Alexei Loginov) from powderday.ru on their mission to shoot a short movie from Les 3 Vallees for Russian viewers. Katya is Russia's #2 free skier, and judging from what we saw, Alexei is also an incredible skier.

Катя Коровина (Katya Korovina) climbing up

Here is what Katya has to say about her project, Powderday Geographics and the movie:

Access

We went up the Rocher de l'Ombre, a small peak between the Grand Couloir in Courchevel and the the Saulire gondola ground station. The Rocher de l'Ombre ski lift ends at the bottom of this peak, but it is best to approach the peak from above, by taking either the Saulire or Grand Couloir ski runs. After coming down the Grand Couloir, turn slightly left to reach a pass between the towering mountains and couloirs on your left side and the smaller Rocher de l'Ombre on your right side.

I think the Russians intended to ski the other, front side of Rocher de l'Ombre, but when I peered over the knife edge ridge, it just looked too rough for anyone. Mostly rock, only patches of snow. In the end, the film crew skied the backside just like I did.

Rocher de l'Ombre, with the Courchevel village behind

Talking with the powderday.ru crew

Skiing down on soft powder

As a side note, this area is some of the best off-piste skiing in Les 3 Vallees, at least when considering areas that are easily accessible and visible from the ski runs.

The Grand Couloir is true to the normal use of this name and is the easiest run. I wish I'd have had time to do it, though. I have done the Sous Pylons after a big snow dump, and it was incredible, if short. Perhaps I will have them on some future trip to do all the couloirs that are easily skiable. This link gives an excellent overview of the couloirs in the Saulire area.

The difference between having balls and style (left) and not having them (right)

More Powderday.ru Videos

Here is one video from Powderday.ru. Incredible skiing!



Photo and video credits (c) 2012 by Jari Arkko and Ari Keränen. Vimeo video credits by powderday.ru.