Trip report - Arc 2000 - long

Trip dates: 31st Jan - 7th Feb

Overall impressions:
A huge thankyou is due to the snow and sun deities for providing
several metres of snow followed by a week of wall-to-wall sunshine
and springlike temperatures.

Les Arcs is a fantastic resort for most ability skiers and we had
a great time.

Here are some tips...

For early beginners, the Marmottes piste is best avoided if possible
(use the St Jaques chair instead). Although not steep, it's fairly
narrow, had an unnerving mix of powder and scrapy-hard-pack, and is
full of "experts" who think that the most appropriate solution to the
raft of beginners snowploughing gently is to ski as fast as they can
through it.

We reckoned that somewhere like Plagne Bellecote / Plagne Soleil might
suit complete beginners better: there are plenty of blues in Les Arcs but
a lot of them are also link runs and can be used by advanced skiers in a
hurry to get somewhere else. There aren't any marked greens although
a few (especially "Plan") could well be green, apart from their length.

For late beginners and intermediates there's loads of fabulous skiing
everywhere, especially under the Plagnettes chair and all over the
1800 side of the mountain. Look out for the definitely variable
classification of reds. Above 1800 several of them are very wide and
carefully manicured by pisting machines. Others are rather more
challenging. (See below...)

The Vilaroger side of the mountain is worth a morning trip (the snow
gets rather bare in the afternoons) and La Ferme (at the bottom of the
last lift, reasonably well signposted) is one of those fabulous French
eateries with very local produce. It's a shame that some of the reds
are a bit on the narrow side so probably best avoided for very nervous
skiers, cos they missed a fabulous lunch!

Our only major mistake was to ski down to the Bourg St Maurice
funicular mid-way station in the morning. It would have been less
of a mistake if we'd remembered to take ice skates. Probably this
was a temporary hitch due to unseasonable temperatures.

For late intermediates (and I assume experts) the 2000 bowl provides
plenty of challenge and variety. There wasn't a lot of powder around
(even the small local peaks had been scaled and skied) however we
were lucky enough to enjoy a mogul masterclass on day 4 (thanks Pete)
and for the last 2 days it was bump city all over the mountain!

I found it especially impressive that Les Arcs is well supplied with
"bosses" of all types: small, large, soft, firm - but at the same time
those who prefer not to bump can also find plenty of motorway skiing
as well. The bumps are mainly confined to the (plentiful) blacks and
the near sides of reds, plus a few short red pitches (depending on the
whim of the pisteurs).

The Lac red is quite narrow with medium bumps in a few pitches, plus
very busy towards the end of the day, so if it's in the same state
I'd be wary of setting late beginners on it (although one of ours
did survive). We were gobsmacked to find that the "red" Malgovert
piste was covered with short pitches of shoulder-high powder moguls.
Mogul-bashers look out for your skis: there were also a few stones
and rocks thrown into the mix; on the whole it was the best quality
snow we saw all week.

The blacks in the 2000 bowl are pleasantly varied. I enjoyed Bois
de l'Ours in the late morning (but I like my snow on the soggy side);
by afternoon it's definitely slushy. The runs under the Varet gondola
(including the speed-skiing km, unless it's been pisted) and the Grand
Col hold good quality bumps rather better as they don't get much sun.
Piste des Bosses above 1800 was icy first thing but a nice gully run
once it warmed up.

Skiing over to La Plagne on the new link was great. We took about
1h 40 from Arc 2000 to the far side of the Paradiski link; we were
all reasonable skiers but weren't hurrying at all. Once you get
there most of the skiing you can reach comfortably is the intermediate
cruising type: La Plagne does have more difficult skiing but I think
most of it is in the far corners.

The boardercross[1] by the Colosses lift (Plagne Bellecote) is a really
fun introduction to the joys of gully skiing and (IMO, YMMV) accessible
to anyone who's willing to have a go. The snow park and boardercross
above Arc 1800 were probably great if you like that kind of thing but
looked full of people taking it very seriously and getting a lot of
very big air - that and the large spectator crowd are unnerving for
less than expert skiers.

The food around 2000 was generally overpriced and under-quality,
apart from:
Les Chalets de l'Arc (overpriced but very nice food)
La Creche (top of Plagnettes/Transarc) and over to 1800 l'Arpette
(bottom of the Arpette lift) if you don't mind very LONG queues

I can't comment on the nightlife since after we discovered it was
€6 (!!) for 1/2 l of beer we bought our own bottles in the
minimarket. I know it costs more to transport up a mountain but
even so...

In short, it was a fabulous experience and definitely worth repeating,
next time we win the lottery! (I would guess that 1800 and 1600 are
cheaper).

-Sarah

[1] No idea how to spell that, it's my best guess! Last week was the
first time I've seen one!

"Sarah Eggleston" wrote in message
...
| Trip dates: 31st Jan - 7th Feb


| In short, it was a fabulous experience and definitely worth repeating,
| next time we win the lottery! (I would guess that 1800 and 1600 are
| cheaper).

Or even Bourg St Maurice itself ... a week in Feb around £500 for a 3
bed apartment sleeping eight, or the other extreme, a studio for £180 -
£200. Food/drink far cheaper, restaurants better on the whole...

Funic runs every 15/20 mins or so, 7 mins to Arcs 1600, funic included
in lift pass, no surcharge.

Nice report

Pete
www.skiclublesarcs.com

"visionset" wrote in message
...
|
| "Sarah Eggleston" wrote in message
| ...
|
| Trip dates: 31st Jan - 7th Feb
|
| And here's some photos around the resort for the same week. I was
based in
| Charvet, Arc 1800
|
| http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mike_wh.../Arc/index.htm

Superb photos.....

Any chance of using some on the www.skiclublesarcs.com site?? Full
credit given, of course ;o)

Pete

"visionset" wrote in message
...
| "visionset" wrote in message
| ...
|
| http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mike_wh.../Arc/index.htm
|
| Superb photos.....
|
| Any chance of using some on the www.skiclublesarcs.com site?? Full
| credit given, of course ;o)
|
| No problem, if you give me a list of the 3 digit numbers for the
photos you
| want I'll send you the 'original' fullsized ones zipped up.
| The 3 digit number for each photo is available on the tool tip when
hovering
| each image or thumbnail.

Replied by email to the webmaster address on the site...

Pete

I'm just back from the same week in Arc 1800(Charmetogger). It is probably
worth mentioning that the "blue" run down to Montchavin is very red, icy and
bare in places, just as I remember it before. It is probably only graded
blue because it is the main(?only) run down to the village and if it was
correctly graded a lot fewer people, especially beginners, would stop there.
"PG" wrote in message
...

"visionset" wrote in message
...
| "visionset" wrote in message
| ...
|
| http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mike_wh.../Arc/index.htm
|
| Superb photos.....
|
| Any chance of using some on the www.skiclublesarcs.com site?? Full
| credit given, of course ;o)
|
| No problem, if you give me a list of the 3 digit numbers for the
photos you
| want I'll send you the 'original' fullsized ones zipped up.
| The 3 digit number for each photo is available on the tool tip when
hovering
| each image or thumbnail.

Replied by email to the webmaster address on the site...

Pete

"Sarah Eggleston" wrote in message
...

Trip dates: 31st Jan - 7th Feb

And here's some photos around the resort for the same week. I was based in
Charvet, Arc 1800

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mike_wh.../Arc/index.htm

--
Mike W

"visionset" wrote in message
...

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mike_wh.../Arc/index.htm

Superb photos.....

Any chance of using some on the www.skiclublesarcs.com site?? Full
credit given, of course ;o)

No problem, if you give me a list of the 3 digit numbers for the photos you
want I'll send you the 'original' fullsized ones zipped up.
The 3 digit number for each photo is available on the tool tip when hovering
each image or thumbnail.

--
Mike W

Sarah,

We're driving out to Arc 1800 tonight - was the access road snow free, last
year I didn't need the chains at all but the previous year I wouldn't have
got anywhere near the place without them...ta, Ian

"ash" wrote in message
...
I'm just back from the same week in Arc 1800(Charmetogger). It is probably
worth mentioning that the "blue" run down to Montchavin is very red, icy
and
bare in places, just as I remember it before. It is probably only graded
blue because it is the main(?only) run down to the village and if it was
correctly graded a lot fewer people, especially beginners, would stop
there.
"PG" wrote in message
...

"visionset" wrote in message
...
| "visionset" wrote in message
| ...
|
| http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mike_wh.../Arc/index.htm
|
| Superb photos.....
|
| Any chance of using some on the www.skiclublesarcs.com site?? Full
| credit given, of course ;o)
|
| No problem, if you give me a list of the 3 digit numbers for the
photos you
| want I'll send you the 'original' fullsized ones zipped up.
| The 3 digit number for each photo is available on the tool tip when
hovering
| each image or thumbnail.

Replied by email to the webmaster address on the site...

Pete

"Ian" wrote in message
...
| Sarah,
|
| We're driving out to Arc 1800 tonight - was the access road snow free,
last
| year I didn't need the chains at all but the previous year I wouldn't
have
| got anywhere near the place without them...ta, Ian

You can drive up to 1800 no problem at the moment, it hasn't snowed for
a week or so and none forecast for the next four days.

Still worth having them handy though, you never know...

Pete
www.skiclublesarcs.com

Thanks, they'll be lurking in the boot...

"PG" wrote in message
...

"Ian" wrote in message
...
| Sarah,
|
| We're driving out to Arc 1800 tonight - was the access road snow free,
last
| year I didn't need the chains at all but the previous year I wouldn't
have
| got anywhere near the place without them...ta, Ian

You can drive up to 1800 no problem at the moment, it hasn't snowed for
a week or so and none forecast for the next four days.

Still worth having them handy though, you never know...

Pete
www.skiclublesarcs.com