Les Arcs trip report - to be regularly updated whilst we are away.

A snowHead

pam w,

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Boredsurfing,

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I always take a piste map, but reading it involves finding the pocket with my glasses in and putting them on - I'd prefer just to ski on until I recognise somewhere Puzzled

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welshskier,

After all it is free

So here we are back in the appartment, we've swum and scoffed spag. bol. and pancakes with lemon and sugar and now it's time to report what we've been up to.

As predicted we did managed to find the large open practice area that I had been taken on during my ski lesson. We took Villards and then skied Plan Bois (not bad snow at all through there), then hopped Derby and skied renard through to the area of the 2300 lift. The snow up there was as good as yesterday - it's still hard packed, but I think the top layer is being 'managed' quite well up there. There is enough snow to get a fair 'bite' on and the surface is quite OK for practising daft things like one legged skiing on. So that's what we did, we also did some carving and edging work and drills with poles doing daft things (I hope no-one caught us on camera Embarassed

). We dropped in the bar up there - huge big bowls of hot chocolate were delicious, and we were just leaving when Jenny P recognised me and came to say 'hello' (I wonder how many yards you really are away from a SH in any big resort these days Laughing

). We took Foret and Maitaz back. Foret is doing quite OK, Maitaz gets progressively worse. There were far fewer people using it when we returned for lunch, but I fancy that ice skates would be better weapons than skis! From above earlier in the day, the 200 yds back to trans arc looked as though it had taken some man-made snow, but when we got to it to slide across and take the path to Villards I was less certain of that as it was as bad as it had been before.

We went out after lunch and rode Vagere and then took the blue (still in a fairly skiable condition) to the snow park where the kids did the jumps. Then for a change we tried Clocheret. This lift went higher than I expected. In expectation of scraped red sections we did take Clapet (the blue) from the top and this is in very good nick. A good surface (not ideal, but in comparison with many at the moment) and we had a good ski down there lots of variation in slope which made it interesting. After Xante, vin chaud and hot choccies in the arpette restaurant We ran back to chantel on belvedere. For a run that I imagine gets a lot of use it seems to be holding up well - odd areas are getting a tad scraped, but its still more than skiable. The top of Chantel is still hard and occasionally scraped and would catch out the unwary, but its not too bad today, and perhaps better than it has been. It's been a sunny day and I think the afternoon sun had just softened things a tad.

All in all the real 'rogues' still remain as Maitaz (esp. once out of the trees) and the approach to transarc. It's not quite at the crampons stage, but I think you would def. get a better result on ice skates rather than skis!

So we are still having a good time - I am pretty sure that I am making an improvement and I am finally getting a result out of separating the upper from the lower body (or at least it feels like it). I also tried the one legged skiing again this morning (inside leg up on turns) and was still able to do a bit of it (though with no where need the competency of the expert that is fastman in his videos - if only!). I have another lesson tomorrow (as do the kids) and I expect that we will do some more work on short turns to help on steeper sections. The lessons are quite neatly dove-tailing with the work I did at HH with rob@rar. Short turns on steep bits, J turns, carving, big arched turns, and facing down the hill and separating the upper and lower body. My ski tech has finally admitted that I have made an improvement so I must have done so, as this is not a usual comment from him where my skiing is concerned.

OK, that's all for tonight. TTFN folks

This should be turned into a Major Motion Picture.

Kate Winslet as MM
Peirce Brosnan as BMF Skier
Gary Oldman as Robrar
Admin as himself
Cast of Harry Potter as the MiniMums

etc

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I've posted some piccies here - you can have movies of the Minimum's doing their jumps in da parc when I have more time later in the week.

sarah, I plan where I am going to try and go on the piste map before I go, and then when I write these reports I do it with a piste map next to me so I get all the names correct. Since I rarely deviate from the initial plan (unless I go wrong) it's not difficult to make it reasonably accurate.

red 27, LOL - if I'm going to do a trip report I make the best job I can of it - it gives me something to do as well in the evenings. I don't think anyone on here will be surprised at the detail in the postings - it's not as though I have a reputation for brevity Laughing

You know it makes sense.

I mentioned the photos, but never posted the thread link - they are here for those that haven't already found them: http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=66382&start=720#1705867

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Hi there

's. Minimum_1 and Minimum_2 here.

We want to tell you about our ski lessons. Well, our instructor was called Philippe from Arc Adventures Ski School and we had two ski lessons on Sunday and Tuesday.

He had us doing lots of different types of skiing. At one time we went into a natural half pipe and we went up then down – it felt really different to skiing on piste and was a good experience plus we had an enjoyable time too!!! We also did lots and lots of off piste skiing, went over moguls and through deep snow, we don’t do this when we are skiing with our mum!

In today’s lesson we went up to Aiguille Rouge and skied down the Aiguille Rouge run which is a Black, until it became a red and intersected with Reservoir which is a blue. We also did lots of runs in the Arc 2000 area with lots of off piste too. My brother had a ski computer with him and we did a total distance of 40.92 Km of which 23.68 Km was the skiing distance and 17.24 Km on lifts. We were very tired when we got back for lunch; which was a tasty meal of tomato soup with very tasty bread! YUMMY!

At the end of Ski School we were awarded the Diamond award which is the highest that you can go before competition training with the ski school. We felt like skiing up to someone and saying.... "Hey, do you realise you are looking at two Diamond skiers! "GNAR!” Laughing

After we had finished lunch, Megamum had her lesson and we went off skiing with BMF skier. As we were coming back to the apartment we went through a snow cannon
that was blasting out snow at an incredible rate! WHOOOSH!!! Laughing

A snowHead

Hi

Both myself and Minimum_1 wrote todays ski school report. I hope you enjoy reading it. Smile

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Minima (that's the plural of minimum, i think) those sounds like great lessons. Well done! snowHead

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Very nice report Minimums! How old are you two? Sounds like you're doing really well!

PS: your spelling and grammar would put most of the adults I know to shame wink

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

OK, my turn now.

Picadilly, Minimum_1, is 11 and her brother Minimum_2, is 8. They are doing far too well IMHO and will soon not want to ski with the likes of me I am sure.

Whilst they were at ski school this morning BMF_skier and my self had a stooge about. We took Villards then ran some of charmotteger and then plan bois through to Derby. Charmotteger is getting rather scraped. I should think around 50% of the main skied area in that region is the getting the wrong side of scraped. Plan bois is still holding up well. We took renard across to the restaurant behind the flocon lift and then a section of aigle followed by a bit of foret, back to the Derby lift. Those sections are still in quite good nick and fairly skiable. Once back up Derby we hit small sections of renard and belette to try access transarc (and avoid the dreadful Maitaz) we tried sneaking above the transarc station and got onto Grand melezes, but I don't think that route saved us anything and in the finish snuck in some paths through the trees to get across to Chantel and back to pick up the kids at Vagere. The home route wasn't too bad until we got onto grand melezes which higher up is starting to develop large scraped patches to catch out the unwary, and the odd patch is present on the run down the lifts at the end of chantel, but all in all I think is preferable to using Maitaz and the transarc approach.

This afternoon I had my second lesson with Arc Adventures (Domenic). Now this report will not be to the usual high standard as for a lot of time I did not have the foggiest about where I was on account of the fact that I was taken 'off piste' Shocked

and taken from one piste to another. Villards took us up and immediately I was taken across a section of bumpy off piste as a warm up! This put us onto grand melezes and back off the edge into bumps country where upon I lost my footing and slid into the middle of the moguls which, shall I say delayed things a little! We cut through the trees as per the mornings route and back up Vagere. Then down a fairish amount of Carreley to practise short turns on steeper areas - this piste although a tad narrow in one place was in fair condition and not too bad at all to ski on.

Back up Arpette (though I couldn't swear blind how we got there Laughing

) and we started down arpette and then he took rather 'instructor' minded swing onto col des frettes, via a very acute turn which would have required a tight turn right on the edge and a sideways swing across a somewhat steep area. Now this is a section that I could have skied if I had approached it square on, but I bottled the turn and in the finished crept further along the edge and side slipped down to him where-upon he decided it would be fun to side-slip the rest of it just for practice (don't instructors make it look sooo easy? - I am a fair side slipper at my own speed, but the instructors have such control and speed when they flatten their skis). That red is getting scraped in places, but on the whole is not too bad snow wise. Somehow we made it across to Clocheret and up.

We took the top end of clapet (same condition as yesterday), and then I think took the second half of Clocheret (which is still holding up well). I skied the steep sections of that with short turns with poles balanced on the top of my wrists like a tea tray which I was not holding (isn't that a rotten exercise? Twisted Evil

). Finally we ended up on the last part of arpette to run into the top of Chantel - skiing on one leg along the paths and alternating which one we stood on. Those paths are not yet scraped, but are very solidly hardpacked.

So there we are more reds in an afternoon than I've chosen to do all week so far. I was run ragged this afternoon as I played 'follow me' with Domenic leading. Big turns, tight turns, quick changes in direction, half turns, half turns to form steps across the piste with big arches to turn round and go across in the opposite direction, short turns, scraped bits, bits with snow on (inc. 10 seconds on a section of freshly groomed soft (yes SOFT) corduroyed snow that I think had been left by a piste basher shifting some made snow elsewhere just off piste - it felt like heaven compared to everything else LOL), hard pack, icy like scraped stuff with no grip at all, you name it I've probably skied on it this afternoon.

Now for the amazing bit - I WAS able to follow him, I was able to do all those turns (all except the one I bottled just off arpette), I was able to keep up, to change direction, to not look at the piste just in front of me, most of the time I could also keep the shoulders down in valley with my skis running across the slope and the absolutely must tell is that I could feel the edges of the skis engaging as I did most of the turns, sometimes I got it wrong and they skidded a bit, but for most of the turns the skis rolled over and I ACTUALLY FELT the opposite edge engage to take me round in the opposite direction. What's more is that I actually felt in control of those big green skis of mine (even doing tight turns) - in fact I might, one day, actually be able to get the best out of these babies Toofy Grin

Domenic says they have a lot of scope for me as I improve.

All I need now is a lottery win and a lot more lessons as I think I've really made some progress and I do feel as though I've upped my game - I now need to push myself to stay there.

More tomorrow!

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Megamum, good work.

After all it is free

Minimum_1, Minimum_2, brilliant report, I really enjoyed reading it. Congratulations on your great achievements! Toofy Grin

Sounds like you're definitely too good to ski with me. Sad

And you too, Megamum - hard work by the sound of it!

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So I have my quiet time and time to type. Kids are in bed, have finished dinner - steak, saute potatoes, onions, beans, with jam sponge and spotted dick and custard for pud and 1/2 a bottle of red wine!

We set out for the VE this morning and took Vagere. Looking for grand melezes down to plan bois. It has to be said that while it had been just about the skiable, the top of grand melezes was verging on pure evil this morning will big plates of re-frozen hard pack to negotiate so much so that we peeled off left and took in the loop that goes past the restaurant (a peice of 'barmont'?) onto plan bois which we don't usually do. As per usual the hard pack surface of plan bois is still holding up. Retour plan peisey is more or less similar through the trees, but the final 500yds down the hill to the VE took some negotiating - they were doing their best and had spread lots of man made and material from off the edge of the piste, there were also mounds of man made every now and them. This led to a very unpredictable surface - lumpy, bumpy, icy bits, the odd sheer surface - it wasn't for the faint hearted! However, I put the ski lessons to good use and my big green stiff skis came into their own pushing the undesirable stuff to one side with a lot of assistance from my legs - I was ready to stop by the time we reached the VE!.

Once over the other side we ran mont blanc down to the lac noir gondola and then hopped the bijolin chair (the hundred yards between the too being a mixture of conditions ranging from scraped to fairly well covered with man made with icy pebbles in it). We dropped down to Salla, which was heavy going, but there was a good effort on the man made down there. Arpette (really well compressed hard pack, but skiable) took us to Belle Plagne and we dropped down to Plagne Bellecote via the Carlina restaurant for drinks. The Colossus chair Mira and bridge pistes took us to La Plagne Centre where we had lunch at Le Chaudron (recommended!) - these were hard packed, but again skiable - close to the centre they had clearly been busy with man made and the surface was relatively deep and mounded up in places, but despite being heavy going it was quite skiable.

We then did the grand rochette gondola and took pte rochette, Les leitchhoums and arolles back to the arpette chair. The first part of this was on a fairly well covered slope off the top. The little paths around the mountain were in a very hard packed state and overlooking that edge there were not really my cup of tea. Once off the edge and heading across to Plagne Bellecote it was still very hard packed with occasional icy refrozen hardpack surfaces. Les arolles was a fair bit better - that heavy skiing mixture of man made and icey pebbles, but well mounded up in places and very tiring to ski on for any length of time.

Back up arpette and onto the skiable hardpack type surface again. I wasn't leading but I think we took mainly mont blanc back to the VE with the odd section of red thrown in just to liven up proceedings. The paths are mainly hard pack, and steeper pitches that heavy mixture already described, but already thin and sheer on some middle sections. I put into practice my ski lessons and did short turns in the heavy, but deeper snow on the piste edges Toofy Grin

The last confluence point before the last tree path section down to the VE needs some care - you get down most of the slope OK on averagely decent snow (for around here), then just as you let your guard up you hit around 30ft of sheer surface where someone has put a broom over the refrozen hard pack (It is possible that you might utter something you shouldn't when you hit it!).

Back over to the Arcs side of things up peisey 61 around and down foret (still hard packed, but skiable) to the Derby lift. We nipped the top section of belette to grab access transarc (a hard packed but skiable path with just the odd sheer icier surface). Under the transarc lift and grand melezes hadn't got much better in our absence, we then snuck through the tree path to get to chantel (chavets? - it's not shown on the map) and home. Chantel seems more skiable today, maybe its had some man made, but there are still scraped areas.

The last 30 yds down to the appartment is fraught with danger - that gets more icy with each day, as does the piste path from the appt to the lifts. In fact it might not be safe to ski down that for much longer if the sheer patches at the end get much larger and we might need to find an alternative way round.

So another day when the La Plagne side of things wins hands down. Far more man made about, and a much bigger effort put into keeping things covered - the busy blues are getting hard packed and the area is not without sheer patches, but these are less than our side. If it wasn't for having to return for lunch in the appt. I'd ski over there more.

Some areas around 1800 are getting decidedly dicey with the sheer refrozen surface, you can lose a downhill ski as soon as look at it. Grand melezes is now quite a pickle to ski down, the area as a whole looks more sheer with every passing day. This area certainly needs some snow! The little appt path had my over on it yesterday on the way to ski school where I just lost the downhill ski so its getting really dodgy in many places.

That will do for now. TTFN.

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I hate skiing on ice, but just think how good you lot in LA will be next time you go skiing.'Normal' pistes will be an absolute breeze! I've really enjoyed reading all the trip reports.

Lots of respect to the Minimums as well! Would never have guessed they were only 11 and 8.

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your holidays.

You know it makes sense.

Picadilly,

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

our ski guide kept telling us that one year in La Rosiere - snow was fine, but there was thick fog for 5 days. He assured us it would be very good for our skiing, and as no French instructors could see us, he gave us some tips on skiing, too (he was very good).

It's the "banging your head against a brick wall" theory of holiday making. "Yes dear, the rain is trickling down the back of your coat, the last stream you forded went down your wellies, but think how nice it will be when you've had a hot shower and put on some dry clothes".

Very British!

A snowHead

What a length report Shocked

Should this not be moved to the Resort Reviews and Trip Reports forum? Surprised achilies didn't get there first Wink

A snowHead

scotia, I don't think it's doing any harm where it is - there are lots of reports about 'the piste' in Les arcs in what I have written, and I also posted last years report in the same place and no-one complained. Perhaps you haven't been here long enough to recognise my writing style which is seldom brief and always detailed. Some see it as a fault, but it's just me - so you will just have to get used to it NehNeh

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I think I have been around time enough to recognise your writing style so perhaps I should have known better than to click on the thread and feel compelled to comment. I did read some and it sounds like you're all having a great time Very Happy

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As I posted in snow reports earlier:

OK, we are back for lunch from having been in the Arc 2000 bowl. We intended to ski the Vallee d'arc and come back via the combourciere chair, but having done half of eidleweiss from the top of arpette and plan down to the marmotte chair, we decided to abandon the attempt. The 2000 bowl is starting to ice up now. The blue paths are still very compact hardpacked snow, but anything with any degree of pitch to it is starting to get sheer sections at 'inopportune' locations down the slope. The unpredictablity of the surface is what is dangerous - if it was a constant lack of snow or constant icy pebbles etc. it would at least be predictable, but as it is you never know when you are going to hit a 'plaque' of refrozen hardpack snow and lose the downhill ski grip to it. It is only going to get worse this afternoon - we were over there very early this morning and still found some corduroy on the paths, but even then the steeper sections were dodgy and clearly is not going to improve as the day progresses.

At the moment the jury is still out on whether we give the legs a rest this afternoon!

Update: So we decided to not go back out on the slopes this afternoon. It meant wasting an afternoon of our lift pass, but certain 'knees' within our party are beginning to fail under the not inconsiderable strain. I must admit I did look longingly at all the folks whizzing down the slopes and it really didn't look bad from the bottom up, but I'm sure all the icy patches would have still been there. Instead we walked down the road to Charvet (1800) and look around the little shops there. We picked up a new pair of child sized sunglasses for one of the kids (something that can be difficult to find in the UK), a couple of fleecy tops for me and some saucisson and a reblouchon cheeze to take to my parents (maybe we can make a tartiflette!). Then we had some drinks in l'etranger. We went there last year - a round of drinks was significantly cheaper there to what we have paid 'on the hill'. We had seen the Navettes zooming round and there was one waiting just as we were finished and walking back so we jumped in and it saved us the walk back up the hill. The little pisted path outside the appt. which is a short cut to the area is so icy it wasn't really safe to walk down.

I think we are hoping to go over on the VE tomorrow if certain 'knees' permit.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Report update - a lot of this is from the posting in snow reports.

So we ended up in La Plagne today. It's still no better folks, still no snow despite the presence of some clouds - there has also been a breeze in Les Arcs 1800) which we haven't had before this week which was no so evident in La Plagne.

The VE is noticeably busier in both directions - I think folks are heading for La Plagne.

On the high plateau area between Plagne Bellcote and the VE and there is a fair sized patch of 'true blue ice' - the real thing (no kidding - you don't want to crest the rise at speed and hit it IMV) it's about half way along the mont blanc piste in the mid to left section of the piste. They have started to scrape the off-piste to get snow for the on-piste. Some of the steeper pitches over there are fairing better on their Again, IMO, it is still better over there than in Les Arcs although the paths in both areas are rock hard.

In Les Arcs Grand Melezes off the mid trans arc station is still very sheer, and there are patches of 'true blue ice' on Chavets.

Last day tomorrow - still sorry to be going home, but I sure wish the snow had been better.

We spent the evening sorting the bags out and doing some loading. Not doing too bad. We even managed to fit in a last swim - the pool is really swish. We have been in every day bar the first one. I think its so relaxing for the legs to stretch and swim with no resistance after a day compressed against the hard pistes. I think skiing and swimming really do go together. Minimum_2 has had a result with the regular swimming. When he came he could just do 10m doggy paddle and couldn't swim a single breast stroke. Yesterday he swam the pool width, and tonight he swam the pool length with breast stroke (we think its around 15m long) so he is really pleased with himself. BMF_skier worked really hard with him and it paid off - it's funny he won't respond to me in the same way, maybe because he knows he can get away with not doing so. So he has a diamond ski school award (like his sister) and has improved his swimming a great deal. I guess that despite a lack of snow it's not been a bad week for the kids.

As for me? Well, I'm pleased I had my lessons earlier in the holiday - it wouldn't be any fun playing 'chase me' with the instructor out there now. I think I've loosened up a bit, my shoulders are more separate from my legs, and I can find the better snow at the edge of the piste and do short turns down it. I have proved on several occasions that I can def. side slip, and my speed has increased a bit, I also had my first taste of moguls with the instructor (only baby ones). The thing is that the conditions at the moment aren't the best for the gaining confidence on. I've got some new techniques I can deploy, like the short turns, but in terms of large mileage and decent snow and hooning round to practice long and short and open and closed turns as I did with the instructor it wasn't really the snow for it. I think what I've made best use of is short turns down the side of steeper pitches. Other times I've coped with steeper pitches by using the whole piste width and side slipping off height as I go. I can now make a fairly good stab at short turns right down the piste edge, with an almost stop to knock of real speed if necessary - it kind of followed on from the exercise I did with rob@rar at HH in the autumn.

Roll on VT at easter - if there is any kind of justice we should get 3ft of powder just before we get there!

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Megamum, Safe journey home (I thought you were going yesterday) Good to hear that La Plagne remains OK snowHead

Safe journey home Megamum, I've really enjoyed reading your reports, and I'm sorry you didn't have better snow. By all accounts you've still had a great time though, and it's great that you've posted so much during your holiday.

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Megamum, really enjoyed reading your reports Very Happy

It's a shame that the snow wasn't better for you, but you may well have become a better skier because of it snowHead

It sounds like you've all had a lovely holiday, despite the less than perfect conditions. Hope you enjoy yourselves tomorrow, & safe journey home.

Help!!

Les Arcs trip report - to be regularly updated whilst we are away.

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