 Poster: A snowHead
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Arrived in Arcs 1800 late on Sat due to monster traffic delays between Lyon and Moutiers. Although I think these delays were monster I'm sure they're nothing compared to school holidays! We were passing Lyon by 12:45, and didn't get to resort until 17:30! I have no desire to ever drive to the Alps again!
Our trip was intended to be from 12/3 to 19/3. Early return was due to mildly ill daughter and French nurseries inability to deal simple tasks, like administering Calpol. I do wonder why we were paying them ~£35! There was no way the wife and I were going to try and entertain a 13 month old, in a small apartment, with only a couple of toys!
Anyway, on to the important stuff. Although we didn't see much of the resort, thanks to us being beginners, and having to leave early. What I can say is Arcs 1800 appears to be a good resort. The snow was certainly deep enough, but was in bad need of fresh snow. Thankfully on the Monday night it snowed. Quite a bit of fresh powder. Very nice. Especially as I had trashed my knees on the ice the day before. It was very warm by day, and cold at night. Made for exceptionally icy pistes in the morning, and nice soft riding in the afternoon. Nice and sunny all day, and from what the forecasts were saying it was going to stay that way for a few days.
My wife was in ski school with Arcs Aventures. She has boarded before, but this was her first time skiing. She only had 3 lessons before we left Les Arcs. Her experience was somewhat varied. She had 3 different instructors for the first 3 lessons! They even shifted the lessons to the afternoon, which wasn't very convenient for nursery pick up times, but was done as the snow was softening up in the afternoon, which was fair enough. The worst thing about Arc Aventures was the variation of instructors. The first instructor insisted on no poles, the second then wanted them to use poles, and the third was back to no poles again. I think this is terrible. It's no wonder that she didn't make a huge amount of progress.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Still, sounds better that ESF in Arcs 2000 - our 'beginner' was in a class of 23 on the first day, 20 the second day (OK there was an 'assistant' instructor but she didn't inspire her) so she skipped the third day. I'll post more when I have time on the appropriate thread. I think ESF have a monopoly in Arcs 2000.
I'll back up comments on the snow conditions. We arrived early on Saturday via one of the snow trains - great for avoiding traffic. Saturday 12th was cold & with some poor light but piste conditions were good. Monday was excellent on piste with mostly good light. Tuesday brought 10cm of fresh snow and some good off piste if you had a guide who knew where to go (thanks to the Ski Club Rep), but rising temperatures meant nearly everything turning to slush in the afternoon.
For the rest of the week, concrete snow in the morning and slush in the afternoon was the order. Temperatures kept rising so that not even the Aguille Rouge was avoiding the slush/ice problem. On Saturday 19th, the south east facing Comborciere run had thankfully softened by 0945, but at this time most runs in Arc 1600 were still rock hard. (OK, ice hard). For this latter part of the week I did no serious skiing after lunch as everything was too soft, and on Friday the avalanches started to threaten the slopes during late afternoon - both Edelweiss & Lac pistes were apparently hit but with no skiers involved.
Off piste wise, on Thursday the opinion of the Ski Club Rep was that there was nothing good and safe in Les Arcs without a long walk so we went over to La Plagne instead.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Just returned from 1800,the wife is a beginner and went to Ski school with ESF and came on bundles,really enjoyed it and thought the instructor really good,from not fancing going skiing she's already looking to book for next year,however my son was in ski school ,took a tumble high on the slopes,the class carried on took a left fork and by the time my son had righted himself he had no clue where they had gone or where he was on the slope!
Luckily (unbelievably!!) for him,some friends passed,saw him there and managed to bring him down.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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All - if staying at 2000, it might be worth considering Spirit 1950 for lessons as they have a guaranteed maximum class size of 10. You'll pay more than ESF (150 euros to 125 euros in the morning) for a lesson that is 2.5 hours instead of 2.75 but to half the size of the class, I think its worth it. Meeting place for the ski school is the centre of 1950 (about 100 yards from the bottom of the cabriolet lift down from 2000) or just ski into the middle of the village.
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