 Poster: A snowHead
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Resort: Peisey Vallandry
Country: France
Date: March 2011
Our holiday: We went as a group of singles (and one couple) from late 20s to early 40s. All friends and friends-of-friends. No kids. A couple of people had visited Les Arcs a few years ago, but as this was before the Vanoise Express was built, they hadn't been to La Plagne.
Location : We stayed in the lower village in Peisey which is connected to Plan Peisey by the lobster pots (short, pedestrian lift). From here you can go towards Les Arcs or take the Vanoise Express to La Plagne (whole area is known as Paradiski).
It took us about 5 minutes to walk from the chalet to the lift each morning. This was a bit far to walk in ski boots, but we got around it by hiring skis from the Intersport shop under the Vanoise Express. This meant that we could get to the top of the lobster pot lift in normal shoes, carrying ski boots, then collect our skis each morning from the hire shop and leave our shoes there all day. We then dropped the skis off in the afternoon and put our shoes back on for the walk down to the chalet. We took our ski boots with us to put on the boot dryers in the chalet.
Lift system : The Vanoise Express is very fast efficiently shifts hundreds of people at a time across the valley. We found it to be very useful from our central location. I think the lifts in Les Arcs are newer and faster than those in La Plagne. Both sides have areas prone to closing in high winds, and we were advised not to venture further than Arc 1800 on a windy day as we could be stuck if certain vital links closed. Both glacier areas were closed several times during the week we were there and so we never made it to the top. At times when the Bellecote glacier link was open, we found quite a big queue to get across, and unfortunately there was no other option for piste skiers than to get back on the lift to return.
On the whole, it was pretty easy to find our way around, and to get from A to B when required. There are a few bottlenecks at certain times of the day, but I think the longest queue was about 20 minutes. Most of the time, though, we were able to get straight on the lifts.
Something to bear in mind if you are staying on the Les Arcs side of the valley: a fair number of the La Plagne lifts are old and slow. If you are just heading straight out of Bellecote on the Arpette then it's pretty quick, but "just one more run" could see you making a mad dash for the Vanoise Express...
The terrain : Quite a few pistes were closed while we were there. Looking at the lit up boards around the resort showed them to be generally lower down or at the extremes of the map. I expect this was due to lack of snow cover and not enough excess snow to be spread around.
Paradiski has quite a lot of altitude variation, from the lower villages (Villaroger, Montalbert etc.) to the 3000m+ glaciers. The terrain is quite varied - glaciers, rocky areas, big flat runouts and tree-lined runs means you can check the weather forecast and then select the best area that day. La Plagne is a lovely sun trap on a nice day, and TBH we preferred this side of the valley as there were more runs available above the main villages which are all around 2000m. A lot of runs on Les Arcs side are lower down, and we were experiencing muddy brown slush even down to Arc 1950 this year.
My favourite runs were the Bellette (red) near Vallandry/Arc 1800 and Les Sources (also red) off the Roche de Mio. Both were generally in good condition and never too busy. There are lots of nice blue runs, not particularly challenging though, and if you're on a snowboard keep your speed up in La Plagne or you'll be walking a lot.
The snow : Anyone who has been following the weather in this part of France will know that it's been a bit warm and dry this year. Most of the pistes down to Peisey Vallandry (1600m) were kept open, but they were very slushy at the bottom. It felt as though the natural snow line was more like 1800m. It did snow a couple of times midweek, about 2-3 inches each time higher up, but rain lower down. Morning snow was nice higher up above Arc 2000 and at the top of the Roche de Mio and Funiplagne lifts.
The avalanche risk increased after the new snow, and we saw some small avalanches high up on rocky terrain. There was still plenty of fresh areas (off piste) available at the end of the week, but as I've not really done any, I don't know how safe they were to reach.
The resort : We're mostly from Yorkshire, so you can guess what was picked from the options of going out at night in search of a (very quiet, overpriced) beer or staying in a drinking the free wine... If you want banging tunes and loud drunks, this village is not for you.
Food : We frequented Scotty's bar in Plagne Centre which serves good food at reasonable prices. There is also a snack bar/restaurant in Bellecote (left hand side, behind the yellow toilet block) which serves super mega XXL frites - basically a huge bag of chips for €3.50 - but don't order one for just yourself unless you have a lot of elastic in your waistband! The creperie opposite was very nice too, much better than the one in Arc 1950 which was too busy to make them!
On the chalet night off we went for a very nice meal at the restaurant in the village, which came to about €30 each for 3 courses and drinks. Can't remember the name though, but it's on the right as you walk up the hill past the lobster pots, just after the ski bar.
Accommodation : We stayed at the Chalet Richermoz which was excellent. Everything seemed very well organised, the food was very good and any special requirements were met without fuss. The chalet was clean and warm with underfloor heating thoughout (but individually controlled in each bedroom), a log fire and a sauna which we made good use of - it definitely helps to sooth aching limbs. The bedrooms were the largest I've seen in a chalet - plenty of space to move around, to store clothes and empty luggage, and with good size en suite shower rooms. It also has a FreeSat TV and Wii in the lounge area, and another small TV area upstairs which we didn't use but would be ideal to give kids some space. The staff were very friendly and helpful, and the wine and cake plentiful!
Travel: We travelled from Leeds-Bradford to Geneva with Jet2. They are a budget airline, though I've used them a few times and never had any issues. You get a slightly larger baggage allowance at 22kg, though it costs £50 return for skis. Ticket prices were about £80 return all in (hold bag, cc charges, but not skis), so not too bad really.
We arranged for the chalet to collect us in their minibus as this cost the same as getting the public bus (about €75 return) but was less hassle. The traffic was terrible and it took over 3.5 hours. We would have preferred to use the Eurostar instead of sitting on the motorway all day, but because we have to get a connection from Leeds, it proved too expensive this year.
Costs: Paradiski lift pass is a bit steep (€249 for 6 days, though we did get a bit of a discount through the chalet). Other (cheaper) lift pass options are available though if you don't think you will get the use out of a full area pass.
Food and drinks costs were not as high as we expected. We paid about €2.50 average for coffee, and €3.50 for a vin chaud. Buckets of chips were €3 ish.
Conclusion: It was unfortunate that we didn't get to experience a lot of the lower runs because of the lack of snow, warm temperatures, slush and thin base covering at times. The central location is great if you like to travel around a bit, and I'm glad we weren't further up into Les Arcs as I don't think we'd have seen as much of La Plagne, which I really enjoyed.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Having just returned from La Plagne and its 2000 metre rain I can assure you that our 'day out'in les Arcs was infinitely better than skiing in La Plagne. The lower slopes in LA down to Montalbert were fantastic in the morning for two days when it was cold ish. After 11 am it was leg breaking mashed spud on most days, so head up, and............................the spud arrives about 1300.
The upper bowl of Les Arcs had much better snow and colder temps, plus the advantage of snowfall. We had a paltry 20mm at 2k metres during the week. Poor conditions, probably the worst for me since the early 1980s when I was seduced to North America and where I remained until 2 years ago. The last two years in the Alps have been marvellous but this is not a vintage year.
Lots of rocks, thin slush up to 2k in places and plenty of deep slush in others. The pisteurs deserve a medal as runs are in disgustingly good condition considering the weather, which was VERY warm here all week. Pity any late booked people, skiing is possible but not nice. Skiing is surreal when the piste is the only white bit (lower) and even the upper runs have a brown tinge.
Pouring with rain on Saturday as we left. Sad. 
Bit like Blackpool/Scarborough/Margate in the winter....................
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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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Good report Scarlet, agree with most of what you have written. Now the new snow has arrived, the last couple of days have been great.
Maersk, Montalbert is in La Plagne not Les Arcs, did you mean Villaroger? Not sure I agree with you about the snow conditions last week. I thought both sides had about the same amount of fresh snow. Now we have a bit more it is good on and off psite, but if it stays warm now, I agree it will all go lower down very quickly.
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snowcrazy, reading the reports before we left, I was rather nervous about what we'd find. We were all pleasantly surprised that there was still plenty to do and lots of good snow to be found higher up. Everyone had an enjoyable week.
BTW, we walked past a chalet in the village with "Snowcrazy" written on the side - is that anything to do with you?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Scarlet, nope that is a tour op, just use the same name worst luck 
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Scarlet, Excellent report. 
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