 Poster: A snowHead
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I am tasked with booking apartments for my family, and my brother's family, for the first week of Easter 2012. My brother's family (of 4) include a complete beginner aged 16 and my sister in law and niece (aged 16) who have only skied previously for one week a couple of years ago. They will probably have some lessons in a dome before they go. I have never been to the Les Arcs area before, and from reviews I've seen I thought that Peisey Vallandry might be a good choice. However, I've read that the nursery slopes are not that convenient needing a longish chair lift to access them, and beginners would probably need to take the lift back down again, rather than ski back. I would be grateful for any views or suggestions from snowhead 's who know the area. Many thanks.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Friends of mine took beginners to P-V and the vomment was just that - its a bit steep on the run home, and at Easter the home run snow will be slushy in the afternoon and not good for tired beginner legs, so it would be a lift down. Its a great area for a second week, or some-one who has done a few snowdome hours and doesn't need to plough however.
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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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+ 1 from me.
The beginners slope is nice but complete beginners will need to go up and down on the chair lift for the first few days.
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Mountain Haddock, Snow and Sunshine, thanks for your feedback. I think I should look for somewhere else that has easier access to the beginner slopes I still fancy going to the Paradiski area. Do you have any suggestions that would be suitable? Many thanks
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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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| .......complete beginners will need to go up and down on the chair lift for the first few days. |
I'm not sure I agree entirely with that. It's possible I suppose, that really nervous, absolute beginners 'might' need to download on the first day, but I stayed in Peisey with my 4 year old son on his first ski trip. He went up on the chair on the second day of our holiday (having spent the first day in the snow garden), and was able to ski all the way back down. If your beginners plan to have a few hours in a dome before you go, then they will probably be completely fine.
Why don't you look at it in a slightly different way? The benefits of Peisey, and the rest of the Les Arcs / Paradiski area massively outweigh any small concerns about the final couple of hundred metres of the home run into Peisey.
I'm happy to go into more details if you wish, I may even be able to dig out a couple of photos of the run in question. 
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What's wrong with downloading? I often do it if the final run of the day is likely to be super-crowded and/or in poor condition, and I'm not a beginner. I agree with this:
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The benefits of Peisey, and the rest of the Les Arcs / Paradiski area massively outweigh any small concerns about the final couple of hundred metres of the home run into Peisey.
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| Quote: |
| What's wrong with downloading? I often do it if the final run of the day is likely to be super-crowded and/or in poor condition, and I'm not a beginner. |
Good point Pedantica. Absolutely nothing wrong with downloading (if that's what you want to do  )
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Actually I think you would probably be ok unless you think they are going to be very nervous beginners and on the nursery slope for prolonged periods.
For starters it’s right out on the fringe of Les Arcs and is much quieter than the other Arc resorts, so you have more space as you progress – nothing worse than packed pistes with people bombing past to put beginners off.
The nursery area is indeed at the top of the vallandry chair, so if they are just using the nursery slopes and nothing else then yes you would have to get the lift down (although it’s long it is at least a fast detachable chair). However if they’ve skied once before or are having some dome lessons before they go I don’t see why they will on that tiny nursery slope for long. Beyond that there’s some really nice beginner progression up there – the 2300 lift (short but slow) serves a stupidly wide nice easy blue with tons and tons of space that beginners can lap all day building confidence (it did wonders for my wife in her early days of skiing), and after that you can move to Derby lift (which I think used to be called Plan Bois) for longer harder blue challenges.
It’s true that most the runs back to the village are reds, but there is an easy long winding road that snakes its way down back to the village called Foret – weirdly it’s marked as blue (Les arcs just don’t seem to mark any piste as green for some reason) but frankly it’s a long flat cat track green that gently cruises back and forth through the trees down to the village. The only danger is the lower end could get closed if it’s very poor snow late season in which case you’re stuck with the reds or the lift, but I’ve been there in fairly poor snow and they do their damndest to keep it open.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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ennalsj, good plan, we go with loads of kids (aged 2-9, about 15 in all and most of them have learned to ski in Peisey and getting down is fine and much not a problem for begginers after even just a bit of skiing compared with most places.
The other runs- blues and reds are ideal for new skiers.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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ennalsj, just wanted to back up what Gazzza, has said, the long blue track back down from the nursery area is a very easy blue, should be a green really. Plus its a really pretty run down through the trees. The lower section last season was thin but they keep it open as much as possible and we had no problems getting back down with a a very mixed group of skiers.
Plus the Mont Blanc bar is a great place to finish the day at on the terrace 
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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further backup the comments about vallandry, my twin 4yo's were coming back into Vallandry down le foret with their instructor on their second day of lessons.
As others have already mentioned its a nice gentle slide down, the snow cover is quite protected by the tres and the descent gives beginners a great confidence boost by them "skiing home" at the end of the lessons.
as metioned Mont Blanc Maxima or Jimmys all offer nice ned of day chilling options
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Vallandry is an excellent choice for beginners. Do not worry about being downloaded by the Peisey lift, it is well set up for it. Many people download and not just beginners. The advantage of having the nursery slopes at 2200 metres is that the snow is good, much better than at resort level. The whole massive area between the top of the Grizly and the forest is a beginner’s paradise. Even for experienced skiers it is an excellent place to work on technique
Take the lift down. There is no shame in it.
The blue, foret, that snakes down though the trees is pretty tedious and when I was learning I would have hated it (never did like skiing along roads). At the northern end of the Vallandry sector there is a more pleasant blue route back to Vallandry.
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You know it makes sense.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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ennalsj, good stuff. which apartment did you book?
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Poster: A snowHead
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ennalsj, I am sure you will have a great time, you can keep up to date with all the Les Arc info on the Les Arc 2011/2012 thread as well
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Libertine, I have booked at the L'Arollaie apartments which seemed to have good reviews. Do you know these at all?
livetoski, I will certainly be keeping a very close eye on the Les Arcs thread
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Just to add - we took ours at 4 and he was OK on the nursery slopes , the run down was OK ( the blue) if you feel brave enough to go all the way down - and its wide enough for small kids ( with shorter skis) !!
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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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I know snow was exceptionally poor last season, but we struggled to ski that low down Easter school hols this year (9-16th Apr I think). There was only one red open down to Vallandry, and Foret, although there were sections of Foret where you had to take the skis off and trudge across the gravel. Cover at the top of the Grizzly was fine if a little heavy going though.
We skied in t-shirts early on in the week for a few days, it was 20+C and around 10C at the top of the Aiguille Rouge.
Hopefully this season will have a lot more cover throughout the season so even if it does warm up there's a good enough base.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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bertie bassett, great photos - thanks very much for posting. Certainly puts the mind at rest as far as the beginners in our group are concerned.
And what a great trip report - it tells me pretty well everything I want to know. I spent a while googling Peisey Vallandry and none of the sites I found came up with anywhere near as much info.
Thanks to everyone for taking the trouble to post all this information.
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FAQ
's for all the good information 
