 Poster: A snowHead
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Definite end of season feeling today over at the Peisey side of the Les Arcs domain. At 1630m (Les Arcs end of the Vanoise Express link to La Plagne), all but one of these photos taken this morning waiting for the first lift up.... the last one taken at 2000m late morning where the final competition of the season was taking place (spotted Chris Bish on the chair overhead, his last day, not too much sun this week but cool enough for perfect skiing conditions higher up.... just a touch of frost at Peisey first thing...)
Chatted to the lifties for a while before going up. The Vanoise Express has had a major effect on the village, prices have soared. Mixed feelings were expressed. None felt any ill will towards the English in general, but rather a certain sadness that the character of the village is irrevocably changing.
Interesting how the Vanoise Express functions - each cabin is completely independent so they can run one or both according to needs. It has been busy enough, but mainly from La Plagne to Les Arcs, rather than the other way around. Some traffic across the other way heading for Bellecôte, but just dribs and drabs.
Still a few Brits in an almost deserted Vallandry late afternoon, easy enough to get up to the snow at altitude from Peisey via the 6 man high speed chair Le Peisey.
Peisey will be closing on the 24th..... so the Vanoise will be shutting at the same time. What's left of the snow should just about last until then. The main part of the domain will be open until May 2nd.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Nice shots PG and all good things have to end.
However the snow reports in the Daily Torygraph are still quoting 110 / 250 for La Plagne (Friday's was the most recent I've seen).
Where do they measure the 110 - certainly not in the lower resorts judging from these photos ? Or perhaps the SCGB haven't updated them for a bit. The LP web site gives 15 cm at 1250m which seems more like the truth.
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The Vanoise Express has had a major effect on the village, prices have soared
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Building such a mammoth transporter was bound to have some impact. It will be interesting to see how much traffic it carried this season. I hear what you say about largely one way traffic PG but it won't show up in the stats since presumably those who went over to Les Arcs to ski for the day went back over late afternoon.
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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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The domains are subdivided, and even then they cheat a little - I think that Les Arcs lower levels are calculated at Arc 1800 not 1600, and certainly not at Peisey. Somwhere in the resorts' small print you can usually find out where the measurements are being made! However at the official La Plagne site either honesty has crept in or someone has made a typo - snow levels are quoted at 250/10..... somewhat different to the DT!
On the traffic levels what the guy was getting at was the lack of interest Les Arcs side to visiting La Plagne. I wonder if the Paradiski people had reckoned on this. It would be interesting to see the traffic estimates from their finance plan, and how much of a shortfall there has been this season, if any...
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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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the lack of interest Les Arcs side to visiting La Plagne
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one possible reason being that the most direct connection to the top of the LP Arpette and thus into the main part of the LP complex is by 2 parallel short steep Pomas. If there had been a lot of traffic towards LP there would have been a lot of queuing and some upset people who can't hack drags. This was discussed early season on the SCBG Open Forum and the feeling was whoever did the planning for the Vanoise Express hadn't taken it to it's logical conclusion on the LP side. You're the expert on the Les Arcs side, PG.
Another reason is that I think Les Arcs had the better snow in January, early Feb - but I'm only going by the reports. I was quoting from Meteo France above. I think 10-15 cm is probably the truth. BTW the SCGB snow report and the local ones always differ by one in the total number of lifts in LP. Not a big deal when there are 107 ........ or is it 108 ?
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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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Those pictures are exactly the same as the ones in my no snow nightmares!
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| Kuwait ian wrote: |
Where do they measure the 110 - certainly not in the lower resorts judging from these photos ? Or perhaps the SCGB haven't updated them for a bit.
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KW, I have mentioned to SCGB on a munber of occasions the inconsistency in the snow level readings on their site for La Plagne:
1. In one year the upper slope readings were really for the glacier.
2. The zero for Lower Slopes seems to have moved. Prior to 2001/2002 (a bad snow season) the Lower Slopes were 70-120cm most of the season. In 2001/2 the readings dropped to <40cm, but last season (which was much better) the readings were little different. This season the Lower Slopes are back to the optimistic levels of pre 2001/2. I wonder if the Lower Slopes have moved back to Plagne Centre from Montchavin/Les Coches.
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