Les Arcs

So after our first afternoon at Sainte Foy getting to know our muscles again, we embarked on a journey up from Bourg to our first real resort, Les Arcs.

Les Arcs is a formed by a series of alpine villages, the main ones designated by their altitude (1600, 1800, 1950, 2000), which stretch across the face of a mountain range. Most people (sic. package tourists) stay up on the mountain in a chalet in one of the villages, but for those staying in Bourg there is a funicular railway which links up with Arc 1600 in a matter of minutes. We did it one day and decided it wasn’t worth the faff – better to take the 20-30 min drive, arrive a little later, score a park beside a lift and cruise through lunchtime when everyone’s gone in for fondue and the lifts are empty. Plus we get to enjoy a well deserved cup of hot chocolate in the warmth of our van when we need to refuel – without paying Alpine prices!

Arc 1800 was our main base. 1800 because that’s where the village is, but riding up a gondola took us to 2600m in a very short space of time. The first day was complete whiteout conditions with snow falling all about. And the best thing about that was not only that it brought powder, but that it sent everyone else back down to the their chalets. Heaven! By the time we got back to the van there was a pile of snow on the roof, and chains were necessarily almost all the way back to Bourg.

Lucky we brought the chains eh?

Vallandry was next up, quite low at 1600m but it made for a great place to hide out while it continued to snow, the tree lined red pistes soon became a favourite for Sharon and we ended up having the best day yet. With it also being a Saturday - change over day for most chalets – it meant that no one was there but us! We had entire pistes to ourselves and often no queues at the lifts. We had such a great day, and covered so much mileage, that I managed to break my previous record of 5400m vertical decent to 5800m.

Eric in action

The next day we took the funicular railway up from Bourg at 850m to Arc 1600 in 7 minutes, not bad. Being a really sunny day, the first it a while, meant everyone was doing the same thing. And with it being the first day for a lot of the weekly trips meant that it was madness on the slopes. The funicular was packed and the slopes so crowded that it was difficult to enjoy any of the runs, we headed over to Arc 1950 and then 2000 but the crowds seemed to get worse. Give us the bad weather with great snow over this kind of a day any day! At least it did mean we could get some great postcard perfect pictures anyway.

Just the two of us. Empty pistes and a Les Arcs sunset

Sharon and her favourite tree run, Myrtilles, Vallandry

Our 4 day non consecutive pass meant we could pick and choose the days we wanted to go up. We had a rest day in Bourg, checked out Val D’Isere and Tignes over the next few days, and returned for another blissful and near empty day on the slopes before heading out of the valley. It was Thursday, and I guess that’s the day when the weekly crowd decide to take a day off. Again there were times when it was almost only the two of us on the slopes, and when the sun decided to peak out from behind the clouds it was utterly gorgeous. We headed back over to Vallandry from 1800 so Sharon could get her fill of her favourite tree run – Myrtilles – and once again it was only us, the softening snow and the birds twittering high in the trees. As if the day could get any better, by sunset we ended up off-piste, rolling around in powder, before being treated to a of dose vin chaud (mulled wine) and a round of night skiing. How cool indeed.

Night boarding, Arc 1800