Les Arcs Season 2014 - 2015, New Thread for this season starts on page 29.

Seeing all this fluffy stuff is getting my brain working overtime. Despite years of snowboarding off piste, I have gone back to skiing in the last 6 years and my off piste/powder technique is non existent - I'm thinking about having a lesson when I'm in La Plagne in a couple of weeks, can you recommend any particular school?

Ta :)

birdymiller wrote:this is a cheesy question. Do people who buy top branded ski wear always wear the same brand jackets and pants or do they mix a top brand jacket with a different branded ski pant?

Personally, I wear whatever I like, never worn the same branded pants/jacket.

NellyPS, Evo 2 are good and normally speak English, but not the cheapist. ESF are ok, but you need to make sure the guy will teach in English!

Have fun and maybe we can meet up for a beer one lunch time. Send me a PM if you are interested.

Another Powder day!!

I know, you are all fed up with me telling you how good the 'Powder' is each day. So all I shall say about today is that we spent the whole time in the Bellecote Bowl and then down the North Face to get back to Les Arcs and yes, we had untracked powder almost the whole day. Even without hiking you can still find great snow in some out of the way places.

Take a look at the photos in the Jan 2013 Album Two on my Les Arcs Winter facebook page if you want to see where we went.

For those coming out, the pistes we crossed on the way to the Bellecote and on the way home afterwards were all in great condition and you can go almost anywhere as there is still loads of snow. You are going to have fun next week when you get here!

Enjoy!!

Here are the photos I like the best from today!


No room for a mistake here!


Plenty of space for each of us to make our own lines.


More untracked snow on the North Face this time.

After all the fun of the last week, it was decided to have an easier day and head over to the 'Omelette' restaurant above Mont Albert for lunch.

With the sun shinning and not much wind although still very cold (at least -15 most of the day), I set off to meet the others at the Vanoise Express (VE).

Having met up we headed over 'on piste' towards Plagne Bellecote, but just had to do one of the little gullies on the way down to the Blanches Chair. Then over the ridge and down towards the Verdon Sud chair off piste through the meadows in soft powder rejoining the piste near the lift.

From the top of the Verdon Sud chair, off piste once more down to Plagne Centre and up the Biolley Chair, then through the 'Etroits' piste nature area and finally over to the lunch stop for another excellent omelette.

The pistes we skied in the morning were soft lower down with a 2cm covering of fresh snow which made them quite pleasant. We even found fresh untracked powder near to the pistes at times. The piste nature area was also fun although the traverse under the cliff was a little narrow in places.

On the way home using mainly pistes we found you had to work hard to hold an edge and going down towards the VE at the end of the day was not much fun as it was mostly very hard packed or boiler plate and very slippy. Our detour up to the top of the Roche de Mio and down through the Tunnel to see the new light show inside was worth the effort (the kids will like this). If there is not some fresh snow soon, most pistes will become very hard packed during the coming days and the off piste is likely to transform into hard chalky snow on the steeper faces and cruddy in other areas. Please let it snow again soon!!

After another good week of skiing in varying conditions it was time to have a few final beers and head for home. Great skiing this week guys and for those that know him, 'P' is back skiing the off piste again after his recuperation following the little mishap last season and looking good. Nice to have you back!

If you are interested in looking at where we went today, go to the Jan 2013 Album Two on my Les Arcs Winter facebook page. Enjoy!

Here are the photos I like the best from today.


Powder still up to your knees in places.


Mr P. showing he can still do it. Good to have you back!!


A very nice mornings skiing!

Hi - trying to decide which lift pass to go for. We are staying in Villaroger - furthest point from Vanoise Express, so was wondering approx how long it would take a good intermediate skiier to get to the Vanoise please?? Trying to decided whether to go for Discovery pass or full Paradiski?? We are also planning to ski one day in Tignes.
Thank you

Hi Cathy ..I'm there now (villaroger) arrived today and here for all next week....last year we managed to do from Aime 2000 to Villaroger and back in the day We came to the conclusion that the discovery was enough ...there is plenty in either area for a week and I seem to remember it took about an hour to get there... there's 3 lift just to access the main les Arc area

hi cathy, i have not long got back from les arcs 1800, trust me there is enough skiing in les arcs alone. if you are not too bothered about la plagne just go for the les arcs pass.