Arc 2000 trip report (long)

PG wrote:

"Pip Luscher" wrote in
message ...
| On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 11:50:42 +0100, "PG"
| wrote:
|
|
| "Pip Luscher" wrote in
| message ...
| | On Wed, 2 Feb 2005 20:02:57 +0000, Sue
wrote:
| |
| | Why on Earth you have to take stairs to get into a lift is beyond
me.
| | And why you need a lift to get around the village without walking
| | round the roads or on the pistes at all is very odd. The entire
| | village appears to have been built on a mound.
| |
| | Actually, thinking about it, I suspect that they were playing the
| | numbers game and by building it on the mound, gave it the magic
| | "2000".
|
| Er - no.
|
| Fair enough, it was just a thought. That was a pretty definite answer
| - care to elucidate?

Resort villages are positioned for a number of reasons - planning
permission, the terrain, accessibility, invulnerability (inasfar as this
is possible) to avalanche... but not because they wanted to give it a
specific name. I know of one resort in the southern Alps that is
commonly known as Céüse 2000 but not because it is positioned at 2000 -
it just happens to be the altitude at which the highest run starts!

From what I heard, Arc 2000 was build back in the days (80s?) when snow
cover was reliable and people were more worried about staying too high
up the mountain and getting altitude sickness. So it's actually at
2100m, but called Arc 2000.

This led to problems when building the new village as now it's more
popular to be higher, but they could hardly rename the old one... so
it's actually at 2000m but called Arc 1950.

|
| As for crowds, I suppose that as a local you get to see the full
| horror of the bank holiday rush, so it would seem "virtually empty" at
| the time I went. As one who intensely dislikes crowds, I'd just like
| it to stay that way!
|
| Don't get me wrong, I had a great week's skiing on nicely groomed
| pistes, it's just that the village itself, and its location, left me
| completely underwhelmed.

I skied all the first week of Jan. I don't think I found a queue
anywhere. The older section of 2000 is pretty ugly, although the new MGM
constructions that form part of the same village are very pleasant and
quite well designed. Arc 2000 is in the centre of a bowl, surrounded by
some beautiful views. I really can't see why the location is not to your
liking.


I suspect Arc 2000 is a bit hit or miss depending on your specific
accommodation. There aren't that many angles with views from the
village, so it depends on which specific block you're in whether you get
views or not.

You can't ski through the village itself, which means most locations are
not "ski-from-door", and skiing to the lower section (where most of the
accommodation is, and avoiding the lift) involves a fairly steep and
extremely narrow "blue" (home) or button tow (out) both of which were
beyond our beginners. The button was pretty busy in the mornings too.

Once you've got to the main piste area, IMO you do a lot less queueing
mornings and evenings than if you start from bases like 1800 and 1600.
This is probably more useful for late intermediates and advanced skiers
than beginners. It's a trek over to La Plagne but can be done in a day
by intermediates.

Unfortunately an inopportune cliff (the kind that snow doesn't stick on)
means you can't really ski down from [lower] 2000 to 1950 and join the
pistes there, which looks like it should be an alternative on the piste
map. Mind you, you'd think they could fix that with a couple of really
big JCBs...

-Sarah

In message , Sarah Eggleston
writes

I suspect Arc 2000 is a bit hit or miss depending on your specific
accommodation. There aren't that many angles with views from the
village, so it depends on which specific block you're in whether you
get views or not.

You don't need much of a view from your apartment - we could see the
cranes of 1950 from ours, more than adequate to tell us what the
visibility was like so we could start planning over breakfast.


You can't ski through the village itself, which means most locations
are not "ski-from-door", and skiing to the lower section (where most of
the accommodation is, and avoiding the lift) involves a fairly steep
and extremely narrow "blue" (home) or button tow (out) both of which
were beyond our beginners. The button was pretty busy in the mornings too.

I thought the 20m long "resort run" would've been sweet in worse
conditions. There was a *permanent* sign warning you of verglas and
telling you to walk down (no way do I walk on ice in ski boots, I like
sharp steel edges for that)
At the end of the day it had the biggest bumps ever seen on a piste that
short, because it stops at the road so you do too. It can't be icy all
the time, slush and bare patches must be an option, and there was
nothing dividing it from the drag track. The draglift's a fixed grip
one so you can do a short slalom if there's nobody on it.


Once you've got to the main piste area, IMO you do a lot less queueing
mornings and evenings than if you start from bases like 1800 and 1600.
This is probably more useful for late intermediates and advanced skiers
than beginners. It's a trek over to La Plagne but can be done in a day
by intermediates.

Unfortunately an inopportune cliff (the kind that snow doesn't stick
on) means you can't really ski down from [lower] 2000 to 1950 and join
the pistes there, which looks like it should be an alternative on the
piste map. Mind you, you'd think they could fix that with a couple of
really big JCBs...


You can if you're starting from the little draglift.
In fact it's hard to avoid - you normally start your day by skating to
the piste where you can ski down to the Marmottes chairlift (below 1950)
and riding up that, so you can skate to the lift you actually want!

The best way home to 2000 is to ski down to 1950 and take the Cabriolet
lift back up. There aren't any signs to help you find the lift, which
may be a hint that you can't ski to it when there isn't as much snow.

--
Sue ];(

Deep perfect powder's all the same - a resort run's always different and often interesting.

Sue wrote:

In message , Sarah Eggleston
writes


You can't ski through the village itself, which means most locations
are not "ski-from-door", and skiing to the lower section (where most
of the accommodation is, and avoiding the lift) involves a fairly
steep and extremely narrow "blue" (home) or button tow (out) both of
which were beyond our beginners. The button was pretty busy in the
mornings too.


I thought the 20m long "resort run" would've been sweet in worse
conditions. There was a *permanent* sign warning you of verglas and
telling you to walk down (no way do I walk on ice in ski boots, I like
sharp steel edges for that)
At the end of the day it had the biggest bumps ever seen on a piste that
short, because it stops at the road so you do too. It can't be icy all
the time, slush and bare patches must be an option, and there was
nothing dividing it from the drag track. The draglift's a fixed grip
one so you can do a short slalom if there's nobody on it.

Ah, we must have been lucky. Had plenty of snow in Jan 2004 - and a
somewhat weird effect resulting from 4 inches of powder on one side.
With skis across the slope you'd often have the tips in powder and and
the heel on hardscrape (or vice versa), which made for weird ski handling.

Unfortunately an inopportune cliff (the kind that snow doesn't stick
on) means you can't really ski down from [lower] 2000 to 1950 and join
the pistes there, which looks like it should be an alternative on the
piste map. Mind you, you'd think they could fix that with a couple of
really big JCBs...


You can if you're starting from the little draglift.

Agreed, but that doesn't help beginners with an alternative to walking
through the shopping centre and using the lift.

In fact it's hard to avoid - you normally start your day by skating to
the piste where you can ski down to the Marmottes chairlift (below 1950)
and riding up that, so you can skate to the lift you actually want!

The best way home to 2000 is to ski down to 1950 and take the Cabriolet
lift back up. There aren't any signs to help you find the lift, which
may be a hint that you can't ski to it when there isn't as much snow.

Hmmmm, I'll have to book a return trip and find that one!

-Sarah