Arc 2000 trip report (long)

Well that was trip to remember.
Summary: Arc 2000 sucks, stay in Arc 1800 or La Plagne.

Saturday 22nd
When I woke up it was raining on the snow beside the railway. Sleet at
Moutiers, wet snow at Bourg St Maurice. The road to Arc 2000 had been
cleared just in time for us. Explosions rattled the windows during
breakfast, rumours of 3 lifts open.
Peering into the murk from the Plagnettes lift we saw two groups of
people digging for lost skis: they were on a red piste, or in it.
The blue piste below it had been groomed that day and was only about six
inches deep; apparently they won't open a blue run unless they've been
able to groom it!
In the evening it cleared and mountains were visible by moonlight.

Sunday 23rd
Snowing again. No inter-resort links open, we took the bus to Arc 1600
for tree lined runs.
Not much open there either but we got thigh-deep skiing without leaving
the piste. Off-piste was similar but with trees.

At 5:30pm at the bus stop we were told the road to Arc 2000 was closed
by an avalanche, come back at 19:00. In the pub we heard they'd been
digging since 3:00pm. The avalanche was deliberate, nobody underneath.
We finally left Arc 1600 at about 7:45 after a long wait outside in the
snow. Our TO's staff hadn't heard about the road closure and were
starting to wonder where all 12 of us had got to!
In the evening there were piste bashers on the mountains.

Monday 24th
Still snowing lightly, cleared later.
Aiguille Rouge was still shut but we could reach Villaroger via
Lanchettes. Some attempts at piste bashing there had apparently been
abandoned without achieving much. We loved 'La Ferme' restaurant -
great food, friendly and efficient.
At last lift time there was a magnificent sunlit view, maybe we could
expect some fine weather.

Tuesday 25th
Fed up with friends, I thought I'd go with the TO's led trip round La
Plagne. Too many people for two leaders, and their grey jackets weren't
especially easy to follow on busy pistes. I lost them on l'Arpette and
didn't regret it much.
A beautiful day for photgraphy, and still lots of soft snow alongside
the pistes - cold though.

Good Loo award: Vanoise Express lift (underneath both stations).
Both areas need more toilettes, especially ones that are actually open
and reasonably convenient. For lack of them, boys piddle on piste which
makes the place revoltingly insanitary ("Welcome to our factory" says
the Evian advert - yuk!) while women simply can't stay on the piste like
the warnings say.

The TO's evening "pub quiz" seems to be a fix: our chalet staff said
their team won every week and offered to supply answers in exchange for
a share of the prize - the questions are the same every week, see?
Then the rep came and told them there'd been complaints so they mustn't
sit with us. When she'd gone they wrote down the 20 most difficult
answers, but our team lost to some middle-aged blokes who admitted
afterwards that the questions were also the same as last year's!

Wednesday 26th
Back to La Plagne with friends. Lunch on Grande Rochette, good
restaurant, superb views. Ms Bossy wanted to eat outside, soon changed
her mind when she realised how cold it was.
There are really weird landforms between there and Plagne Centre.

Why are there so many totally flat runs in Les Arcs and La Plagne?
Are they normally icy? Did the old-style faster skis go better on them
than modern gear?
Hurrying to get back across the Vanoise Express, we had to take our skis
off and walk for about half a mile; only the most athletic skiers could
skate that far, and nobody was sliding.

Thursday 27th
-22C at Marmottes lift at 9:00am. How much colder can it get?
Pistes were getting hard and moguls were maturing; the Tuffes piste had
some good ones nicely lit in the morning, so I risked frostbitten
fingers to get some pictures. Then I warmed up again by trying to ski
them (verdict of mature bumps: "Idiot!")

Friday 28th
-25C at 9:00am.
Feeling a lack of draglifts, I went to Peisey for a nice steep one. It
had a notice forbidding you to get off partway up, but it stopped and I
escaped through the trees where the snow was still soft and fluffy.

At lunch someone said there was a mean draglift at Les Deux Tetes
serving some bumps, so I'd got to go there. It's a beautiful spot, like
a rather large bonsai garden with a view. Angel dust twinkled down from
a deep-blue sky, and the bumps were still soft and friendly.
Unlike the draglift, which had too little depth of snow to work
properly. On the steepest part you dangled from it with only your ski
tips touching the snow, and there was a bush growing through the top
part of the track! The couple in front of me both fell off. This sort
of thing gets draglifts a bad name, and saves their bumps for the
dedicated few.
(Verdict of soft bumps: "Never mind, you'll learn")

As a resort, Arc 2000 has every inconvenience: too few facilities, no
charm whatever and a hopeless layout. There's no separation of
pedestrians from vehicles as you move around, but you can't get to the
shops from the street. You have to climb some stairs, go into a
building, along a corridor and up a lift, out onto a paved area, up more
stairs, down a different lift and around the back of the ice rink!
It's advertised as "almost ski in, ski out" which means "pole in, skate
out" because much of the area round the buildings is too flat to ski.
In the street, they'd cleared just enough snow for one vehicle to pass,
so all week people had been slipping and stumbling on the ice as cars
and vans pushed past them.
Now, with Saturday's traffic coming (and probably some pressure from the
police) they were finally clearing a two-lane width. We suspected the
commune of Bourg St M was busy looking after Bourg town and not
bothering with its villages.

Saturday 29th
-25C again, -27C on top of Aiguille Rouge and 40kph wind chill. People
couldn't wait to get off there, though the windblown snow was perfect.
Villaroger was unrecognisable with its pistes bashed, and seriously
pretty. Very cold except for the suntrap yard of La Ferme.
After lunch we did the bumps and playpark of Arc 1800 (there are kickers
of progressive sizes from beginners upwards) then the last lift on Grand
Col, where the sweep followed us down.

British TO's aren't noted for having a clue about anything outdoors, are
they? Ours herded us out into the night, dressed for a train journey,
to meet their bus. It wasn't there. We stood outside in the breeze
while one of them went to look for it, another one went to look for him,
and they came back and told us the bus was still in Bourg St Maurice
somewhere. I'd stopped shivering, couldn't feel my hands or feet, and
was ready to kill a rep and rip her open to use as clothing.
We left her to look after our luggage and sheltered in the Club Med.
She was still alive when the bus finally came: I wouldn't have been.

At Bourg St M station we had to queue on the platform for the baggage
x-ray, but there it was a balmy -12C or so. The Eurostar train left 40
minutes late: is it ever on time?

--
Sue ];(

"Sue" wrote in message
...
Aiguille Rouge was still shut but we could reach Villaroger via
Lanchettes. Some attempts at piste bashing there had apparently been
abandoned without achieving much. We loved 'La Ferme' restaurant -
great food, friendly and efficient.
At last lift time there was a magnificent sunlit view, maybe we could

and................

Villaroger was unrecognisable with its pistes bashed, and seriously
pretty. Very cold except for the suntrap yard of La Ferme.

Sue, sounds like you are a Villaroger convert. We always stay there when
skiing Les Arcs - week before Christmas was just magnificent, conditions
sound similar to the ones you describe. Also there is another very good
restaurant for lunch in the Village called the Aiguille Rouge.

Clive

In message , Clive Perry
writes

Villaroger was unrecognisable with its pistes bashed, and seriously
pretty. Very cold except for the suntrap yard of La Ferme.

Sue, sounds like you are a Villaroger convert. We always stay there when
skiing Les Arcs - week before Christmas was just magnificent, conditions
sound similar to the ones you describe. Also there is another very good
restaurant for lunch in the Village called the Aiguille Rouge.


Definitely - not many places have both trees and a magnificent view.
Plus frozen waterfall etc. Both restaurants were recommended to us, but
we wanted another bite at the Ferme menu!

--
Sue ];(

Sue wrote:
As a resort, Arc 2000 has every inconvenience: too few facilities, no

charm whatever and a hopeless layout. There's no separation of
pedestrians from vehicles as you move around, but you can't get to
the
shops from the street. You have to climb some stairs, go into a
building, along a corridor and up a lift, out onto a paved area, up
more
stairs, down a different lift and around the back of the ice rink!
It's advertised as "almost ski in, ski out" which means "pole in,
skate
out" because much of the area round the buildings is too flat to ski.
In the street, they'd cleared just enough snow for one vehicle to
pass,
so all week people had been slipping and stumbling on the ice as cars

and vans pushed past them.

Is this the Intrawest effort? Would have expected better if Whistler
was representative - ski-in/out, good traffic management, shops,
restaurants... I suspect this will be the last new ski area development
for a long while.

Sammy

"Sammy" wrote in message
ups.com...
Is this the Intrawest effort? Would have expected better if Whistler
was representative - ski-in/out, good traffic management, shops,
restaurants... I suspect this will be the last new ski area development
for a long while.

4500 new beds planned in Flaine in the next few years...

Sammy wrote:

: Is this the Intrawest effort? Would have expected better if Whistler
: was representative - ski-in/out, good traffic management, shops,
: restaurants... I suspect this will be the last new ski area development
: for a long while.

Intrawest (Whistler) are Arc 1950. This is *NOT* Arc 2000 - which has been
arounds for years!!

Thanks!
Is 1950 any better?

Sammy

Sammy wrote:
: Thanks!
: Is 1950 any better?

Not been there! HOWEVER 1950 got a bad writeup in a newspaper article I read
recently....allegedly a building site, not finished, nothing works etc.
I await any comments from anyone who has really tried it!

"Sammy" wrote in message
ups.com...
| Sue wrote:
| As a resort, Arc 2000 has every inconvenience: too few facilities,
no
|
| charm whatever and a hopeless layout. There's no separation of
| pedestrians from vehicles as you move around, but you can't get to
| the
| shops from the street. You have to climb some stairs, go into a
| building, along a corridor and up a lift, out onto a paved area, up
| more
| stairs, down a different lift and around the back of the ice rink!
| It's advertised as "almost ski in, ski out" which means "pole in,
| skate
| out" because much of the area round the buildings is too flat to
ski.
| In the street, they'd cleared just enough snow for one vehicle to
| pass,
| so all week people had been slipping and stumbling on the ice as
cars
|
| and vans pushed past them.
|
| Is this the Intrawest effort? Would have expected better if Whistler
| was representative - ski-in/out, good traffic management, shops,
| restaurants... I suspect this will be the last new ski area
development
| for a long while.
|

No, I believe Sue's referring to the older Arc 2000 complex, just above.

Pete
www.skiclublesarcs.com

"Sue" wrote in message
...
| Well that was trip to remember.
| Summary: Arc 2000 sucks, stay in Arc 1800 or La Plagne.
|
| Saturday 22nd
| When I woke up it was raining on the snow beside the railway. Sleet
at
| Moutiers, wet snow at Bourg St Maurice. The road to Arc 2000 had been
| cleared just in time for us. Explosions rattled the windows during
| breakfast, rumours of 3 lifts open.

No wet snow where we live in Bourg St Maurice on that day! This photo
taken the following morning http://tinyurl.com/5oh34 - it's barely risen
above freezing for several weeks now.

You were there the day of the avalanche fatality, off piste the other
side of the Lanchettes lift at 2000. See this thread on snowHeads.

http://tinyurl.com/46qb6

| At 5:30pm at the bus stop we were told the road to Arc 2000 was closed
| by an avalanche, come back at 19:00. In the pub we heard they'd been
| digging since 3:00pm. The avalanche was deliberate, nobody
underneath.
| We finally left Arc 1600 at about 7:45 after a long wait outside in
the
| snow. Our TO's staff hadn't heard about the road closure and were
| starting to wonder where all 12 of us had got to!
| In the evening there were piste bashers on the mountains.

Conditions were very bad, the resort was really struggling to make
things safe. I had the impression that pistebashing took a bit of a back
seat for a couple of days, they were finding it almost impossible to
cope with the combination of up to a metre of fresh snow, strong winds,
and very low temps.

| Monday 24th
| Still snowing lightly, cleared later.
| Aiguille Rouge was still shut but we could reach Villaroger via
| Lanchettes. Some attempts at piste bashing there had apparently been
| abandoned without achieving much. We loved 'La Ferme' restaurant -
| great food, friendly and efficient.
| At last lift time there was a magnificent sunlit view, maybe we could
| expect some fine weather.

Great restaurant, we were there Sunday and Tuesday lunchtimes that week.

..../...

|
| Why are there so many totally flat runs in Les Arcs and La Plagne?
| Are they normally icy? Did the old-style faster skis go better on
them
| than modern gear?
| Hurrying to get back across the Vanoise Express, we had to take our
skis
| off and walk for about half a mile; only the most athletic skiers
could
| skate that far, and nobody was sliding.

In the 2000 bowl there are a few flat areas to traverse to get from one
part to another, but if you know where to go, which lifts to use, you
can avoid them. Les Arcs really doesn't have that many flat runs - let
me know if you come again and I'll show you just how challenging it can
be! I can't think of anywhere you have to walk - or skate - to get to
the Vanoise! That said you were there in very low temps, and if you had
the wrong wax (or no wax) on your skis, you would have been in trouble.
In temps of -20°C it can act like glue on unprepared equipment.

..../...

| As a resort, Arc 2000 has every inconvenience: too few facilities, no
| charm whatever and a hopeless layout. There's no separation of
| pedestrians from vehicles as you move around, but you can't get to the
| shops from the street. You have to climb some stairs, go into a
| building, along a corridor and up a lift, out onto a paved area, up
more
| stairs, down a different lift and around the back of the ice rink!
| It's advertised as "almost ski in, ski out" which means "pole in,
skate
| out" because much of the area round the buildings is too flat to ski.
| In the street, they'd cleared just enough snow for one vehicle to
pass,
| so all week people had been slipping and stumbling on the ice as cars
| and vans pushed past them.
| Now, with Saturday's traffic coming (and probably some pressure from
the
| police) they were finally clearing a two-lane width. We suspected the
| commune of Bourg St M was busy looking after Bourg town and not
| bothering with its villages.

I think that's a little harsh. Conditions were taxing to say the least,
and you reach a point sometimes when nature has the last word - you
would have encountered similar difficulties wherever you were over those
few days. I was in Flaine on Tuesday and they were have all kinds of
trouble with the fresh that fell yesterday - they hadn't cleared a lane
through the (compulsory) car park and I was marooned for a while. The
"pedestrian" streets were dangerous as well, it was chaos for a while.

There are several access points to the main buildings, and depending on
where you are there is easy access to the pistes.

Pete
www.skiclublesarcs.com