THEN AND NOW: The Les Arcs ski area 2002-2012

Without wanting to stretch any metaphor too far, Les Arcs has certain similarities with Tottenham Hotspur: one of the best known resorts in France, yes.  But perhaps not always seen as among the best.  Click here to see which resorts are Manchester United, Chelsea etc...

Both have seen pretty rapid progression in recent years, and both now can make claim to a Champions' League place.

A glance at the 2002 lift map for Les Arcs is a reminder of what's changed.  Lots of this development was powered by the Arc 1950 development, and the Compagnie des Alpes, which now has a near-monopoly on the big resorts, has continued to invest.

In 2002:

• There was no Vagere chairlift at 1800.  The "Vagere" lift(s) were drag lifts, at the top of the golf course
• There were two slow old chairs going out of 1800 - the Chantel and the Carreley: the latter has now been taken down
• There was no Droset lift to bring you back to Arc 2000 from Villaroger - you had to ski round to Pre St Esprit
• The Marmottes lifts in 2000 were drag lifts; there was now Arc 1950 at this time!
• There was no Grizzly lift; there was a chair from the middle of the Peisey-Vallandry mountain, which is now no more
• There was a Gollet chair out of 1600 - an old 2 man.  This was taken down a few years ago, much to the irritation of some of the proprieteres
• Various lifts which were slow have now been replaced by detachable fast chairs.  These include:
• Grizzly
• Peisey
• Marmottes
• The Derby
• Bois de l'Ours
• Mont Blanc
• Arcabulle
• Mont Blanc
• Indeed, the entire mountain is now covered by fast lifts, with the only weak links really now in the area below 2000: the Pre St Esprit and Comborciere are agonisingly slow.  Other slow lifts remain (eg Renard, Villards) but they play a supporting rather than pivotal role.
• This is of course leaving out the arrival of the Vanoise Express and Paradiski...

View from Montchauvin, January 2012

More on the history of the ski area in the 1970s and 1980s here.

And for a potted history of each lift, click here.

A Note on the Piste Maps

In 2002 the piste map was presented on two sides - the 1600/1800 on one side, the 2000 area on the other - which amplified the size of the ski area.

Today's "Freestyle Park" was called the "Espace Surf".

The map was presented "avec Playstation".  It still is.

There is a lovely blue from the bottom of the Combe run in Peisey.  This has been decommissioned for 2011/12, which is a shame - a new, slightly less interesting, red run has been created slightly higher up.

The 2011/12 map includes La Plagne's pistes on the other side - which works better than the unreadable "Paradiski" map.  A month into the season, the Les Arcs website has yet to put the new map on the site.  So, here's the 2010/11 map.