BEHIND THE SCENES: Les pisteurs des Arcs

The Les Arcs and Peisey-Vallandry lift companies recently combined to form the not-very-inspiringly-named ADS organisation.  In any case, they are owned by the mega Compagnie des Alpes organisation, who oversee many of France's biggest ski areas.

You can extend your day on their slopes by buying a "First Tracks" ticket.  This gives you the right to get up the mountain before everyone else, ski with the pisteurs, and have a jolly breakfast.

TheVagere lift, 7.45am

The Arc 1800 version includes taking in the view at the top of the Arpette lift, followed by coffee and croissants in the Arpette.  At €10, it is good value, and well worth the early start.  It's on Thursday mornings this season, but isn't well advertised; call in at the tourist office and get a copy of the weekly schedule.

Arc 1800 and the Tarentaise

It's also the opportunity to pick up some useless facts...

The 200km of the Les Arcs ski area are groomed by 26 piste bullies (les dameuses)

There are 7 avalanche dogs (all male) who also come in handy for retrieving stray piste markers (les jalons)

"It's just a game to him"

The dogs live with their owner - as opposed to their husky colleagues, who live in a communal kennel.

The first task in the morning is to check there are no nasty surprises on any of the pistes: bare patches, stray lumps of ice left by the piste bullies.  Etc.  If there has been snow, the dynamite is wheeled out through a complex pulley ("CATEX") system - a vast improvement on the previous method which involved the pisteurs lobbing the explosives into the affected areas.

Then they check all the piste markings.

And then it's "surveillance time" - ie hanging around waiting for accidents to happen.  Bringing you back to resort in their blood wagon will cost you at least €600, by the way.

Tools of the trade...

Other ways to extend your ski day in Les Arcs:

1.  Wednesday night "Soirée Savoyarde" at the Arpette.  It starts after the lifts have closed, and ends in a chaotic torchlit descent....
2.  Night skiing - at Arc 1800 this uses the Chantel lift, so you will spend rather more time going up than going down....