A TRIP TO LA PLAGNE

A 3 day or more Les Arcs lift pass now includes a day over in La Plagne.

So, if you're staying for a few days, it's worth taking the trip over to visit our neighbours on the other side of the valley.

Some thoughts, based on our trips this season:

1. At some point, there will be big changes to the Montchavin/Les Coches lifts.  For the moment, though, it's quite fiddly and time-consuming getting over to the La Plagne bowl.  If you're coming from 1600/1800, get yourself up to the top of the Arpette or Derby lift first - so you can get a nice long ski in before you arrive at the Vanoise Express.
2. Despite the new Colosses lift at Plagne Bellecote, the queues on and off piste remain a nightmare, and the whole sector is really no place to linger.  Better to take the Inversens chair to the top of the Roche de Mio and avoid this part of the resort altogether.
3. The blue run from the Roche de Mio underneath the Carella lift is quite something - beautiful scenery and a flattering, rolling piste.  I find the runs on the Champagny side much more rewarding than those above Plagne Centre.
4. Go home just after lunch and avoid the end of day crowds on the pistes.  Perhaps including lunch at the cosy Pierres Blanches restaurant.  Make sure you take the super-relaxing blue via the Plan Bois area above Les Coches, which also includes a number of enticing piste-side restaurants

Click here for more on La Plagne: cycling, skiing, history...

Les Pierres Blanches - above Montchavin/Les Coches
Photo via www.la-plagne.com

EARLY SEASON IN LES ARCS: Could be worse

It's now the 3rd disappointing start to the ski season in a row. This week sees:

• Thousands of seasonal workers out of work
• Chamonix-based skiers crossing the border to ski in Courmayeur
• Mountain-biking and summer walking trails back on the agenda

Cyclists can get their bikes out of the garage and
have a go at the Col de la Colombiere. Le Dauphiné says the
locals have seen nothing like it since the 1960s

Against this backdrop, things are looking quite good in Les Arcs.  Val d'Isere & Tignes are also skiing well, as are the Haute Maurienne resorts.

The November snowfalls were basically big enough to enable the pisteurs to protect the pistes above 2000m, while snowmaking has meant that you can still ski down to all the resorts.  

The upshot is that:

• Conditions in Arc 2000 are pretty good, while some of the slopes on the Peisey/1800/1600 side (such as Reches and Renard) are in decent shape.  No skiing below Bois de l'Ours, which is near-unprecedented
• You can ski over at La Plagne, where again the pistes in the main bowl above Plagne Centre/Bellecote are mostly open and skiing well.  All Les Arcs ski passes for 3 days or more now include a day in La Plagne so this excursion is well worth considering...
• ...provided you can confidently ski red runs.  The slopes in La Plagne are busier and more crowded, with skiers of varying abilities jostling for position.  And the run down to the Vanoise Express is icy and downright dangerous at the end of the day

Snow is on the horizon for next week, but it's not clear yet whether it will provide much by way of respite.

Arc 1800/1600 snowpark is up and running, 26 Dec

Arc 1800 front de neige, 24 Dec

Mont Blanc from Aiguille Rouge, 24 Dec

Panic on the slopes of La Plagne, 27 Dec

WHAT'S NEW IN LA PLAGNE

La Plagne's piste map for the coming year is now available online via the ever attentive Perso-LaPlagne site.

It sees the realisation of further developments to the ski area, as per their long term plan.

On the agenda for the coming season:

• The new "Envers" chairlift
• The retirement of piste bullies from the Glacier - the pistes up there will now be "Natur" slopes, with 10 new itineraries created in the process
• A new fun slope in the Arpette area
• Some tinkering around with piste names at the margins

The website now has its winter skin, including prices for ski passes.  At 59€ a day or €259 a week, the price is exactly the same as over the road in Les Arcs - where the lifts are also run by Compagnie des Alpes. 

The creation of the "Natur" ski slopes on the Glacier makes my favourite La Plagne descent - all the way down to Montchavinn - even more enticing.  You do have to do a bit of poling on the flat Bauches track, but it's worth it, and is a worthy rival to Les Arcs' more famous Aiguille Rouge run.

SPRINGTIME IN THE SNOW

It's the end of the season in the Vosges - follow @SkiNeigeVosges to keep in touch with one of France's smaller ski areas.

From the Ski Vosges Facebook page, 20 March 2016

Meanwhile, there's a month of the season still to go in Les Arcs - and the Easter Weekend concludes with a limited-spaces-only party in the Vanoise Express:

Next Wednesday 30th March sees the chance to go uphill under your own steam at La Plagne, with the Rando by Night event:

April sees the arrival of the Course du Coeur race, which sees teams travelling from Paris to Bourg-St-Maurice over a 5 day period.  The event is aimed at increasing awareness of organ donation:

And throughout April, Les Arcs has various events taking place as part of its Spring Final campaign to make the most of the final weeks of the season.  Given the controversy around the increasingly late French Easter school holidays, the emphasis is on attracting a younger, more "international" audience:

WINTER IS COMING

With the temperatures now starting to drop, a quick round-up of some of the pre-season news from the Tarentaise.

Les Arcs makes the Best Resorts for Experts list in the Telegraph.

Scary TV show The Returned is back on French screens and is back on More 4 on 16th October.  Although much of it is shot in Annecy, series 1 gave the Tignes dam a starring role:

There's more of this at the Les Revenants Facebook page

The Les Arcs Film Festival is gearing up for its annual event, which runs from 12th December.  The special focus this year is on Norwegian films.  This coincides with the start of the season, which includes new lifts in Les Arcs and La Plagne, as well as completion of the Mille 8 development above Arc 1800.

Further up the valley, conditions at the Grande Motte over the summer were terrible.  But if you can't wait until December, the Tignes glacier is now open for business.

If you want to follow the valley from afar, the @La_Rosiere1850 twitter feed is arguably the best.

ONWARDS & UPWARDS: New lifts for Les Arcs and La Plagne

A good summary of some of the things to watch out for this season in Les Arcs & La Plagne can be found on the Ski Nordique website.

This includes:

• The new telecabine at Montalbert, part of a phased redevelopment of the La Plagne system.  For the latest photos, follow the Perso La Plagne site
• The new Paradiski Yuge app, which is being given a big marketing push
• In Montalbert, a new 3km blue piste - les Lupins - aimed at younger skiers, complete with wood sculptures and a feature tunnel
• A Traversée du Paradis challenge, aimed at people energetic enough to make the journey from Montalbert to Villaroger.  It includes offers at participating restaurants as well as a prize draw at the end of the season

Meanwhile, the Ski Club of Great Britain provides a good summary of the new lifts coming on stream this season: Avoriaz, Val d'Isere, 3 Valleys.  And in Les Arcs we will have the new Carreley lift, which will provide fast access to Arc 2000 from the Edenarc complex, just above Arc 1800.  It links with the transformation of the Chantal slopes, following the launch of the Mille 8 development last season.

All in all, quite a transformation over the last couple of years.  The only sad note is the demise of the Grand Renard lift, which provided a rustic alternative to the second stage of the Transarc.  It's nowsurplus to requirements, given the increase in capacity provided by the new lift.

Mille 8

THE FUTURE OF LA PLAGNE: Heated Debates

Perso La Plagne reports this week that a big argument has broken out over the lift company's 10 year investment plan for the resort - more details of which can be found here.

The Matserplan for La Plagne.
Click here for more on Les Arcs' neighbour

More specifically, anger has broken out on the Montchavin/Les Coches side.  The new masterplan involves dismantling a series of lifts, leaving two heavy-duty telecabines to serve that side of the mountain from 2021.  One (from Montchavin) would link directly with the Vanoise Express.

A new blog - save the ski area of Monchavin Les Coches - has been set up by two local figures: Michel Girod was Mayor of Bellentre (down in the valley) between 1986 and 2008, while Gérard Rochet was in charge of the Service des Pistes between 1973 and 2005.

In an open letter, they complain that the changes are motivated by profit, go against the vision of La Plagne's founding fathers, and put 40 jobs at risk.  In particular, they underline the importance of keeping two parallel links rising up the mountain from the twin resorts.

We understand your concerns, respond the SAP (lift company) on the same blog.  But you need to take into account the economic context.  Did you know that Montchavin-Les Coches saw a 27% fall in skier numbers last year, and a further 7% this season?  

The Bellentre group has now put forward its own proposals - which include three different potential routes for the new telecabine de Montchavin.  To be continued....

Figure 1: The lift company's plan

Figure 2: The Mairie de Bellentre's plan

Leaving these arguments to one side, the highlight of the area is the 2000m descent from the Glacier all the way down to Montchavin - assuming you don't mind a km or so along the flattest blue run you will have ever encountered.

THE LONG WAY DOWN

The famous descent from the Aiguille Rouge down to Villaroger features in this week's welove2ski.com snapshot of the world's longest ski runs.

Click here for a little more on the run.  If weather and (your stamina) permits, it's good to do it two days in a row.  On day one, take it all in one go and crash out at La Ferme in Villaroger for a well deserved lunch.  The next day, allow time for pottering around the various reds on the Villaroger side, coffee at the Solliet, etc.

Finally, don't forget La Plagne's 2000m descent from the Glacier all the way down to Montchauvin.  This never appears in the guide books because there is a 2km flat bit below Les Bauches.  But it's worth persevering - more here.

En route to La Plagne's Glacier.
This "characterful" gondola will
be replaced soon

MOVING ON UP: La Plagne opens Les Colosses

Via www.perso-laplagne.fr, a trip up the new 8-person chair at Plagne Bellecote, which allows panoramic views of the perilously thin snow cover.

This new lift is the fastest of its kind, with the hope being it will eat into the notorious Bellecote queues.  For more background, click here.

La Plagne fans may still be disturbed to hear that the current site of Lowry-esque queues, aka the Roche de Mio gondola, will not be retired until 2020.  Their mood may be lifted when they browse the 10 year plan for improvements, which are set out here.   

Looking towards Pralognan from
the Champagny side of La Plagne's slopes
Click here for more on the resort, including
its history, summer walking, bobsleigh track...

HIGH ABOVE LA PLAGNE: The Glacier

"A bit of an odd set-up"

"Feels like it needs more thought"

"A-MA-ZING views"

Some comments overheard on a visit last season to the summit of La Plagne's skiing...

Change is on the horizon.  There are big plans to further upgrade the lifts across the resort, and the Glacier is at the heart of these plans.

For now, the trip up there is not without its drawbacks.  Assuming it's open, of course.  It's closed for 35 days each season.

Coming from Les Arcs, the journey up there can certainly take a while - whichever route to Roche de Mio you use.  Even in low season, allow some time.

Once you get to Roche de Mio, there is the ancient lift to take to the start of the Glacier skiing.  You can't ski to it direct.

The pistes are not really for beginners.  The red from the top of the new Glacier lift gets bumpy, and many people take the easier (but narrow) track - which the gets very crowded. Persevere, however; if you are up for the fierce Derochoir piste, you have the chance to make a 2000m descent all the way down to Montchauvin, at 1250m.  There are also a couple of blacks up there which have recently been re-instated as pistes.

The fiddly "retro" gondola link to the glacier will be
condemned to the ski history books from 2016

The headache for the resort is that, despite it being (in theory) the jewel in the crown, just 1% of its skiers' time is spent on the Glacier.

From 2016, there will be a new 10-person telecabine, which will take 2,800 skiers an hour. And a new red piste will enable skiers (and piste bullies) to reach the slopes directly.  This will be followed by a second gondola in 2017; details here.

See www.perso-laplagne.fr for more

For more on the 10 year plan for La Plagne's pistes, click here.

Looking back, 2015 marks ten years since the glacier was open for summer skiing - more here.

KEEP IN TOUCH: Social Media in the Tarentaise

Here's a guide (from a couple of years ago) to some of the main Tweeters of the Tarentaise.

A welcome new arrival since then is @tournavelles, tweeting from Villards in Arc 1800, often with the latest pictures of snow conditions etc.  And I try to RT news and comments about Les Arcs a few times a week @TweetLesArcs.

The Ski Adventures blog, from a company based in Les Arcs, will bring you the latest from the resort through the season.  Their latest post laments the 5% increase in lift prices and the lack of inclusion of any of the new "Mille 8" facilities.

For La Plagne fans, the excellent Perso La Plagne is now on Twitter.

Turning to Facebook, Les Arcs now has  51,000 "likes".  La Plagne is a little behind, with just under 40,000.

Meanwhile La Rosiere's Facebook page is pretty good, with loads of photos right through the year.

The border between La Rosiere and La Thuile.
Follow local ESF boss Simon Atkinson (no relation)
for the latest from this underrated area.

A MINE OF INFORMATION: PERSO LA PLAGNE

Good news for La Plagne fans: the excellent Perso La Plagne site is now on Twitter. Follow @PersoLaPlagne for all the latest news about the resort.  It's the essential guide to the latest lifts and modifications to the piste network.

Their first tweet advertises a France 3 documentary about the lead mines which formed a central part of the local economy prior to the birth of the ski resort in 1961.

You'll find loads of articles (in French) and pictures on the site.

But for a bit of background in English, you can read a little more about the pre 1961 history here.  And this article picks up on the development of the resort since then.

LA PLAGNE: The end of the Bellecote bottleneck?

The Perso La Plagne site notes that La Plagne isn't always very good at spreading the word about developments to the ski area - indeed that was one of the reasons why they up the site 12 years ago.

With the construction of the 8-seater Colosses lift, however, things are different.  Partly because it's such a bottleneck at Plagne Bellecote, it would be criminal not to put the word out.  And partly because the resort is dead proud that its own team from the S.A.P. has led the work.  La Plagne TV takes up the story.  And here is the coverage from TV Mont Blanc:

For more on the background to the latest upgrades in La Plagne, including the plans for the new Montalbert gondola click here.

The 1966 marketing poster.
Click here for some history

WINTER OLYMPICS 2022: A Two-Horse Race

Planet Ski reports that Oslo is the latest candidate to quit the race to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.

In doing so, the Norwegian capital joins Barcelona, Munich, Davos/St Moritz, Stockholm and Krakow.

This leaves Almaty in Kazakhstan and Beijing as the only two remaining candidates.

Perhaps there will be a French bid for the 2026 games.  Then again, after the shambles of the Annecy 2018 bid, perhaps not.

La Plagne (looking over to Les Arcs).  The resort's bobsleigh track
was wheeled out as part of the Annecy 2018 bid

LA PLAGNE: An end to the "Bellecote Bottleneck"?

(Updated 14 Sept)

La Plagne will not be happy to see itself nominated by Where to Ski and Snowboard as having the "most persistent problem" in the form of the queues at the Bellecote gondola. Not least as change is on the agenda.

As the Perso-LaPlagne site documents, plans are well under way for the new 8 person Colosses lift, which will relieve some of the pressure.  Maybe it will alleviate the queues to the Roche de Mio too.

Apparently the La Plagne spin doctors have been busy publicising the news.  It will be the fastest 8 person lift in France, reports today's Le Dauphiné; this Wednesday a 350 ton crane will be ready to lift the gare du départ into place.  The capacity will be 4,400 skiers/hour, compared with 2,400 previously.  Etc. 

For more background on the ongoing improvements to the La Plagne lift system, including the delay to the new Montalbert gondola, click here.

MARGINAL GAINS: A new drag lift for Plagne Soleil

They've been talking about it since 2009, apparently, but the Perso-LaPlagne site reports that Plagne Soleil will have a new drag lift for 2014/15, linking the resort to the summit of Le Dou.  It's all part of a broader reorganisation which includes other drags being taken out of service, as well as the installation of a new mega Colosses chair lift - more here.

For an updated internet tour of the world's most visited ski resort, click here

LA PLAGNE: Bellecote can breathe again

Perso La Plagne reports that we now have some more clarity re the new lifts planned for the resort.

There is confirmation that the Colosses chairlift will be replaced for December 2014 by a new mega 8 person lift.  This should revolutionise Bellecote, currently a queue blackspot.

The new lift will take 4,400 skiers an hour, 400 more than the neighbouring lift, and 3,000 more than the current Colosses chair.  It will be "la plus efficace de France".

Two draglifts will be taken down, with one of them likely to find a new home in Plagne Soleil.

Meanwhile, the new Montalbert telecabine will have to wait until December 2015, in the wake of environmental concerns and the subsequent public enquiry.  More on the background to all this can be found here.

UP IN THE AIR? The Plan for La Plagne

The plan was clear: a new Montalbert télécabine for December 2014, followed by the arrival of a new 8-seater Colosses lift at Plagne Bellecote for December 2015.

The excellent www.perso-laplagne.fr site has just published a post which suggests the order of ceremony may be about to change.  Although work on the new Montalbert lift has started, the cloud on the horizon is last November's report from the local DREAL environmental agency.  This declared that not enough work had been done on the impact on the local flora, fauna and animal life.  A new dossier has duly been submitted by the SAP lift company, and a response is expected by 15 March.

The ensuing uncertainty has prompted gossip that the SAP is preparing a Plan B, namely to bring forward the construction of the new Colosses lift to link Bellecote with Plagne Centre.  This would indeed provide some welcome relief to the site of what are probably the worst lift queues in the whole of the Paradiski area. Perso-La Plagne finds more evidence on the www.domaines-skiables.fr site, where it notes that a 4 person chairlift has just come onto the market.

The downside to this plan is that the environmental dossier for the new Colosses lift hasn't been done either.

To be continued....

Source: www.perso-laplagne.fr

SKI HISTORY: In search of "White Gold"

A look at the history of ski resorts in France reveals some common themes: rural depopulation in the Alpine valleys, virgin snowfields in the mountains above.  Not to mention some pioneers clever enough (or crazy enough) to see the potential of a ski resort.  Each had their own vision for bringing the rewards of l'or blanc to their part of the Alps.

A quick mine of YouTube finds many of these stories caught on film.

First up, Val Thorens (or should we say Val Thorens United).  Their 40th birthday video includes interviews with various local luminaries, from the early days through to current Tourist Office Director Gregory Guzzot.

Further south, the Isola 2000 story starts at the end of the second world war, with Italy ceding the  land above the village of Isola (Tinée valley) to France in 1947.  The history is interesting: a British developer, arguments about the access road, and a ski resort (Azur 2000) that was never built.  Here's a short film:

For a longer video, covering the story in quite some detail, click here.

Isola 2000's neighbour, Auron, is rather older, with the story of its first 70 years set out in this 2007 video.  Take a look at the newsreel celebrating the launch of the telecabine (at 4 mins), and various ski racers struggling with the long skis.  Finally, things start to get a little easier - as witnessed by the local ESF demonstrating their 1970s turns (12 mins):

Back in the Tarentaise, here's a video celebrating La Plagne's 50th birthday in 2011.  For more on the history of La Plagne click here.

Meanwhile, in Les Arcs, this video describes the grands travaux put in place by Robert Blanc, Roger Godino, Charlotte Perriand et al.  More on the history of Les Arcs here.

SKI SEASON 2013/14: The French Market

Last season was the year when the British ski market finally halted its decline, although it remains well below pre-Crisis levels.

France remains the most popular destination for skiers this side of the Channel, and of course it has not been immune from the market conditions - for example in Les Arcs, the Edenarc development has taken an age to get off the ground.

Here are some of the current dynamics in the French market:

New Developments

Many of the larger resorts are continuing to invest in their infrastructure, for example in La Plagne, where there will be a new Montalbert telecabine for December 2014.  Ste-Foy has a new fast lift going up from the village this season, in Valmorel there are a number of new lifts and a new Club Med as well.

OK, but...

The Compagnie des Alpes, which owns the ski lifts for many of the big resorts, including Les Arcs, reports total skier days rising by 1% last year, with revenues up by 3%.  This of course was against the backdrop of a very good season snow-wise.  The view at the Paris Bourse is that these results are disappointing.

Les Arcs and Peisey-Vallandry's ski area
is now combined ina single entity: ADS.
This in turn is owned by Compagnie des Alpes

For Sale

France of course has many small ski resorts, and one of them is a vendre.  For €550,000, you can become owner of 3 teleskis, a chalet at the foot of the pistes and - drumroll - a piste bully.

Closed

The Pyreneean resort of Puigmal is €5m in debt, and is closing.

Angry

The French school holiday calendar has recently changed, and Easter hols are now much later.  This year, for example, the first zone (C) to break up for Easter holidays does so on 12th April, by which time many resorts will have closed.  Meanwhile, Zone A pupils will be waiting until the 26th until their holidays start.  The French ski resorts assoication is fuming about this and is lobbying the Government strongly.  They say that they are now only getting 2% of their revenue from the Easter season, compared with 8% before 2010.