UP AND DOWN: Pierra Menta

The Pierra Menta race is just a month or so away - the FA Cup of ski alpinism, if you like.  If you want to go and watch, the chairlift opens at 5am.  A crowd of 2000 is expected.  Spectating is at your own risk of course.

The whole set-up really is quite something.  Here's the video from last year.

For more on Areches-Beaufort, click here.

SMALL AREA, BIG MOUNTAIN: Areches-Beaufort

If you're looking for a base to explore a number of different ski resorts, Albertville is certainly an option.  But an attractive alternative involves basing yourself 20km in the (to Brits anyway) low profile Beaufortain valley.

From the super little town of Beaufort you can:

• Ski the Espace Diamant from Les Saisies (our visit to Crest-Voland is here)
• Visit Les Contamines from the back door entrance at Hauteluce
• Ski the local slopes above the town at Areches-Beaufort.  Which is what we did

The resort isn't particularly high (slopes to 2300m) but then it's not that low either.  And the ski area is small.  But it does have two (loosely connected) mountains, and so it feels bigger than you might expect.  Here's the official blurb from the tourist office, which includes some videos.

All in all, it's well worth a look - a good mixture of moyenne montagne and haute montagne, with serious views across the valley and towards Mont Blanc.

Park at Le Planay (1200m), and take the lift up.
Looking back into the Beaufortain

The slopes around the Col des Combettes (2100m)
feel higher than they actually are.
Taken from the cosy restaurant half way down

The point about it being a serious mountain is a serious one.  Areches hosts the famous Pierra Menta ski alpinism race every March, and has been making real efforts to build its credentials as a base for ski randonée.  For example, there are a couple of avalanche-secured tracks now in place on the mountain that you can now follow.

It's nothing like the ski in, ski out convenience you get in fancier resorts.  For example, the link from the Le Planay side to the Le Cuvy area at Areches involves a walk through the car park that would get some mollycoddled skiers seriously aerated:

Then again, you are rewarded withthe spectacular Perches red run back to Planay, far from the hum of any ski lifts:

The Perches run from Le Cuvy

It's about 2 hours from Geneva (take the Annecy lake road for a scenic introduction) and for a day trip or a weekend should be a real contender - particularly for the more experienced skier who wants to try something with a more "traditional feel" without wanting to compromise on being in a "proper" ski area.

THE ALBERTVILLE OLYMPICS: 20 Years On

The Albertville Olympics were the last to be held on the same year as the summer games.  They were the first to have a unified German team and a "Unified team" from the former Soviet republics.  Both did rather well - here's the medal table.

Albertville saw off Sofia and Falun (Sweden) to win the games, and follow Grenoble (1968) and Chamonix (1924).  Nineteen years later, Annecy, having beaten Nice and Grenoble for the French candidature, flopped dismally against Munich and the victorious Pyeongchang (South Korea).

It's an unprepossessing place, pop 17,000, at the junction of the Combe de Savoie (the flat valley from Chambery/Grenoble), the Tarentaise, Beaufortain, and Val d'Arly.  A bit like Penrith being the venue for a British version.

The venues for the Games were of course mainly in the various ski stations, and the RN90 was upgraded, putting an end to some monstrous traffic jams.

Some of the facilities you will see in resort today are a direct result of the games - for example the rather excellent ice rink at Meribel.

The speed skiing was held at Les Arcs, and marred by the death of Swiss speed skier Nicolas Bochatay on the morning of the event.

The downhill race was on La Face de Bellevard Val d'Isere, with Graham Bell finishing 33rd, just behind brother Martin (29th).

This was of course four years after Eddie the Eagle's triumphant Calgary tour de force (cue video):

There were actually some pretty strong British performances at Albertville.  For example Wilf Reilly finished 5th in the 1,000 metres short-track speed skating.

Perhaps the highlight of the speed skating, however, came from Austria:

The second notable performance was the British team at the Bobsleigh track in La Plagne, who were 6th in the 2-man and 7th in the 4-man, beating our French rivals on both occasions...

Although I can find no record of this on the results website, apparently Australia had a bobsled team in the 8-man section to complement Glenn Turner and Paul Narracott in the 2-man.  You can see a reunion of these fine athletes here:

Twenty years on, the future of the Bobsleigh course in La Plagne (the only one in France) is by no means assured.  It's not helped by being outside the resort and indeed relatively isolated half way up the Tarentaise.  More here and here.

L'ARMEE ET LA VALLEE: The Chasseurs Alpins Leave Town

This summer sees one of the bedrocks of Bourg St Maurice leaving town.  The 7th Brigade of the Chasseurs Alpins (7e BCA) are moving to the Grenoble area.  They are the French army's elite mountain troops, with many currently in Afghanistan.

The departure of the BCA caused quite a stir when first announced - the impact on the local community and economy of several hundred families moving on, the loss of an emergency service in case of disasters, etc.  And it remains high up the list of concerns at the start of 2012 - they are one of the anchors of the local economy, and with the ski industry flat, there is much to think about.  The French government have sweetened the pill slightly by awarding the new national advanced ski training centre to Bourg St Maurice rather than Chamonix, but it certainly makes initiatives like Bourg St Maurice 2020 all the more relevant.

So this will be the last season you will see the chasseurs on the local pistes.  They have guarded my hire car at Les Ecudets (below La Rosiere), and at Les Brevieres (below Tignes).  And they have scared me, with their "we do not stop for civilians" armoured car convoys on the Cormet de Roselend.  You will still see them training - for example on the Les Granges piste below Arc 1800:

Here's the local news coverage where they talk about the departure from BSM:

More on the background, history etc in the Wikipedia entries, in English and (with much more detail) in French.