The season starts with what is now a regular fixture: the Les Arcs Film Festival. The "special country focus" will be on Irish cinema. This year the programme includes a Music Village, which will run from 12-15 Dec.
The big news is the transformation of the Chantel slopes at Arc 1800, which sees a new beginners area, luge track and swimming pool complex, served by the equally new Villards gondola. In an audacious move, this new area, dubbed Mille 8 in the resort's press release, will allow skiing until 7.30pm. The press briefing also confirms that December 2015 will see a new "Dahu" pedestrian lift introduced to serve the upmarket but isolated Chantel and Edenarc complex. Not to mention an upgraded 6-seater Carreley lift which will provide direct access to Arc 2000. And another restaurant. It's all a bit too much to take in....
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| The top station of the new Villards gondola, August 2014 |
Still on the snow, Les Arcs has a new Freeski Academy, which will teach young people aged 12-20 up to competition level.
The backcountry freestyle competition aka The Red Bull Linecatcher, runs from 17-24 Jan. Last year there wasn't enough snow, so it was cancelled.
The Vanoise Express will no longer look like this, as JC/DC has been commissioned to decorate it with a new design for 2014/15.
Over in La Plagne, the new Colosses lift is ready for action - a mega-fast 8 seater which, it is hoped, will reduce the notorious queues of up to 50 minutes that have blighted Plagne Bellecote for so long. For more on the background, including the Montalbert gondola, now due in December 2015, click here.
Meanwhile, Simon Beck's snow art continues to gain publicity, most recently through this piece in The Independent.
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