NEW SKI SEASON: The Latest

This week sees the provisional go-ahead for ski resorts to start their lifts from 7 January, although everything is dependent on the latest coronavirus assessments.

The best site for news about the resort is the R'Les Arcs Facebook Page.

In the meantime, the Les Arcs Film Festival is going ahead online this year.  Details are here and the programme includes a new film, "Slalom" which includes many scenes shot in Les Arcs.  You can watch the trailer here. 

In "normal times" of course the lifts would be running by now, alongside the Film Festival venues. Best wishes to all the resort workers and businesses who are having to adapt to the current circumstances. 

SUMMER SEASON is ON

Les Arcs will be open from 4th July - 29th August this summer.

On the agenda: regular events like the music festival and all the mountain activities (presented in the form of the rather complicated HERO card).

Plus - in a bid to boost the number of visitors and make up for at least some of the lost winter trade - the funiculaire will be free to all.

The summer website can be found here.

FOR THE MONEY AND THE FEW

This season sees the lift company "revolutionising its ski pass" set-up.

It involves the depressing prospect of "priority lanes" around the resort.  Which takes us some way from the idea of skiing for the masses which powered the development of Les Arcs and its neighbours in the 1960s and 1970s.

There will also be an express route for skiers wanting to access the Aiguille Rouge cable car.  In principle this may not be a such bad idea as it gets so packed, even out of high season, that some kind of rationing is probably needed.

The general idea seems to be to persuade people to buy the full Paradiski pass rather than (as most skiers do) just getting a Les Arcs/Peisey Vallandry ticket.  In recent years, those buying a 3 day pass have been given rights to have a day in La Plagne as part of the deal.  That seems to have gone.

The executive option doesn't look worth the extra unless you are a keen swimmer or sledging fan.

For more details see the Les Arcs press pack.