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Holiday At Arc 1600, January 22, 2011


Reporters: Dot and Tony Keates

The skiers gathered at Manchester Airport ready for the Les Arcs holiday and departure went smoothly. Some people could not get into their rooms until 6 pm but they offered a locked room for the luggage. The dinner was alternately a buffet and a served main and the choice was fantastic. Ostrich and Kangaroo and several fish dishes that I had never eaten before were on the menu. This high standard of food continued all week.

It was lovely to see "old" friends again but also very good to meet some new members. Regular skiers with the club arranged to ski with new members, which was very good to see. It was pretty safe to call a new member Dave if it was a male! Personally I really enjoyed skiing with different groups, having abandoned Tony's group due to knee problems.

The resort desperately needs new snow, but it did not come during our week; instead we had a sunny 6 days. This however meant that there were areas of hard-packed snow and sheet ice.

Over the 6 days, Tony's group managed to visit the highest points of the two areas—Aiguille Rouge in Les Arcs and the summit of the Bellecote Glacier in La Plagne. They also managed to visit all of the "Seven Marvels of Paradiski".

At the end of the week there were no bad injuries, although there was one very bruised nose following a "head plant". One member lost the ski pass before setting foot on the slopes and another incident is worth reporting. A new young member of the club had a crash on the slopes and broke his bindings, but fortunately met up with some of our club who had tools to adjust bindings. Having swapped the adjusted skis, Richard skied down on two skis and Caro Brown skied home on one ski - what a star!

I was glad to note that the poma above Arc 2000 with a dog-leg angle in it, and which lifted you off the ground, has now disappeared and has been replaced with a modern chairlift. The lift system seemed adequate for the numbers with not too much queuing.

To my knowledge two new members (David Wilkinson and Mike ?) did their first black run at Les Arcs. Mike, Enzo, Lindsay and I went up to the top of Aiguille Rouge just for the view, and met some the club at the top. They assured us that it was "not as bad as it looked" and with that Mike launched himself off the top and against my advice to side slip it on the steep bit at the top, he made the first turn and skied it well. As I am a "follower" I was pleased for him and also relieved that I would now get back to the hotel.

Many thanks to David and John for organizing the holiday.

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