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Nuts and bolts ... in Les Arcs

4th August 2011, by john

"Alpinism on the Pointe de la Golette. OK it is not “touching the void” but very enjoyable nevertheless" [J Elgy]

One of our readers is a very keen Les Arcs fan, with an apartment in Arc 1600 and regular time spent exploring the area both in winter and summer. We asked John Elgy to blog about his most recent activities in the resort. His first comment was: ‘I am 60, my wife is 56 and my son 17. None of us are fit. In fact my wife’s most common call when climbing is “I wish I was fitter and weighed less”. You do not have to be young and fit to enjoy the mountains or to give it a go.’

John writes:

Long before I took up skiing I tried mountaineering, but soon family life took over and the only visits to the mountains were in winter to ski. But with an apartment in Les Arcs we have rediscovered that summers in the Alps are just as good as the winters, and there is a variety of things to do: from full on mountaineering to rafting, via ferrata and mountain biking. In the resort there appear as many people in the busy summer months as in the quiet ones in winter.

This year my nephew (age 30) and me (60) headed out to Les Arcs a few days before the rest of our friends and family arrived. Sport climbing is like rock climbing in Britain except the routes have a bolt placed into the rock every couple of metres which you clip into like on an indoor wall, but in more beautiful terrain. That afternoon we were climbing in a biting wind on the Deux Tetes and thoroughly enjoying it.

We spent the evening in Pizza Charlotte with most of the business owners from Arc 1600 getting gently pissed on pink wine, hospitality and singing. What a fabulously friendly bunch they are. I really must learn to speak some French.

Next day we headed up to Vallandry and the Rousel gate to the Vanoise National Park, where we walked up to Lac La Plagne to spend the night at the hut there. We arrived in a blizzard and spent a cold but enjoyable night chatting to the different nationalities. I struggled to discuss English literature with a Belgian doing a solo walk from Geneva to the med (GR5). What classic book in English would you recommend a Belgian to read?

Wednesday was not great: it was still snowing down to 2200m but we decided to give the Dôme de Pichères near the Bellecôte a go. Although this is a very easy route, the guide book says four hours in total; after four hours floundering in a powder covered boulder field we called it a day and retreated. I must get fitter.

We also tried sport climbing on another crag just off the Arc 2000 road. We would not have found this without a guidebook. I was quite impressed with myself for failing only on the very last move of a 5c climb – much better than my normal standard. I must get stronger.

Friday was the last day before the rest of the party arrived so we made a 4:30am start and drove up to Saute, just off the Val d’Isère road for another very easy mountaineering route up the Pointe de la Golette. This is in the fantastic Grande Sassière Nature Reserve and the car parks get packed later in the day with families walking up to the glacier to spot marmots. But at 6:00 am we only had cow herds for company.

The route went very well and we had fantastic views over the massive glaciers running down into Italy. Although we have a full set of Alpine mountaineering equipment most of it can be hired for about 13 euro a day in the resorts. Again, we just followed guidebooks and maps but we were overtaken by a guide with a couple of clearly novice clients. I really must get fitter. All very good fun though.

It is strange that 30 years after I started visiting the Alps in summer, and in the intervening years spending over 20 days a year skiing, I now find that it is the mountains in summer that are attracting me back there again. For holiday skiers we still ski a lot, but the mountains have an incredible pull no matter what time of year you go. I have even managed fantastic weekends in October. Try it.

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