Just driven back from 10 days in Les Arc. Best skiing ever. 6 days straight bluebird sunshine! Last day I was enjoying knee deep powder on Chantel - awesome!

The valley road between Aime and Bourg was shut Saturday am for about two and a half hours due to an avalanche on the road .
We were stuck for about two and a half hours until the road opened.

People in the supermarket in Bourg were warning that they couldn’t get up the road to Les Arc with snow socks and were driving down to buy chains - upon police advice.

The queue into the valley seemed to stretch back almost to Moutiers on Saturday.  People were stopping in the road to put chains on and holding everyone up - it was a zoo and I really pitied anyone driving in that day!

Happy holidays everyone

Cheers

Mike

Its amazing how many people go out there without chains, granted the majority of routes are now motorway or dual carriageway and generally kept clear, but once you venture up some of the side roads it can get a bit iffy to say the least, I expect the reason people were blocking the road putting the chains on was because they didnt know how in the majority of cases.

I just bought a new set for my trip at the end of the month and yesterday put them on to see how difficult it was and to check for clearance issues, glad I did, the clearance is just ok but putting the chains on is not simple the first time, should be easier now I have had a practice. Certainly would have been a nightmare in a blizzard or heavy snow in the dark!!!.

I too did a practice run. In the resort we put them on in a blizzard in the Super U car park in Bourg - which went well. Taking them off however did not go so well and was also in a blizzard in the same car park. A plastic fertilizer bag to lean on and a good light are a must. Would also recommend a hammer (not to hit your cursing wife with!) but for stubborn cold cranky hooks.  We had ours hoked around the track rods and it was a bit funky.

The people who were doing it on the road were stuck in a jam and were slipping around because they should have had there chains on earlier. They ended up causing much more of a jam as the road was then one direction only!

Likewise we have just got back from 12 days in Les Arcs. Fantastic skiing and far less crowded than last Christmas. We never saw a lift queue at the Arpette lift all week and the new lift in Arc 1600 relieved all queuing there. We were in luck in that we arrived on the evening of Dec 22 and the road was clear so didn’t need chains. And then, miracle of miracless found a parking space that had recently been dug out and vacated. It was even less than 200m from the apartment door.

After skiing on New year’s eve we dug the car out from under over 0.7m of fresh snow. Cannot grumble about that - after all we were skiing in it. When we came to leave again on Monday 2/1/12 the refrozen snow plough residue formed a small ice wall behind the car. As I was chipping it away with my ice axe a Generales d’eux van came along and loaned me their super duper snow shovel. The people of Les Arcs are very kind.

Once again the roads were clear for the descent to Bourg, but the rain and spray made the first 300 miles of the journey home difficult.