Les Arcs 1950, France, 1/21/18-1/26/18

Too much wind and snow made the 6 days...variable...
Arrived in late afternoon in a full on blizzard that apparently followed another historical type snowfall. I was dreaming of waist deep...First day was closed and I mean closed. Because of the villages high altitude, when there is a bad storm the only road in or out closes. Unbelievably, all access to tree skiing in other parts of the area, was gone.  Same thing next day except they opened the equivalent of a short "Skyline". It was very crowded with a terrible downhill que that was every man for himself, and a literal pain in the butt for boarders, and skiers who were falling down. It was also raining...
So........All the powder up to a certain elevation was getting wrecked, and the Avy risk was 5/5 for 2 days - then  4/5 - then 3/5....soooo...
The first open day was a bluebird powder day straight out of the Northwest. Thick as a brick down low, and a nasty windslab up high. I made turns that left tracks, but it was a workout. Really slabby, low angle areas stayed untracked for a long time as most of the Euro's have skinny skis and couldn't turn in the "prime" northwest conditions. No big lifts opened the third day. Crowds were ok and usually 10-15 minutes or less. The lines became entertaining...
Fourth day the Grand Col and a big Gondola opened advanced terrain. I really enjoyed gritting my teeth and skiing the consistent mank fast. I had a pair of Rossignol 107's that let me stay on top. Going slow was not an option. Some Big Boy Free Riders were in town and when they opened Bois, we got to see a show. These guys had the fattest skis I've ever seen, and they were just ripping at high speed - ski movie speed! I didn't even want to get near them. One guy hit a blind tree jump and landed 100' down on one ski and just skied out of it. Another went 1,000 vert in 5 turns. A group of 4 or 5 did this virgin steep, narrow slope in a tight pack at over 50mph...
Day 5 saw the consolidation of the mank and made for some nice steeps, and bump skiing. It was sunny again, and the crossover to Les Arcs 1800 was open. Steep bumps up high led to miles of easy crusing over good snow. I switched to a narrow waisted, slalom ski, and had a blast carving tight arc's all over...Les Arcs.

Today was more of the same and unfortunately the top Peak never opened up. It had been predicted to be a snow day, but that never happened. Good visability again, and  great snow kept us crusing all over and then skiing perfect steep bumps at the end of the day. I had switched my skis again for some skinny, beautiful, silver Volants, and they skied great!

My little rental shop was perfect and had some high end stuff if you were nice and asked for it. It's below the Manoir Savoie and called Manoir Ski Service. Top notch. Great bars, nightclubs, and restaurants are all within a very small walking village. Great lifts and good groomed runs for the whole family abound. Plenty of advanced terrain and slack country to keep everyone happy.

Powder, great visibility, and some down time. All in all a great trip. Going to Val d'isere tomorrow for 4 days skiing.