Les Arcs, France, Jan. 23, 2023

Tony Crocker

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Liz and I arrived from Geneva airport in Bourg St. Maurice at 6PM Jan. 22. We drove up to Arc 1600 and had dinner with sbooker and family at Labuche.

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Me, Liz, Simon, Kylie, Lily and Emily.

The next morning we met there again for skiing, including Tom and his friend Jye. It was around 15F and partly cloudy. Sbooker said it had been colder the previous day or two. We all rode Cachette out of Arc 1600, then Arpette into the upper bowl where we spent the rest of the day.
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Liz and I were not as active as usual with our cameras on out first day in the Alps. Liz took this pic as we gradually arrived at Arc 1950.

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I made a questionable choice to get there via the Bois de l’Ours gully, which was very congested.

We took Marmottes to the Vret gondola. At the top I was pleased to see the Aiguille Rouge tram running, which it had been during most of sbooker’s week. Here I’m in the building waiting for it.

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We were all amused by this sign at the top of the tram.

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Kylie, Emily and Lily rode the tram back down to search for a place they could have frog legs for lunch. The rest of us started down the Aiguille Rouge run.

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I looked over the edge west at the off piste.

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The few days old snow looked heavy and I saw no one skiing it. We did not ski the 5,900 vertical marathon that Liz and I had last spring. We skied about half that to the Droset chair. Sbooker is on the phone to Kylie at the top of Droset to find out the lunch spot.

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We skied the reservoir trail to Arc 2000.

We rode the Varet gondola again and the rest of the group skied to the Dome restaurant Kylie had found. I skied the ungroomed Cretes trail in good chalky snow. There were scattered rocks but enough visibility to easily avoid them. I ended up near the right restaurant but it was quite small and I did not have a proper description of it or the exact location. So I rode three more lifts before finding it.

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It was worth the hunt as the well-seasoned frog legs were the best Liz or I have had.

Sbooker and family quit early as it was their last day and had to pack. Liz and I headed for the Grand Col chair, from which we traversed far skier’s left.

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That took us to this soft bowl.

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Liz skied back toward Arc 2000 while I took another off piste lap skier’s right on Grand Col. We regrouped to ride the Bois de Lours lift, a different way back to Arc 1600 than we had done last spring. The Clair Blanc was a nasty slope of scraped moguls with a few exposed rocks and we got separated, but eventually we both made it down to Arc 1600 and the funicular. I skied 18,900 vertical. We had about a 1.5 hour drive to our next stop in the Maurienne Valley.

Paradiski is a candidate for "most industrial ski area." Per Laurent Vanat's International Report on Snow and Mountain Tourism Les Arcs and La Plagne combine for about 4.7 million skier visits. The Trois Vallees get 5 million but probably have more acreage. Val d'Isere/Tignes only get 3 million.

Interestingly, Serre Chevalier, Alpe d'Huez and Les Deuz Alpes are all in same ballpark as Mammoth around 1.2 million.
 
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Nice pic:
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Those look to be a lot of frog legs for one person. Instead of asking if they taste like chicken, can you say how they differ from chicken?
 
Frog legs are like chicken wings in terms of small slices of meat among many bones. Liz likes them a little better as the skin is not a thick or prominent as with chicken wings. It was the garlic seasoning that elevated this particular dish. And yes, two orders were shared among the group.
 
I just noticed this photo. That's really sad -- thousands of acres at Les Arcs and that's where people decide to do their business?

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