Full day skiing in Les Arcs

The alarm went off at 7pm, which wasn't too bad. We wanted to get as early a start as possible. We got ready and went down to breakfast, and unsurprisingly, were the only Rackers in sight. We had a couple of courses of breakfast (I had a very unsatisfactory cup of tea), and Prash and Sally appeared before long. Turned out the lifts only opened at 9.15, so we took our time (after a slight panic about my lost sunglasses which turned up in the drying room), got ready, and were up on the slopes at around 9.30.

We skiied fairly constantly all morning. First up, we took Transarc 47 up higher, and spent some time on Col de la Chal, and Valee de l'Arc. It was very crunchy up there early on, and Vallee de l'Arc was hard for me to get enough speed up on. We stayed there for a bit, and took one of the red runs down a couple of times. There were a lot of people up there, and many of them were quite aggressive skiiers. We skiied down to Arc 1950, and got the Marmottes and Arcabulle lifts right back up to the top. We made a detour to the St Jacques lift, which had some lovely wide by steep blue runs. Again there was no one there. This was a beginner area, so the lift was painfully slow. Time was getting short, and so we started making our way to lunch. Back at the top of Bois de l'Ours, we took the Arpette run down, and crossed over to Grands Melezes. We were going to go back to the room to get Christian's SLR, but in the end, we couldn't be bothered.

Because my feet and legs were so sore, I stayed halfway up the Transarc lift while Christian skiied down to the bottom of Charmettoger and took that lift back up again, though I had to go uphill to get there. That was better than the alternative. Loosening my boots was enough to restore the circulation to my lower legs and feet. Christian reappeared, and we got on the Transarc 47 with some other Rackers, and went to the top to meet the other for lunch at La Creche. We got reserved tables outside, and went in to get our self serve lunch. I had a burger and chips, with chocolate mousse for afters. It was nice, but not amazing. Christian had a steak.

After lunch, we were going to ski with Birgit and her Dutch other half and another Racker, but they took off a little slowly for us, so we overtook them and went down Col de la Chal, and Plan des Eaux, continuing down to the bottom of Marmottes. Because the Plagnettes and Arcabulle lifts were so busy, we took Bois de L'Ours back up to l'Arpette and spent quite some time on the Arpette runs. I took the long blue run once, but got lost and ended up going down the red Col des Frettes, which was not fun. I concluded that taking the early red drop-off was much easier, though it was a bit icy.

Christian had arranged to meet Prash at 4pm so we could ski together. They spoke to each other when we were halfway up Transarc, so rather than skiing down to meet him, we stayed where we were and waited for him to take the lift up to us. We set off skiing, and for a beginner, he was very brave and keen. I think he made some good progress, though I'm not sure we were the best of teachers. It was a steep run for him to try and he did well.

Sab caught up with us, and offered to stay with Prash while we went to the bottom of the run and came back up. So we did. At the bottom of Charmettoger, we got a bit lost, and Birgit told us how to get to the bottom of the lift (via Belvedere). Only she got it wrong. So we skiied down to the hotel, and walked back up to the lift, and got on it. We looked everywhere for Prash and Sab, but couldn't see them anywhere. So we decided to just keep doing Charmettoger until the lift closed. We were halfway down when Sab went past on the lift over my head. I asked what he'd done with Prash. He said he'd killed him and buried the body. At least they'd got down safely.

We kept going and took the lift back up. Christian decided to bomb down on this run. So he was well ahead of me when Sab went past overhead again, telling me that I was being left behind. I think we fitted in one more run right before the lift closed, and headed back to the hotel. We dropped off our hire gear (I wasn't sorry to get those boots off) and went upstairs.

I was determined to have a sauna, so after lolling around (Christian was a bit sniffly by now) and getting our energy back, I went downstairs to investigate, and found I had the whole area to myself. The warmth was heaven on my muscles, but as usual, 20 minutes was about all I could take. I went looking for the piscine, but failed to find it (Christian later told me that it was outside).

I had a shower, got dressed quickly, and we went out to keep our dinner reservation. The restaurant (La Cabane des Neiges) was nowhere near as noisy or crowded as it had been the night before (which was a blessing), and we were shown to our table downstairs. We ordered a glass of champagne each, and ordered our raclette. It came out very quickly, and it was fun playing with the melting machine. The plate arrangement wasn't perfect, though, and I couldn't keep up with all the melting cheese (we turned it off a couple of times). It was absolutely delicious, though, and well worth the price. We didn't have a starter or dessert, as there was plenty of food.

As we were leaving at about 8.30, the rest of the Rackers were arriving, so that was good timing. Christian was quite sniffly, and ready for bed by now, so we headed back to the hotel, and turned in early for the night.