Off the slopes the different villages obviously all have different atmospheres and the facilities vary depending on which village you are in. Certainly the restaurants and bars were all of decent standard and not overpriced (about 100FF for a meal with wine) although this will obviously vary from place to place). If you are looking for more of a drinking holiday than a snowsliding holiday Arc 1800 is apparently the place to go, but I'm certainly going to go back to Vallandry.
   There were 11 of us altogether, all snowboarders of various standards, allowing a good insight into the all-round standard of the resort. Beginners are certainly well catered for with 4 or 5 ski schools offering all manner of lessons. Intermediates can take their pick of red runs, or experiment with powder or tree runs adjacent to the marked slopes without any fear of getting lost or stuck. As for the more adventurous amongst you it's just a matter of finding what you want. You want trees? You got them in abundance, both in and around Plan Peisey and off the back side of the Arpette lift and in the huge area between lifts 31 and 41. You want bumps? They've got bumps as big as small cars here, especially on the Arc 2000 side. You want corduroy? You've got access to miles of it above 1600, 1800 and over on the 66 lift.

The Silver Rooster in full effect

Dan tries the Les Arcs trees for size

More importantly, do you want powder? Take your pick mate, the place is chock full of powder runs, it's just a matter of knowing which ones to do first and which ones to save till later. Most of the powder runs we found (except for the trees on the frontside of the mountain) were in and around Arc 2000. The area to the right of the No 36 chair has great opportunities for first tracks the morning after a snowfall: Not too steep and a great way to get down to the lifts in Arc 2000 (tends to track out pretty quick though). The run under the Arc 2000 gondola is a quality powder run and you get the added advantage of being able to plan your route down from the comfort of your seat. The area to the left of the No 45 lift was a firm favourite of mine and seemingly not popular with many other people as we always had fresh tracks there. However the main bulk of the real steep, deep stuff is reached by taking the cable car right to the top of the Aiguille Rouge at an altitude of 3226m.

From left to right: Dan, myself and Lee

The Aiguille Rouge is a 7km black run which takes you into Villaroger, a vertical drop of over 2000m. However from the top of the run you can drop back down into the area above Arc 2000 allowing you access to some of the best snow on the mountain: We discovered this part of the mountain at about 11 o'clock on the first morning (beginners luck) and returned to it repeatedly throughout the week, especially on the 3rd day after 2 foot of fresh had fallen overnight. There are basically 3 "runs" although none is signposted or marked and we often plumbed for the "making it up as we went along" approach. The first run is the Olympic Speed Skiing run which is usually pisted, but fortunately for us was untracked at the time allowing us over 1500 feet of untracked vert. The second run is a wider, more open powder bowl to the left, which was always wind crusted when I was on it but was ultimately still quite satisfying. The third run is a narrow gully (see picture on next page) which brings you out in the flatter open area just above Arc 2000.

All 3 of these were top quality, especially on the 3rd day, which was without a doubt the best (non helicopter) day of my snowboarding life. If you're feeling even more adventurous there is another very narrow gully in-between the speed run and the gully which gets gradually narrower and narrower until you reach a frozen waterfall which you have to drop off to reach the bottom (it's only about 6 or 7 foot high, but it's a bloody good laugh). More pics on next page......

Lee "30 foot" Eyre shows his better side