Day Off 7 & 8: Hannah comes to visit!

With the weather having been proper pants at the start of season, I've had plenty of time in the day to update my blog. Well just lately the snow's really kicked in and, to be honest, I've been up the mountain a lot. A fresh dump of snow and then a bluebird day for my day off has been too good to resist. So I'll apologise for the delay in this blog... 

...but you should know, if this weather continues, you're going to be seeing a lot more snowboard related posts (after all it's what I'm here for).

So back home I have some close friends who talk about coming out to visit me on a season but never do (you know who you are!). Well this week one did! Queue a double day off!

Day Off 7 & 8: Hannah comes to visit!
Having only ever snowboarded in a snow-dome, I was looking forward to introducing Hannah to the mountains!

Mountain fwiend!

Being mid season the mountain was pretty empty and, with a heavy fall of snow leading up to her visit, covered in fresh snow and blue skies!  The first day consisted of cruising around the empty blue runs to warm up and get to grips with the mountain. 

After brushing off the cobwebs we were getting pretty hungry so at midday we went to one of my favourite restaurant in the middle of the mountain. This restaurant does loads of different pizzas, seafood and other exotic bits but we stuck to the pizza!

Too hungry to take the photo before we started eating!

After the pizza we decided to head higher up the resort with the aim of making it to the highest point. Unfortunately because of the wind conditions at the top, the gondola was closed so we went to get a crepe and hot drink in Arc 1950 instead. Now this would be where I insert a photo of Hannah eating a crepe but apparently it was too hideous so it had to be deleted!

Once we'd had a little explore around 1950 (it isn't very big) we decided to call it a day and head back down to Bourg. 

The next day we headed up the mountain early to check out the husky rides and see if we could book ourselves onto one. Having seen the husky kennels the day before, we made our way back to 1950 to see if we could book something up. Once we arrived at the kennels we had a look at the brochure but the husky's, as with most of the activities, had to be booked in advance. 

Bored husky...

The kennels were just where the huskys lived so we couldn't get any more info or book anything up even though the dogs were free (hardly a surprise having seen the price list!). Instead we took a lot of photos.

Making our way back over to 1800, we cruised around some more red runs and headed over to the the Peiesy-Vallandry side. The piste map below shows Les Arcs to the left and Peisey-Vallandry to the right. 

Les Arcs and Peisey-Vallandry

After another full day of exploring the mountain we headed from Peisey-Vallandry back over to Les Arcs and made our way back to the gondola that was closed yesterday. From the top of that gondola we took another larger cable to the highest point in Les Arcs - L'Aiguille Rouge at 3,227 metres above sea level.

Unbeknownst to Hannah the only way down was via a black (we'd just caught the last cable car)! But before you think I'm a bad friend, I think you'll agree the view from the top was worth it!

L'Aiguille Rouge at 3,227 metres above sea level

Once we'd done the black we made it back onto the reds and had the quietest ride back down to 1950. With the time being around 17:30 no one was around leaving us with the whole mountain and fantastic sunset to ourselves.  

Once back in Bourg we headed to the local and celebrated an awesome couple of days!