Desperately Seeking After-Ski

A morning view from our hotel room at Les Arcs

I have been spoiled. After visiting La Folie Douce, other after-ski places feel inadequate. But here I am, in Les Arcs, just a few tens of kilometers away and having a hard time finding some after-ski.

Les Arcs 1800

Red Hot Saloon

The most widely recommended place in Les Arcs is the Les Arcs 1800 village and the Red Hot Saloon bar. Even with typical party goers dancing with not one but two beer jugs in their hands, it is still not as crazy as La Folie Douce was. And it is half-empty right after a ski day, it is completely empty around 6PM, and only comes full later in the evening. Still, when it is full it seems to be a fun place. Not necessarily my type of music or crowds, however, and since I had already tested my camera for beer-proofness, I really didn't need to be around those dancing beer jugs. Time to move along...

Crowds in the Red Hot Saloon

Entrance to the Red Hot Saloon

Warm and inviting -20C terrace at the Red Hot Saloon.

Ambiente Cafe

Ambiente Cafe

I was depressed, alone and ready to hit the bed, walking towards my hotel when I saw the Ambiente Cafe. This cafe is near the Transarc ski lift station, the premier ski lift at Les Arcs. This cafe is a small place that I had just bypassed on my way to the rest of the restaurant area around Villards.

This bar was not full of crowds, either. But they had live music. Music that I liked - rock. I went wild and drank several Coke Zeros, ended up staying in the place quite a while. Recommended!

Live music at Ambiente Cafe

Other Options

I found that the resort worker's guide has the best information on Les Arcs, be it about Off-Piste or After-Ski. Consult it for further bar recommendations. I also tried the bar at our hotel, Le Grand Paradiso. They too had live music, a different band every night. But for the life of me, I can't stand very loud jazz music for more than a song or two. Ok for a quick drink, not OK for discussion, and since it was not my music I didn't want to hang out just to listen.

But our hotel also had saunas! Unfortunately these are not always available in every place that I go, but a sauna is a must for us Finns and also makes your muscles relax after a hard day of skiing. The hotel was otherwise very nice, albeit expensive. It did not matter for us so much, as we were there just for a couple of nights. But I did meet several other people who had chosen to stay in the Le Grand Hotel Paradiso for a few nights rather than in some other place for a full week.

Jazz band at Le Grand Hotel Paradiso

Saunas!

Snails. More snails. The "Snails on its few leaves" appetizer.

I am either playing the violin, or climbing the north ridge of Aigulle Grive

Spotted on the way to the ski area. No comment... and no, we didn't stop.

Photo and video credits (c) 2012 by Jari Arkko

Snails for Speed Skiers

Snails for lunch

Gotta love the French. Their country has many issues, but when it comes to the really important things, you know you can trust them. And when I say important things, I mean, food, of course.

This week I'm skiing a couple of days in Les Arcs, and we had lunch in a small cafe in the middle of the ski slopes, near the Arcabulle ski lift. Nothing special about the cafe. A modern, ugly dome construction. Too few seats inside for a cold day like we had today. The usual Coke chairs outside.

But they had Escargots de Bourgogne on the menu. And that was just one of the two snail meals they had on the menu, right next to the pizzas and sandwiches. Interestingly, this cafe is right next to the world-famous Les Arcs speed skiing track. I wonder if the speed records have been made with snail-powered lunches?

Happy skier

The cafe dome

Chairs outside, Aigulle Rouge on the background.

The snails are my favorite food, so I was delighted to have them for lunch. And we really needed the meal, it was already 2PM and we had spent the morning out of bounds on the rocky slopes of Aigulle Rouge (destroying my skis even further). And I needed a meal before a long conference call that I would have to take in the evening.

In any case, it is great that there places that serve something else than the usual hamburgers. As a result, I am proud to announce that the Les Arcs slope restaurants have earned the first ever "Approved by: The Planetskier" award. This is an honorary nomination for ski areas, bars, restaurants, or hotels that go beyond the usual. It is a prestigious distinction and only given for those establishments that provide truly exceptional service to the skiers. (Or ones that give me free stuff. I'm cheap. Anyone?)

Photo credits (c) 2012 by Jari Arkko and Jarmo Ruuth

Russian Ski Stars

Алексей Логинов (Alexei Loginov)

I climbed a mountain, and found a ski movie actress from Russia on the top!

I met with Катя Коровина (Katya Korovina) and Алексей Логинов (Alexei Loginov) from powderday.ru on their mission to shoot a short movie from Les 3 Vallees for Russian viewers. Katya is Russia's #2 free skier, and judging from what we saw, Alexei is also an incredible skier.

Катя Коровина (Katya Korovina) climbing up

Here is what Katya has to say about her project, Powderday Geographics and the movie:

Access

We went up the Rocher de l'Ombre, a small peak between the Grand Couloir in Courchevel and the the Saulire gondola ground station. The Rocher de l'Ombre ski lift ends at the bottom of this peak, but it is best to approach the peak from above, by taking either the Saulire or Grand Couloir ski runs. After coming down the Grand Couloir, turn slightly left to reach a pass between the towering mountains and couloirs on your left side and the smaller Rocher de l'Ombre on your right side.

I think the Russians intended to ski the other, front side of Rocher de l'Ombre, but when I peered over the knife edge ridge, it just looked too rough for anyone. Mostly rock, only patches of snow. In the end, the film crew skied the backside just like I did.

Rocher de l'Ombre, with the Courchevel village behind

Talking with the powderday.ru crew

Skiing down on soft powder

As a side note, this area is some of the best off-piste skiing in Les 3 Vallees, at least when considering areas that are easily accessible and visible from the ski runs.

The Grand Couloir is true to the normal use of this name and is the easiest run. I wish I'd have had time to do it, though. I have done the Sous Pylons after a big snow dump, and it was incredible, if short. Perhaps I will have them on some future trip to do all the couloirs that are easily skiable. This link gives an excellent overview of the couloirs in the Saulire area.

The difference between having balls and style (left) and not having them (right)

More Powderday.ru Videos

Here is one video from Powderday.ru. Incredible skiing!



Photo and video credits (c) 2012 by Jari Arkko and Ari Keränen. Vimeo video credits by powderday.ru.

Magnifique Après-Ski!

The essence of La Folie Douce

France. The traditional wisdom is that France is not the country for great after-ski. The Austrians can do it. The Swedes can do it. The French can not.

Except in La Folie Douce, situated a lift ride above Val Thorens at 2600 meters. This bar boasts to have the dance floor on top of the world. There are higher dance floors elsewhere, but not with this kind of action and intensity, or with the crowds. Even on a mid week bad weather day in off-season, their large terrace is packed. On a better day even the nearby hills fill up with people who want to join the party and listen to the music show.

Mister FLUOOOoooh, the MC

When we asked around for after-ski recommendations in other Les 3 Vallees villages, we got blank stares. After-ski? Even the bartenders in our own village said that they did not know any good after-ski places. How can a bartender not even suggest their own bar as a good after-ski place? This just shows how bad after-ski is in France. However, after a while a pattern started to emerge. Most people that we asked from pointed us towards Val Thorens. The Internet told us that La Folie Douce is the place.

As we descend towards the site from higher up in heavy fog, we can barely see the next piste markers. But the music begins to emerge from the fog. We no longer need the markers, we can just ski towards the sound.

Me, dancing on a table. Sort of.

The nearby mountains provide a convenient overflow area for the party

The Show

La Folie Douce runs a music show complete with singing MCs, saxophone players, dance girls, and champagne showers. On our visit, Mister FLUOOOoooh was acting as the MC and Fabien Kisoka was on the sax. The dance girls are from the audience.

Mister FLUOOOoooh, with a dancer from the audience

The saxophone player, Fabien Kisoka

Action on the Dance Floor. Table.

While La Folie Douce is at 2600 meters, the dance floor is in practice at 2601 meters, given that most of the people are dancing on tables. The tables are extremely slippery, however, particularly for ski boots. I was not afraid of falling while skiing on my trip, but I was afraid falling down from the tables. I was glad that I had a helmet on, but I missed my back protector. Oh well, at least I had my big backpack (complete with shovels and other necessary bar gear) with me.


And if you decide to stay on the floor for safety, be aware that there might be stage divers to the crowds below or falling table dancers. And since about half of the dancers seem to be hanging on to bottles of alcohol, there is always the danger of beverages raining on you. I had my new camera tested here for beer-proofness. The test passed.

There's usually someone either on stage or on the floor who strips semi-naked. I decided to not include too many of those pictures or videos on this blog, but you can find plenty of material about this place in the Internet.

Proper equipment for the after-ski?

The bar serves alcohol

Access

Entrance to the bar is free, but they occasionally check backpacks for alcohol. The checks seem inefficient, given the number of people drinking from their own hard liquor bottles.

You should also be aware that since the bar is not in the village, people have to ski back to Val Thorens, often after having spent a couple of hours drinking that hard liquor. This presents some dangers. On our exit from the bar we were hit by a stray snowboard. Luckily no one was hurt. Be aware of the dangers, however, and look around you. Do not stay in this area longer than you have to.

Are you ready? Are you READY? ARE YOU READY?

If you are not staying in Val Thorens, getting back to your own area is a problem. The Bouquetin telecabine starts next to the bar, but the last run is at 4:30 pm. You have to take this if you need to get back to Meribel. There is no backup bus transport, and the taxi for that 60 kilometer trip will be expensive.

If you are staying further down in the valley, for instance in Les Menuires, then you can ski down from Val Thorens by taking the Plein Sud, Cairn, and Bd Cumin and ski trails. Even then, if you leave when the bar finally closes, the darkness and an army of snowcats may make the trip uncomfortable. In addition, when you reach Les Menuires you will be at the bottom of the valley and the lifts will not be operating. My recommendation is to step up to the road near the Reberty and Masse 1 lifts and wait for the local bus. This succeeded for us on two nights out of three. On the third time my friends had to walk up an hour to reach our cabin.

Another option for going back to Les Menuires was to take the Bouquetin ski lift and then ski down either the Alpage or David Douillet ski runs to reach the different ends of the Les Menuires village.

The bar is easily reached from Val Thorens by ski lifts

Essential Parameters

The party begins at 2 pm every day, and runs until about 5 pm. Champagne glasses are 10 €, beers 6 €, diet Cokes 5 €. They also serve food, but I did not try it. There is also a VIP area for those guests that prefer to pay more and avoid the crowded terrace.

Champagne, 140 € per bottle

Or, get it for free

Recommendation

This is the place for after-ski in Les 3 Vallees and even the entire France. Possibly the best after-ski place in the world. I certainly have not seen anything like this before, but I confess that I still have a few after-ski bars to test. You might want to go to Val Thorens just for this, even if you don't care about the great skiing in the Les 3 Vallees area.

More champagne  

Photo credits (c) 2012 by Jari Arkko and Ari Keränen. Video credits by Jari Arkko, La Folie Douce and Vimeo.

Fun in the Alps

Early morning view from our cottage

I am spending a few days in Les 3 Vallees with friends from work. We just arrived to the site despite many troubles on the way (more on those later), but I wanted to send a couple of pictures. And a link to an awesome video from Mikko Alatalo featuring 80's fashion and other goodies on the topic of going to the Alps:

Our cottage in Les Menuires, Les 3 Vallees

"Baguette Finlandaise": costs more, otherwise the same?

Picture credits (c) 2012 by Jari Arkko. Song and video by Mikko Alatalo (from Youtube)

Seasons Pass!

This is how we do seasons tickets in Kauniainen

I have a seasons pass! ... for Kauniainen. Getting one makes sense if I go to my local hill at least ten times this season. I'm thinking that if I have a ticket I'll be more likely to drop by in the evenings, instead of going swimming or walking. That's a good thing, as I have realized that I need to get into better shape and do more sports on a daily basis. Being able to ski will help with the motivation for that.

But as I went to the ski slope today, I was scared more than I have been in a long time. Not due to dangerous off-piste adventures ahead, but due to testing gear. I have a new helmet, new pants, and most importantly, new touring skis, boots, and skins with lightweight but suspicious looking Dynafit bindings. I did not want to blow a knee when I have two big ski trips coming up in couple of days. I've never skied with Dynafit bindings before, so this was a first. And the system is indeed worrisome. According to Dynafit, this particular binding is "the lightest freeride binding in the world", at only 530 g per pair. I do not plan to ski on these skis normally, they are reserved for those occasions where I have to climb up big mountains on my own. They are optimized for that, not for descents or for aggressive skiing. Go up light, come back carefully. As expected, I found that going up with the new skis and skins worked well, never had it so easy before. The skins stick to the skis perfectly, yet I can edge where needed. Going up steep slopes is no problem. And it felt effortless. Granted, Kauniainen is only 50 meters high, but still.

Top of Kauniainen

The downside, however, is that the bindings are not as adjustable and flexible for ski release for the downhill part. I realized that I still have some work to do to learn how to adjust mine in the right way. Another downside is that the Dynafit system is not compatible with usual boots and bindings. So whenever I take these skis, I also have to take special boots. Unless I'm particularly planning to just climb big mountains, that usually means taking two sets of skis and boots on a trip.

Snowmaking in the progress, still

I was also scared for another reason. The slope opened yesterday and I had understood that even today they would not be open until later in the day. This would work well for me, as I could go up without having to worry about the hundred kids from the ski school. However, as you know I've been visiting this ski slope at inappropriate times before, and a couple of days ago there was a serious accident when some drunken person went to the ski slope in the night, and, after attempting to climb to a moving snow cat, was seriously injured. The ski area personnel might not look so leniently on off-hour visits any more. I hope the injured guy recovers well. And to all kids & stupid adults (like myself): lets be careful out there. Use your brain. Stay away from moving machinery, avalanche-prone slopes, cliffs and anything else that might hurt you. Stay in control at all times, know what you are doing, look around, and go slow when needed. Even on open slopes. And use protective gear, for your head and back.

Fortunately, the area was already open by the time I got there.

My new helmet is Atomic Xeed. It replaces a helmet that I bought for 30€ from Lidl that is getting too worn out. But it was a surprisingly good helmet, nevertheless. The new pants are replacing my Halti pants which, after 15 years, have too many holes in them.

New skis and skins

Strictly speaking, the skis are not new, I already bought them some months ago. But this was their first test. I also had my ski shop modify the K2 "Backside - tools for adventure" skins for the K2 superlights. These skis are an old, lightweight and narrow ski model and the new skins do not normally fit them. Moreover, K2 skins have are not easily modified as they attachments are sewn. But the shop found some spare parts to make the modifications. The result was very good. If you are looking for an expert ski shop in the Helsinki area, Skiservice should be your choice.

And big news on the food side, too! This year, "Cafe Alpenhütte" has soup in their menu. At 3.5€, their Goulash index competes well with most western ski areas. Take Zillertal in Austria, for instance. They may boast a 1600 meter vertical compared to Kauniainen's 50 meters, but hey, even if Zillertal is one of the cheapest places food-wise in western Europe, their soup still costs 1€ more than in Kauniainen. As this cafeteria will also serve "pinaattilätyt" (spinach pancakes), "makaronilaatikko" (macaroni casserole), and luomulimu (ecological soft drink) it is clearly the destination for the gourmet traveler.

Menu at Grani

Photo credits (c) 2012 by Jari Arkko

Fortress Islands

King's gate

This makes absolutely no sense. Spending four hours to make one run down a hill of ten meters. And destroying my skis in the process.

Yet, it makes perfect sense. I am in Suomenlinna, a fortress island outside Helsinki. Suomenlinna is one of the most beautiful places in Helsinki and a particularly good place for photography in snowy winter nights. Moreover, I really needed the exercise and I could not motivate myself to go out to the darkness unless there was something interesting.

Boat to Suomenlinna

Finally, I have not skied in Suomenlinna yet. I could add it to my list. And grow my list of vehicles I have used to get to slopes. That list already contains shoes, snowshoes, skis, cars, trains, ski lifts, snow cats, helicopters and horses. But no boats.

Suomenlinna harbor tunnel

Lights for the ships that squeeze through Kustaanmiekka

Fortress Islands

The fortress islands are a preserved, UNESCO world heritage site with fortifications. Their beginnings date back the year 1748, when the construction began. Regurlarly scheduled boats - part of the city public transport system - take you to islands for 2.20€.

In the summer the islands are a green oasis full of tourists. In the winter... they are a dark, lonely and cold place. My kind of place. I see a few people near the harbour, but there is absolutely no one else on the big island that has the hills. Except a few lit castle windows. Probably one of the few people who live here. Or maybe a ghost of a dead soldier. Or a guard that is about come and stop me.

The brewery building next to the harbor

Skiing

The first view to my ski slope was full darkness:

Dark, very dark ski slope

There are small hills on the biggest island, the Susisaari/Kustaanmiekka area. Most of the hills are man-made, the one that I skied houses a bunker, for instance. Highest altitudes from sea are around 20 meters, but my hill was only about 10.

Preparing for the skiing after the long climb

Since this was the first day that Suomenlinna had snow this year, snow cover was ... minimal, maybe 3-4 centimeters. I thought it would be enough to ski on the grass, and the hill that I chose seemed optimal for this purpose. But when I made my first turns on the steep part of the hill there wwas a loud screeching noise. My skis would soon require servicing, again. I wonder if there's any material left in the bottom of my skis.

Even my small hill was interesting, very steep. But with more snow, there would be far more interesting skiing and snowboarding places. You could ski the rocky hills towards the sea, jump from the fortifications, and do many other interesting tricks. Take powder skiing pictures as you ski through castle window holes, ski in front of huge cruise ships, etc. Maybe I should come back when the winter gets really going!

Danger, Will Robinson!

A warning is necessary. Suomenlinna is a dangerous place. There are natural cliffs, man-made sudden drops (such as grassy field suddenly ending in a ten meter fall), rails, old gun fittings, sea, slippery rocks. If you come here to ski, or even to just picnic, please be aware of your surroundings. Watch your kids.

My tracks on the hill

Practicalities

The current weather in Suomenlinna along with a webcam can be found here. Suomenlinna can also be reached through a tunnel, but the entrances are hidden and only open for emergency vehicles. (Still, years ago tunnel trespassing was one of my hobbies...)

Afterski

There aren't too many other skiers, if any. Or ever. But Suomenlinna has a nice restaurant, Suomenlinnan Panimo. They brew their own beer and offer reasonably priced meals. An extremely pricy restaurant, Walhalla, is on the Kustaanmiekka area. However, I can recommend the Siwa shop near the harbor for most purposes. A picnic meal in the island is the greatest option, at least when the weather is nice.

Brewery building

Chilly boat ride on a winter evening

Helsinki city center views from the harbor

Photo credits (c) 2012 by Jari Arkko