SkiBike Tour 2012-13 - Val d'Arly Loop
Posted: Tuesday, 19 February 2013 by Mark Kinnon in Labels: 2012-13 Tour, D.I.Y., France, SkiBike
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Paul and I discussed options for the last day of the season, he wanted another mile eating run. Having consulted various piste maps and consumed two Gin & Tonics he decided that, given a free choice, he would like to do the Val d'Arly loop again. I suggest we do it "back to front" or anti-clockwise relative to the piste map.
It turned out to be perfectly feasible, although we noted a couple of disadvantages to this choice of direction. Firstly, you run along a lot of cold, North facing runs early in the day and get to see the South facing runs later in the day when they could be prone to slushiness. Secondly, a lot of the flatter, interlinking runs, are actually uphill in this direction, so extensive poling, walking or skating are involved.
The Val d'Arly really is a gem, the piste plan makes the area look like a selection of little interconnected hills. But the reality is that some of these little hills have a 1000m of vertical drop and getting from one to the next can take up to an hour, even skiing at a good intermediate/expert skier speed. It might not be quite the scale of the 3 valleys, but it is close.
The infrastructure is quite heavily biased towards drag lifts and the majority of chairlifts are somewhat vintage in nature. To a reasonable skier these lifts would present no problem, but for a ski novice, Brenter or SnowScoot rider they could be a bit of a challenge. Although freestyle/pegger skibikes are not currently allowed in the Val d'Arly, even if they were, the choice of runs would be somewhat limited by the infrastructure.
It turned out to be perfectly feasible, although we noted a couple of disadvantages to this choice of direction. Firstly, you run along a lot of cold, North facing runs early in the day and get to see the South facing runs later in the day when they could be prone to slushiness. Secondly, a lot of the flatter, interlinking runs, are actually uphill in this direction, so extensive poling, walking or skating are involved.
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| Val d'Arly - some of these little hills have a 1000m of vertical drop |
The Val d'Arly really is a gem, the piste plan makes the area look like a selection of little interconnected hills. But the reality is that some of these little hills have a 1000m of vertical drop and getting from one to the next can take up to an hour, even skiing at a good intermediate/expert skier speed. It might not be quite the scale of the 3 valleys, but it is close.
The infrastructure is quite heavily biased towards drag lifts and the majority of chairlifts are somewhat vintage in nature. To a reasonable skier these lifts would present no problem, but for a ski novice, Brenter or SnowScoot rider they could be a bit of a challenge. Although freestyle/pegger skibikes are not currently allowed in the Val d'Arly, even if they were, the choice of runs would be somewhat limited by the infrastructure.
