Breathtaking pistes in Saint Sorlin D’Arves


Dutchman and I on the ski lift, apart - nope, we are not fighting ;-) we just want to balance our weights

 While waiting for the bus in the junction between Saint Jean D’Arves and Saint Sorlin D’Arves we chatted up with this bubbly Dutch girl who scaled the 4 corners of Les Sybelles in just 3 days. Of course, we took note of her tips. She said the summits between L’Ouillon and Les Perrons in Saint Sorlin D’Arves have the most magnificent views in Les Sybelles. The pistes there are said to be unique too. Her testimony made us so excited, we decided to take the long journey to the 2 summits the next day. Well, we did not regret it - it was superb!
 

This dog is the king of the Saint Sorlin D’Arves piste. He may not look so huge on the foto but this dog is gigantic and could easily weigh more than 60 kilos! He could have me on the snow floor in a whisk. 


Next foto are old wooden skis hanged on the wall of the La Ferme Petit cafe restaurant. The picture frame is Saint Jean D’Arves during summer - I can see the familiar black peaks.


Here are some of the views in Saint Sorlin d'Arves:

I really love this foto! I was actually an accidental object in here as you can see my mouth wide open like I am about to scream, lol. I was probably saying something to Dutchman when he captured my gaping mouth on camera. What he was actually doing was taking a picture of his boots fastened to the snowboard and not realizing that I was also in the camera angle. Well, it came out really nice, we loved it!

The awesome and breathtaking views of the pistes in Saint Sorlin D’Arves. 


The tree line in the Alps is I believe between 1,500 – 1,600 meters above sea level, and in the fotos here, trees would not live due to harsher weather conditions.

 And videos of course are here:

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This is a nice video of Dutchman overtaking me and a snowboarder coming off piste to join us. I was actually startled a bit by the snowboarder and quickly used my plow/brake position.

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Another video of Dutchman overtaking me. I always get uneasy when Dutchman comes near me as we almost collided a few times before. In this video, I avoided him and went the other way, lol.

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La Saint S’o, a really cool terrace on the piste halfway from Les Perrons summit and Saint Sorline D’Arves village. A group of Bulgarians later hijacked the music master, they played Bulgarian music and were dancing in the snow.

Relaxing in the piste; as it was beautiful weather, many people were tanning themselves but in this picture the sun was hidden from the clouds.
We witnessed a big collision (see foto). There were 7 people that collided here, 2 of which are on the foreground and cannot be seen in the foto. It was a really strong crash, one after the other, but I guess no one had a broken bone as I didn’t see anything that was worrying. A few people came running to help. I think this area is accident prone and they should take out the net obstacle or widen the gap a bit.

 The great thing about skiing here is the space, pistes are so wide, and moreover, there are very few people! Just spells perfect really as this is what low season is all about and its benefits. It would have been a nightmare to book our winter sport holiday during high season (read: February as kids are free from school). Can you imagine the wriggly little daredevils shooting like loose canon balls in the slopes? OMG Terrifying!

Here’s a confession - I developed this sense of fright where I immediately lose my confidence when an army of speedy skiers/snowboarders are trailing behind me. It just makes me so vulnerable and I hate it. I’m afraid of collision. Well, we all do. But I think I’m a coward skier who elected to ski in her own terms and conditions.
Dutchman and I are toying at the idea of going again in early April but we are not looking forward to the long distance driving, so we will see.

 Travel Period: January 2008
Destination: Saint Sorlin D'arves (Savoie - Rhone-Alpes), France

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