{"id":1773061,"date":"2026-02-15T22:13:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T19:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1773061"},"modified":"2026-02-15T22:13:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T19:13:45","slug":"les-arcs-france-report-house-hucking-3760%e2%80%b2-tree-runs-in-deep-powder-snow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1773061","title":{"rendered":"Les Arcs, France, Report: House Hucking + 3,760\u2032 Tree Runs In Deep Powder Snow"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Report from Valentine\u2019s Day, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n

I was very excited to ski Les Arcs<\/a> while here in France.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yesterday, I finally got the chance and pounced.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We were staying in Bourg Saint-Maurice, and they have a funicular right in town that climbs directly from the village up into the ski resort.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Avy fences. Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The funicular ride alone was a great experience.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once at the resort, we headed straight to the highest lift scheduled to open and chatted with the lifty there.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He told us it would open in a few hours, but visibility was poor and recommended we ski the trees instead.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Les Arcs ski resort. Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My new French friend Eric had told us the same thing the day before, to ski the backside trees, and he wasn\u2019t wrong.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Avalanche danger was still high, so we tiptoed carefully into the zone and found good snow.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Then we found really good snow.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Then we found great snow with no tracks whatsoever.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We couldn\u2019t believe our luck.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Each lap dropped 3,760 vertical feet.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Martin happy. Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bizarrely, the lowest elevation trees were the best and had the fewest tracks.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deep snow. Pillows. Nice open trees. Tight trees. And the occasional house huck.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pure delight.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Le Snack! Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once again, I was blown away by how good the tree skiing can be in the Alps.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We smashed as much powder as we possibly could, then headed back down the funicular to Bourg Saint-Maurice.<\/strong><\/p>\n

From Bourg Saint-Maurice, the day took an unexpected turn.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 perfect snowflake. Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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We drifted down to Albertville, found the hotel we\u2019d booked closed, canceled the reservation, then got invited to stay up in M\u00e9ribel in Les 3 Vall\u00e9es with my old ski team friend Sara.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We spent seven hours in Albertville, ate at two different restaurants, and worked the McDonald\u2019s WiFi hard for hours, before finally driving up to M\u00e9ribel and arriving at midnight.<\/strong><\/p>\n

House huck amphitheater. Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The McDonald\u2019s was full of young British kids, their winter break just starting, scarfing down food on their way up to the mountains for holiday ski trips.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We must have seen a thousand kids roll through.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Skiing in Europe is intensely different from the USA.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And I love it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Merci, la France.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Photos<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n
Black grouse country. Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Les Arcs. Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Chairlifts for dayz. Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Coke is it! Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Martin at breakfast high on the mountain. Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Unreal to see a spread this deep this high in an alpine bowl. Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Huge chairs. Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Massive. Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Stairway to heavenly tree skiing. Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Iron. Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Are you lichen it? Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
House hucking. Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Big fog. Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Coolest playground ever. Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Funicular is cool! Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Schwarma in Albertville. Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Used to guzzle this as a kid. Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
House hucking. Image: SnowBrains<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Report from Valentine\u2019s Day, 2026 I was very excited to ski Les Arcs while here in France. Yesterday, I finally got the chance and pounced. We were staying in Bourg Saint-Maurice, and they have a funicular right in town that climbs directly from the village up into the ski resort. Avy fences. Image: SnowBrains The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,267],"class_list":["post-1773061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-snowbrains-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1773061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1773061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1773061\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1773061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1773061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1773061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}