254: Les Arcs in summer, Tour de France, new lifts in La Plagne & the Flocon Vert

We look at Les Arcs in summer, find out about La Plagne’s new lifts and the ‘Flocon Vert’ – the sustainability award for ski resorts in France.

There’s snow reports from Australia and New Zealand, as well as a special report on the new Soho Basin area in Cardrona from Ski Sunday’s Ed Leigh, plus we find out what it was like when the Tour de France came to the Alps.

Host Iain Martin was joined by La Plagne expert, Jen Tsang and Claire Tollis from the Mountain Riders association in France.

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SHOW NOTES

Find out more about SnowCamp in Episode 249 (2:15)
Miss SnowItAll, Rachael Oakes-Ash from Snowsbest.com reported from Down Under (3:45)
Guy Beatson sent in his snow report from New Zealand (5:45)
Listened to Iain’s interview with Ed Leigh in Episode 236 (7:15)
Ed has been riding the new Soho Basin ski area at Cardrona, NZ (7:30)
Alex Irwin from 150 Days of Winter was in Courchevel for the Tour de France (10:15)
Stage 19 went from Albertville to La Plagne (12:00)
A new gondola has been proposed from Aime to La Plagne (19:15)
The 2030 Winter Olympics will be held in France (20:00)
The new Roche de Mio gondola will open this winter (24:30)
Iain was in Les Arcs for ‘Le Trail des Arcs’ (27:30)
There’s a lot to do in Les Arcs in summer, including chilling at Nama Springs (28:30)
Find out about the ‘Hero Pass’ and ‘Hero Camp’ (28:45)
Everyone loves the sound of cow bells (30:30)
Iain stayed at the Refuge du Mont Pourri (32:00)
25% of all visitors to Les Arcs come by train (33:45)
Les Arcs is the only ski resort in Europe with B Corp status (34:00)
Visit the 'Mountain Riders' website (34:30)
Find out more about the 'Flocon Vert' (36:30) and Montagne Zero Dechet (38:45)

Feedback (42:00)
I always enjoy listener feedback and I love to hear what you think about the show. You can leave a comment on Spotify, Instagram or Facebook – our handle is @theskipodcast – or drop me an email to theskipodcast@gmail.com

If you haven’t listened to Episode 252 yet, I strongly recommend that you do. It’s the story of Bladon Lines – in my opinion it’s the best episode I’ve ever produced (42:30)

Thanks to all of the following for their kind words about it: Nicola Anderson, Debbie Marshall, Jilly Hooper, Nico Stanford, Victoria Clay, Kirsten Nicholl, Matt Hayes Lesley Glass, Fiona Parkhurst, Colin Barnett, Craig Mayhew, Giles Helbert, Diane Palumbo, Joanna Yellowlees-Bound, Martin Carver, Alex Irwin, Andrew Brannan, Mike Greenland, James Buist and Snowheads MikePow and Kenzie.

I was most touched to receive this message from George Lines, son of co-founder Mark Lines, who tragically died in a car accident in 1990:

"I very much enjoyed this, Iain. I still ski each year in my dad’s parrot onesie and regularly get pulled over by people keen to share fond BL memories. A couple of years ago in Val D’Isere, one group told me that they are all friends because their parents had met doing seasons with BL and they still all ski together now. You and the contributors captured that sense of community so well."

There are now 268 episodes of The Ski Podcast to catch up with. If you enjoyed this episode, then go to theskipodcast.com, have a search around the tags and categories and you’re bound to find something you’ll want to listen to too.

You can follow Iain @skipedia and the podcast @theskipodcast. You can also follow us on WhatsApp for exclusive material released ahead of the podcast. Look in the Show Notes for that link.

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