Report from Valentine’s 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.

The funicular ride alone was a great experience.

Once at the resort, we headed straight to the highest lift scheduled to open and chatted with the lifty there.

He told us it would open in a few hours, but visibility was poor and recommended we ski the trees instead.

My new French friend Eric had told us the same thing the day before, to ski the backside trees, and he wasn’t wrong.

Avalanche danger was still high, so we tiptoed carefully into the zone and found good snow.

Then we found really good snow.

Then we found great snow with no tracks whatsoever.

We couldn’t believe our luck.

Each lap dropped 3,760 vertical feet.

Bizarrely, the lowest elevation trees were the best and had the fewest tracks.

Deep snow. Pillows. Nice open trees. Tight trees. And the occasional house huck.

Pure delight.

Once again, I was blown away by how good the tree skiing can be in the Alps.

We smashed as much powder as we possibly could, then headed back down the funicular to Bourg Saint-Maurice.

From Bourg Saint-Maurice, the day took an unexpected turn.

We drifted down to Albertville, found the hotel we’d booked closed, canceled the reservation, then got invited to stay up in Méribel in Les 3 Vallées with my old ski team friend Sara.

We spent seven hours in Albertville, ate at two different restaurants, and worked the McDonald’s WiFi hard for hours, before finally driving up to Méribel and arriving at midnight.

The McDonald’s 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.

We must have seen a thousand kids roll through.

Skiing in Europe is intensely different from the USA.

And I love it.

Merci, la France.

Photos