Sainte Foy Tarentaise : 02 July 2020
We spoke to the new maire, Yannick Amet, this week and asked him about his vision for Sainte Foy as a ski resort. We also quizzed him about the new Arpettaz chairlift and how this fitted in with his overall plans.
So why is the lift being replaced?
The old lift was a four-seater with chairs which didn’t detach at the pick up and drop-off points. As you may well know, this meant that the chairs whizzed round, scooping you up at great speed. If you didn’t time your sitting-down movement properly, you ran the risk of starting your collection of ski-related bruises earlier than expected!
The new lift is ‘débrayable’, meaning that the chair disengages from the main wire rope when it reaches the bottom, and top, of the lift. It slows down and gathers you up gently, in teams of six, before re-engaging and picking up speed again. Your delivery to the snow at the top of the lift will also be much less hectic experience.
Thus the overall speed increases, and the capacity of the lift will go up to 3,000 skiers per hour.
The Télésiège de Grand Plan, (the first lift), has four-seater chairs, but there will be additional chairs added to increase the capacity for next season. Since it was built, this lift has been operating within its capacity as it has been matched to the ongoing capacity of the second lift above it.
I know what you are thinking, there are hardly ever any queues in Sainte Foy! True, but let’s keep it that way!
Also look out for the new building at the base of the lift with new toilet facilities. This will be a welcome addition to skier comfort on the mountain! The photo below shows the base of the lift as it is today. We will bring you regular photos of developments!
For those who remember the snack bar at the top of the Arpettaz lift, you might be interested to hear that a new restaurant is planned for up there. This won’t happen straight away, but it is now in the plan.
The ‘écolos’, environmentalists, who are always very keen to preserve the trees in the Forêt Communale de Sainte Foy, will be pleased to know that the new lift is following the same line as the old one. It will however, be moved slightly to the left, and a few trees will have to be removed to allow enough safety space each side of the lift. This is because a six-seater takes up more width space than a four-seater.
In our next article, we will look at where the lift gets its name from, and how to pronounce it properly.
Read other articles about Sainte Foy on the Time to Ski blog page
