Tragic news confirmed recently: The Vanoise Express, the enormous cable car that links La Plagne and Les Arcs, is closed for the winter season.

A routine safety inspection found a fault in the cable which can not be repaired until the spring.

This is a real downer, and there are going to be some hefty insurance claims.

Any one with a season pass can request a refund from SAP, or you can keep your pass and just make your own way over.

Like I say: a real downer, especially so early in the season.

On the up side, however, there’s so much skiing in both resorts on their own that you really have to be going some to exhaust either resort in the space of a few weeks.

If you’ve never skied with dogs, I heartily recommend it.

They absolutely love it, playing and bouncy around in the deep snow, plunging their noses into the powder with the same rush-seeking delight as a member of the mediacracy.

Plus they’re also good at finding a good way down. (Or, I suppose, a life saving way of finding out which couloirs NOT to go down…)

The dogs in the photo aren’t mine. I was out touring today and met a ski instructor from Les Arcs called Thomas at the top of an off-piste run known colloquially as the M25, due to the morning rush it generates after a powder day.

It’s a lovely run but gets tracked out quickly. If you’re looking for it, it’s the one beneath the Roche de Mio cable car on the Belle Plagne side of the first mountain. The lift continues up to Roche de Mio. Come down Les Sources (red) but vere right along the ridge, leaving Les Sources to your left and Les Inversens to your right. Follow this ridge along a ways, then you’ll see it heading uphill a bit. Shimmy up here, then traverse right, following the tracks - believe me, unless you have toured up before the lifts there WILL be tracks. Then just pick a convenient point to drop over down one of the couloirs.

Note there is some challenging skiing here and this slope is prone to avalanches. It’s south facing so I suggest if you go, go early, and - as ever - at your own risk. Oh, and get and learn how to use a transceiver, OK?