The 900 meters from Car Park to col above the café certainly felt like it! It was the furthest I've ventured uphill for a while and my legs knew it!
Arolla lifts are open to the mid-station at present, so once we'd left the few skiers taking advantage of the pristine pistes and the race training teams on the lower slopes, the rest of the ascent was peaceful and quiet - as one expects in Arolla pre-Christmas. A few teams skinning in rather exciting looking places (to our mind) but we stuck to the line of the "piste".
The descent over the other side of the col offered us all types of snow. Heavy wind blown stuff to start with turning to powder and then finally a bit of ice laden wind packed snow to get back the piste.
With the sun shining, what's not to like?