The La Tania Ski Blog
Latest news, snow, pics, gossip and information from the locals in La Tania – latania.co.uk
All the latest news from around the Three Valleys from the La Tania locals. A real blog since 2006, not just endless re-posts for search engine optimisaton! Photos, gossip, snow reports, what's on and all the latest on the Apres Ski scene... Now fully optimised for iPhone, Touch and Android Mobiles - just go to latania.co.uk/blog and view on your phone. Our other past blogs & favourites here
The 100m World Record – In Ski Boots!
Great work from Profeet taking the World Record away from the Germans…
Thanks to Iain from Skipedia for sharing this.
A La Tania challenge could be on – after all we started uphill ski jump racing over 10 years before it became “a thing”.
This years Red Bull 400 took place in the same place we started it all back in 2002… Courchevel Le Praz Olympic Ski Jump.
The Summer Ski Jumping World Cup takes place on 11 & 12 August 2017.
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A ride up to the Col de la Loze at Sunset
Great pics from Luke after a ride up to the Col de la Loze at the top of Dou des Lanches 4 man chair yesterday evening.
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Scotland v England, 10 June 2017, Hampden Park, Glasgow
Another great #EnglandAway trip and a fine time had by all in Glasgow. Great City.
The football – very poor… An exciting last 6 minutes though!
Scotland 2
Griffiths 87, 90
England 2
Oxlade-Chamberlain 70
Kane 93
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S3V Update on New Gondola, Luge, Snowmaking etc.
An update from S3V this morning (the Ski Area Management Company that looks after Courchevel, La Tania and Mottaret) on the new gondola under construction out of Courchevel 1650 Moriond, the new luge run plus updates on piste improvements and snow making including the bottom of the La Tania green piste Plan Fontaine.
The new Ariondaz gondola is set to open in December 2017 following the route of the old one that dates from 1974 but with double the capacity. It will be 25% faster (taking 7 minutes instead of 10½ minutes previously), a lot more comfortable inside and use much better looking tubular pylons than the old “electricity pylon” like towers.
The purple piste markings show the new snow cannons going in this Summer – this includes the bottom of the green Plan Fontaine piste through the forest in to La Tania. The amber markings show current snowmaking infrastructure and the green shows where improvements are being made (more efficient pipelines and new high pressure cannons). Full Size Image Here
Last season saw the importance of snow making across The 3 Valleys with more runs open here than anywhere else in Europe all season. S3V are accelerating the investment in 8 different sectors of the ski area with 115 new snow cannons going in this Summer – yes one hundred and fifteen!
The Courchevel Valley (including La Tania) will boast 714 snow cannons covering over 50% of the ski area next Winter – why risk skiing anywhere else?
The new luge track from the Bel Air top station of the new gondola is 3km long! Should be great fun and is scheduled to be open on Tuesdays and Thursdays (afternoons and evenings).
Tunnels keep the luge out of the way off the pistes on the way down and it will be floodlit for evening use, can’t wait!
Further improvements to pistes in the area include redesigning the bottleneck around the Bel Air restaurant reducing the ramp and also the Marquis piste will be levelled off providing easier skiing for beginners.
Further details on Summer 2017 Work across The 3 Valleys here
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Congratulations to Matt & Suzz on their wedding today
Congratulations to Matt and Suzz on their Alpine Wedding today.
Both amazing employees of local transfer company Three Vallées Transfers – so says the boss no less!
Celebrations continuing tonight at The Drop Inn in Le Praz with Bring Your Sisters as their European tour continues…
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The Bring Your Sisters Big Weekend in the UK
Great turnout at The Exchange in Bristol and The Victoria in Oxshott – well done to all those involved in putting this on, same time next year?
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The Summer Escapade…
Our mate Charlie caught on the Bouc Blanc Webcam hiking up for lunch… so we got her to send some more pics of the pistes in Summer.
“Todays plat du jour: chicken pesto pasta pot. 3 course special with tin of tuna starter and banana split desert. Courtesy of Carrefour, €3,65. The view, priceless!!!”
The Bouc Blanc restaurant opens all the way through July and August. And the Escapade? More here…
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End of Season Football & England Away to follow…
Newcastle v Preston as The Toon win the Championship in the last couple of minutes of the season and South Shields beat Cleethorpes 4-0 to win the FA Vase at Wembley – Great days….
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New Lifts, Pistes & Improvements for Winter 2018 across The 3 Valleys
A quick look at the new developments planned for Winter 2018 across The 3 Valleys in advance of our comprehensive What’s New Guide that we’ve publish every September / October since 2001.
The 3 Valleys is the biggest Ski Area in The World and continued investment give it one of the most modern and efficient lift infrastructures in the world with state of the art piste grooming and unrivalled snow making systems in terms of technology and capacity.
New Ariondaz Gondola, Courchevel 1650 Moriond
The replacement of the Ariondaz Gondola from 1650 with a new 8 seater gondola doubling the current capacity is set to open in December 2017. Basically following the same route (and not a 2 stage gondola as originally planned) up to the Bel Air and a new luge run of 2860m is to be created too!
Stats – Cost €19m, Length 2430m, Vertical 456m, 2400 skiers/hour.
The removal of the Stade, Sainte-Agathe and Marquis drag lifts is also being undertaken this Summer.
New Roc de Tougne 6 Seater Chairlift, Meribel Mottaret
Replacing the 2 parallel drag lifts of the same name this high speed 6 seater detachable chairlift is now under construction and links nicely from the new Combes 2 chair out of Mottaret.
Stats – Cost €6.3m, Length 1083m, Vertical 400m, 2400 skiers/hour.
There is also work to increase the capacity of the snow making reservoir at the base of the new lift and the next phase of development in Mottaret will be the renovation of the Mont Vallon Gondola and replacement of the old Plattières 3 bubble. No news on rumoured upgrades of Côte Brun however – often quite a bottleneck in the rush over to Val Thorens.
New Moraine 10 seater Gondola, Val Thorens
Replacing the long 4 seater chairlift (which is now up for sale if you fancy it) is a new 10 seater Gondola being built this Summer following roughly the same line as the chair. It is not being extended to take in the Col chair too as was previously rumoured.
Stats – Cost €13m, Length 2454, Vertical 466m, 2800 skiers/hour.
Additional work in Val Thorens includes a new piste linking the top of the Plein Sud chair (Val Thorens Folie Douce area) over to the Croissant piste to enable an alternative route back to the resort centre. Work begins on this new piste Retour Sud in mid July and is expected to take around 10 weeks with an estimated cost of half a million euros.
Further developments and future plans / rumours
Preparatory work on the replacement of the Grangettes gondola out of Courchevel Village 1550 have begun – this lift expected to be ready for Winter 2019.
Next stages of development around Courchevel are expected to include a gondola from the Grande Combe (Aquamotion Centre), the extension of the Praz gondola to La Croisette 1850 (and a complete renovation of this area) plus construction of the 6 seater Moretta Blanche chairlift out of La Tania to link with the Bouc Blanc chair and the removal of the Gros Murger drag.
It’s still unclear when the Moretta Village development in the car park area will go ahead and S3V have said that this was a dependency on the new lift being constructed – Environmental Impact and some preparatory work has taken place however – the latest stats are 990 beds, 250 parking spaces, 2 restaurants, a bar/lounge, ski shop, creche and fitness centre. The line of the proposed chair here:
Consultation and initial discussions are taking place around a possible lift from the bottom of the Plan de L’eau lift in Val Thorens towards the Dame Blanche black piste area on La Masse thus linking in with Les Menuires.
No further news on a possible link between the bases of the Caron Cable Car and Grand Fond Funitel in Val Thorens (or anything around development towards the Mont du Borgen area – maybe the new piste below this area is a forerunner to this?).
As usual, a complete roundup with photos and full details in our What’s New at the end of the Summer.
All the 2017 full 3 Valley Piste Maps here
Winter 2018 Opening Dates & Lift Pass Prices
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May Snow Pics – A Wintry Last Week…
The snow down to resort level on Monday 1st May 2017 – Val Thorens Closing Day for Winter 2017
Wed 26 Apr 2017
Snow coming in on Thursday Night 27 Apr 2017
Fri 28 Apr 2017
Fri 28 Apr 2017
Meribel Village 28 Apr
Meribel 28 Apr
Sun comes out on Sat 29 Apr 2017
But by Monday 1st May – back to Snow
Mon 01 May 2017
Bouc Blanc Terrace – around 30cm here 01 May 2017
Courchevel 1850 on 1st May 2017
Saulire 03 May 2017 – First Tracks for those who hiked
La Troika 01 May 2017
Green again by Wed 03 May 2017
La Tania lifts open for Winter on 16 Dec 2017 (and in July & August for walkers and bikers)
