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
La Tania Public Meeting Tue 9 Dec at 18:30
GRAND BOIS PUBLIC LIFT CLOSURE
LA TANIA PUBLIC MEETING ON TUE 9 DEC 18:30 IN GRANDZETA BUILDING MEETING ROOM
(The new building between Montana and the Lift Pass Office).
Hi everyone,
In order to reduce the night noise in the resort centre, La Perrière townhall committee plans to close the Le Grand Bois public lift during the night, at certain periods of the winter.
To inform and explain the decision, a public meeting with Monsieur Le Maire will take place on Tuesday 9th December at 6.30 pm, in the meeting room of the La Grandzeta building.
For those who can’t attend the meeting, we will e-mail a written recap.
Best regards,
Arnaud Favet
Directeur
Office de Tourisme de La Tania
Mairee has announced he will visit La Tania for a couple of hours every Friday morning from 26 Dec – More here…
Opening Times (lifts, bars, restaurants etc) plus new lift closing times
First Lift Crew Last Season – La Tania lift opening back on 14 December 2014
This is what we know so far… Let us know what else is confirmed.
Sat 22 Nov – Val Thorens lifts opened for Winter 2015.
Fri 28 Nov – Ski Lodge opening at 5pm with Les Deux Roux DJs & the Alpine Fish & Chip Special.
Fri 28 Nov – Le Farcon Restaurant in La Tania opens.
Sat 29 Nov – Bubble Bar opens in 1650 with its new look, pizza oven, fireplace & Hendo in charge!
Mon 01 Dec – Jacks Bar Meribel opening night.
Fri 05 Dec – Ski Lodge Official Opening Party with live music from Bring Your Sisters.
Sat 06 Dec – Courchevel 1850, 1550, Le Praz and Meribel Valley main lifts open for Winter 2015.
Sat 06 Dec – La Folie Douce Meribel opening.
Sat 06 Dec – Hotel Telemark in La Tania Bar plus pizza takeaway opens.
Sun 07 Dec – La Saucisse Savoyarde – La Tania’s delicatessen opens!
Fri 12 Dec – La Taiga opens with the opening party on Sunday 14th Dec.
Fri 12 Dec – Lodge du Village opening night.
Sat 13 Dec – La Tania, Courchevel 1650 and 3 Valleys links open for Winter 2015.
Sat 13 Dec – Hotel Telemark full restaurant and hotel opening.
Sat 13 Dec – Hotel Courcheneige on the piste above 1850.
Sat 13 Dec – Le Rond Point opening with a new terrace if they finish it in time & Mini serving us!
Sat 13 Dec – La Terrasse Brasserie in Meribel Village opening night with its new refurb and menu.
Sun 14 Dec – La Taiga Official Opening Party with live music from Bring Your Sisters.
Sun 14 Dec – Hotel Montana in La Tania opens (provisionally).
Mon 15 Dec – La Tania Saisonnaires Welcome Night with latania.co.uk at the Ski Lodge.
New Lifts – Important Last Lift Closing Times
(Later times from 7 Feb 2015)
New La Foret up from Le Praz to La Tania – now 16:25 then 16:50 (10 minutes earlier than old lift)
New Loze Express up from Meribel to La Tania – remains at 16:35 and 17:00.
New Aiguille du Fruit back from 1650 – now 16:35 and 17:00 (10 minutes later than the old lift but the same time as the old Gravelles anyway).
A bit disappointing as La Foret is 3 minutes quicker and Loze Express a full 5 minutes quicker (thought we’d get an extra pint in La Folie if they put last lift back 5 mins) and Aiguille du Fruit is now only 3m 49s from 6m 21s.
The race to the top on a powder day…
(assuming all lifts are opened in time)
Centre of La Tania:
Gros Murger Drag / Bouc Blanc – 11 mins
Gondola / Dou Des Lanches – 12.5 mins
Gondola / Bouc Blanc – 14 mins
Centre of Le Praz:
Fôret / Doe Des Lanches – 12 mins
Fôret / Bouc Blanc – 13.5 mins
La Tania Weekly Gig List
This is how it’s shaping up so far, all subject to change of course and LastMinute.Wall changes….
Bring Your Sisters – playing La Tania Sundays & Thursdays plus alternate Tuesdays with L’Escorchevel, Le Praz. Also apres gigs at LdV Tue, Meribar Wed & La Boulotte Fri.
Pub Le Ski Lodge
Plans for new terrace seating and high tables plus sofas and further heating are in the pipeline. Decent free WiFi should be sorted too hopefully.
Will Flackie get first pint for the 3rd season in a row? And if he does, does he get to keep the pub?
The rough plan for the week will (hopefully, but subject to change and getting organised & it will be rotated a bit to keep things fresh) be….
Monday: Les Deux Rouges DJ Theme Night plus win a pair of skis or a snowboard with the Shot raffle – telemark skis too this year!
Tuesday: Big Band Tuesday with alternating weekly Bring Your Sisters & the best bands in the Alps from 10pm plus Fancy Dress theme nights return to Tuesdays….
Wednesday: Dutch Courage.
Thursday: Bring Your Sisters and the Extended Après Ski from 5pm.
Fun Day Friday: Killer Beez..
Saturday: Sports Day!
Special Events:
Sunset Sons (aka Cheerleaders before they were famous) – Wed 7 Jan 2015.
Bring Your Sisters 10th Anniversary Gig – Thu 5 Feb 2015.
La Taiga
Free WiFi is now installed and a refreshed menu is planned too.
Monday: Sam & Pat.
Tuesday: Freddie “the good one from Les Trois Tetes” at Après.
Wednesday: Codfish.
Friday: Open Mic Night with Stevie.
Sunday: Bring Your Sisters from 10pm.
Val Thorens Opening Day Pics 22 Nov 2014
Great snow above 2000m and lots more open than expected, another great opening day.
La Tania locals putting fresh tracks down Suisses this morning…
La Tania locals putting fresh tracks on Suisses today.
Nick, Jamie, Jenna, Joey and Bailey skinned up from the Altiport to Suisses, a lovely walk, great fresh tracks and the first sun in a while.
Courchevel Official Twitter Account just tweeted at 2pm today (Wed 19 Nov) that Verdons and Saulire will be opening for free this Saturday 22 November 2014. Similar to what they did last year – remembered here
www.nickskithreevalleys.co.uk and www.come-ski.com
Happy New Year with Sunset Sons
A strange evening in Hackney on Tuesday with Sunset Sons appearing on a Japanese TV Show to be screened on New Year’s Eve – included a countdown to midnight too! The New Year’s World Rock Festival is the longest running Television programme in the world – and is the Japanese equivalent of Jools Holland’s Hootenanny – a series of gigs filmed in New York, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Los Angeles, Tai Pei and London and screened every New Year’s Eve on Fuji TV in Japan.
Some great up and coming bands including Abjects and Yuk playing alongside Sunset Sons who were sounding tighter than ever – tracks from the new EP “No Bad Days” going down really well to the audience here. Available for download here
Geordie drummer Jed confirmed that they hope to back in The Alps around the second week of January for 6 dates – then they’re back for a London date on 19 Jan, already Sold Out!
More Snow Pics 13 Nov 2014 – Snow Down to 1700m
La Tania lifts open one month today! Here are the Webcams this morning after overnight snow down to around 1700m.
Bouc Blanc Terrace and Bouc Blanc chair & red piste above La Tania
View of Mottaret from the Sailure side of Meribel
Top of Saulire above Courchevel
View from La Croisette in Courchevel 1850 up to Saulire
The top of the Signal Chairlift above Courchevel 1650
Val Thorens centre with snow cannons buzzing…
Val Thorens from Chalet La Marine
Ski Show Thoughts and La Tania News Round Up
One week after the London Ski Show and probably the last one at Earls Court as the whole site is re-developed. Lots of familiar faces, the latest and greatest equipment and plenty of laughs and booze but as has been said many times before – are its days numbered? Ten to fifteen years ago there’d be a Friday press day and then it would run from the Saturday to the following Sunday – a full 9 days with a Big Air show and C&A Fashion Extravaganza plus an Apres Bar run by a real resort bar with queues to get in on the weekend days. There used to be a lot more bargains to be had with plenty of last years kit on sale – now there seems to be a lot less of that with mostly of what seems to be just 2015 gear on sale.
Now just open for 4 days, moved to half term to try and increase numbers, but no Snow and Rock, no Three Valleys, no big slope or real snow area, ice climbing, curling or skating – and at 3pm on the Saturday this year it just didn’t seem to be that busy at what probably should be the peak time – it’ll be interesting to see what the official attendance stats are. The internet killing retail doesn’t help and times are changing, the World Travel Market had a session recetly titled “End of The Travel Guide Book”…
The Three Valleys didn’t attend the show and hosted a big party instead – free food and drink from 8 to 11pm for Tour Ops and those in the industry with a 3 Valleys connection, then open to the general pubic from 11pm – 3V obviously think this is a better way to spend their marketing budget in the UK and they could well be right – although as the show is sponsored by The Telegraph with it’s comprehensive ski coverage it can be expected there won’t be loads of glowing reports of The 3 Valleys this Winter. Potential visitors couldn’t pick up a 3 Valleys Piste Map but could get an Espace Killy one and collect rival resort brochures.
In other news we caught up with the La Tania Tourist Office Director, Arnuad Favet and the Commercial Director of the S3V Lift Company (Courchevel, La Tania & Mottaret lifts), Jean-Pierre Lalanne.
Work on the Moretta Village is currently on hold as some planning and finance issues need to be resolved – there’s no target date being announced just yet as to when this might happen. S3V are committed to putting in a new chair lift when the development goes ahead – but obviousy not until that happens. The new lift is part of the massive 140m Euro investment plan that S3V have put together over the next few years. More on the What’s New Page.
There were rumours of the new lift being put in near to the new coach parking area on the main road as it approaches La Tania but this would not appear to be true. The proposed new green run through the forest to the right hand side of Folyeres may go ahead prior to The Moretta Village development however.
In La Tania it looks likely that there will be a trial of closing The Grand Bois public lift at 11pm in an effort to curb noise for residents from people walking back to/from the chalet area after an evening out – a shuttle bus service had been suggested but funding for this is currently not available. It will be interesting to see the results of the trial as it could be that people will walk up the hill taking quite a bit of time and causing more noise for longer – rather than not go out at all. Hopefully an increased police / security presence can keep everyone happy and a sensible compromise can be reached – the “La Tania is a graveyard after dark” comment from the Ski Guidebooks of ten years ago is not something anyone should want us to go back to.
Apartments in La Tania are still being purchased by the S3V lift company rather than being sold privately – a positive move for the resort really as these could be rented for up to 20 weeks a season rather than possibly only being used 2 or 3 weeks by owners. More revenue in lift passes, lessons, hire, tourist tax, retail, bars, restaurants etc.
Obviously we had to do a “Snow Report” from The Ski Show and the Hemel Hempstead (practically La Tania’s twin town) Snow Centre indoor ski slope provided some real snow outside the show for Tim to report on…
And the rest of the pics featuring Hobo Chic, The Dominos, The Fashion Show, 3 Valleys Party, Folie Douce, Retro Rentals etc etc….
Here Comes The Snow…
Val Thorens already turning white as the rain turns to snow. Looking like very significant snowfall above 2000m with some snow down to 1100m overnight according to France Meteo – although looking like rain will return at low levels pretty quickly but further snow showers to follow later.
Courchevel Saulire summit starting to turn white too…
Pics of this snowfall up tomorrow – with some of a white La Tania hopefully…
Update Wed 5 Nov
Snow line is about 2000m this morning with a good covering high up but not the extreme weather some were predicting on social media! Looks like the trend is starting to cool though with temperatures set to drop on the tail end of this storm so there will be some further snow showers about low down during the day. High up, the gullies and runs are slowly starting to fill in.
Bouc Blanc terrace above La Tania at around 1950m.
Saulire summit on Wednesday morning…
La Tania finally turning white by the start of Wednesday afternoon.
Thursday morning showed the snow on Saulire above the clouds.
And Friday the clouds cleared leaving Saulire looking magnificent.
