The 3 Valleys Escapade in a Day – still going!

The first attempts of Winter 2019 have taken place with a success from Dougie B and a close call from  Henry and Ross (not Ade!) who missed Foret (the last lift) by 3 minutes!

From Dougie:
I completed L’Escapade on Tuesday 22 January (just). Start time 0905, just made it to the Foret lift at 1627 (the last chair up!). Route and ski data attached (only switched on the app on Saulire, but hit La Tania, Bouc Blanc and Rocher De L’Ombre to get there). Data attached is from Saulire onwards.

Much harder than I’d expected! Didn’t stop all day except to get a snickers bar at Pointe De La Masse and only just made it. Made a navigation error on the way to Meribel Village (missed the right on to Lapin and ended up at Morel) and Cime Caron was closed so had to find an alternative route to Bouchet – but otherwise skied pretty hard.

A PDF of their route here to download to your phone (updated from the 2017 version with notes)

What’s This All About?

The 3 Valleys Escapade was the lift company promotion of visiting (originally in 2006) 14 points across the Three Valleys and gaining a certificate & badge over the period of your holiday – then we had the idea of doing it in a day…

It’s probably the toughest day skiing ever for a recreational skier but lots of people have got involved over the years so we feature them in our Escapade in a Day Hall of Fame

This is no longer being promoted by The 3 Valleys but we’ll still stick you in the Hall of Fame if you complete it – send a Ski Tracks or similar trace in plus a pic of your group.

What started out as a late night “is it possible?” discussion became a challenge the following week – the history and our original route are here

Originally punch cards had to be stamped at each check point until electronic passes arrived – they could then be checked by the lift company. The original Escapade was 30 lifts, 13000m vertical and 70km and 2016 peaked with 34 lifts, 17000m vertical (twice the height of Everest) and around 100km total distance. It became a little less for 2017 and 2018 sees the use of Roc de Tougne fast new lift instead of the drag – still a big, big day out though with all talking (and lunch) kept to the lifts…

PDF list of lifts here for downloading to a smart phone – this needs a 2019 update as Roc de Tougne chair is not a drag now, Legends replaces Roc de Fer and the drag in Les Menuirs, Montaulever is no longer there.