3V Escapade in a Day success for the Waterfield Family

From Ian:
The Waterfield family – Beth (13), Jenny (9), Anna and Ian – completed the Escapade yesterday.
Setting off at 0900 from The Tania Gondola, and the first queue of the day, we finished at Foret, at 1621 (1630 at the top) before heading to the Bouc Blanc for a celebratory pression/orangina.
We pretty much followed the latest route on the website, with the exception of doing Lac de Lou off La Masse to Plan de L’Eau, and somehow skirting round from the top of 3 Vallees chair to Becca without needing to do Sunny Express or Bruyeres 2.
Anyway, Jenny wants to know whether she is the youngest Escapade finisher (she tells me she’s 9 years and 49 weeks)?
Route screenshots and start/finish photos attached
Now home after a super week in LT -as always!

Well done Ian and Family – still possible in February when done on a Saturday! Jenny has just beaten Toby Buckle as the youngest success, he completed the challenge back in April 2009, aged 10. Good work Jenny!

Remember, the lifts are open another 30 minutes now (plus faster and more capacity this season) so no excuses, do it this year or you’ll be at least another year older when you do…

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 saw the use of the Roc de Tougne fast new chair instead of the drag plus we lost the Montaulever drag altogether. In 2019 we gained the new faster Legends chair out of Méribel and then an improvement in speed on the Mont Vallon lift too. 

Certainly getting easier with the improvement in lift infrastructure and we will make it harder for 2021. But, it’s still a big, big day out with all the planning, chatting, moaning (and lunch) kept to the lifts…

Updated 2020 PDF route with the 19 “Escapade Lifts” in bold

You do this entirely at your own risk, act responsibly, take full ownership for your own actions and all of those with you, respect other people (& the mountain), ski & ride within your limits, always obey the skiers & snowboarders code, observe all signs, pay attention to all notices, advice & instructions from Pisteurs, only ski off piste if fully equipped & knowledgeable, it’s not a race (and you won’t be insured), think about the safety of others as well as yourself but above all, take care, don’t wreck things for others & don’t even think of blaming anyone else if it all goes horribly wrong…..