ESCAPADE 2026: Another late season Hot Escapade in a Day, well done Michiel!

06 April 2026

The hottest escapade ever?

Since learning about the Escapade last year, we had been wanting to give it a try. The only problem: we only visit Le Bettaix in the Three Valleys between Christmas and New Year and during the Belgian Easter holidays, which are both prone to lift closures and ‘lack of snow’ warnings. Fortunately, this year brought extraordinary spring snowfall, so we started hoping that we might actually have a chance during the Easter holidays. Two of us wanted to take on the challenge: snowboarder-transitioning-into-skier Lukas and myself, skier Michiel.

Arriving on Easter Saturday, the Courchevel lift closure schedule gave us limited options: Chapelets would be closed from Tuesday on, so only Easter and Easter Monday were viable days. Logically, we settled for the very last possibility of the season: Easter Monday. This meant we could spend the Sunday refreshing Lukas’s ski technique and refining navigational details (how do you get to Tortollet or Cospillot again exactly?). The weather on Sunday was extremely hot and Monday would be even hotter, so we knew that the lower sections of the resort would provide challenging conditions.

On Monday, we got up early and arrived at the Bettex lift at 8:35. Surely, we would be the first on the lift when it opened at 8:45? Instead, we arrived at a crowd of about 20 people who were already waiting in line. Most of then were dads trying to get their kids to ski school in Les Menuires by 9:00, but we even overheard others talking about the Escapade. Apparently, more and more people are becoming tempted by the challenge.

Instead of the planned first lift, we took the sixth, and after racing over icy pistes to Tortollet, we arrived just as this lift opened. We hit Pointe de la Masse at 9:15, just ten minutes after opening, but were already greeted by a pretty long queue. If crowds were like this everywhere, this could become a difficult day. Fortunately, the queue moved quickly and we could squeeze into a half-filled gondola to skip part of the line. We took the first part of the black Masse piste down to avoid having to push all the way around the peak of La Masse and then promptly lost the time we gained by choosing the ungroomed Longet piste, which was filled with icy moguls. All in all, not the greatest start.

Fortunately, the rest of the morning went smoothly: we breezed through Reberty and Bruyeres, took the Folie Douce route to Peclet and pushed through an ungroomed Christine to reach Moraine. On the whole Orelle part, we only lost a couple of minutes because of a sudden nosebleed on Face Nord (quick elevation changes), lingering fog on the peaks, medic training at Peyron and a brief breakdown of Orelle Caron. No queues at Pionniers or Trois Vallées, so we made it to Mont Vallon around 12:10, about ten minutes ahead of schedule. As noon hit, however, we knew things would get more complicated, as the remaining half was at much lower altitude and the heat was starting to become very real.

We pushed through the long Combe du Vallon piste, and were already thinking about lunch in the Pas du Lac gondola when the Ours piste hit us like a brick. The snow was like rubber, the slope felt more uphill than downhill and the only way to make progress was pushing like crazy. After what felt like hours, we finally reached Mottaret, dripping in sweat and cursing about taking Ours in spring. Perhaps choosing Campagnol and Plan des Mains would have been the better choice. Even if slightly slower, it would certainly have been less tiring.

After a fifteen minutes cooling-down and lunch session in Pas du Lac, we sped to Chanrossa, now almost 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Chapelets and Ariondaz fell quickly, but then we hit Gravelles, which posed similar uphill challenges as Ours and made us lose valuable minutes. We pushed through to Aiguille du Fruit, easily found Cospillot due to our Sunday preparations and dropped into the piste to Grandes Combes. This corner of the resort was totally unknown to us, but it certainly left its impression. First, an unfortunate manoeuvre by myself made Lukas crash right in front of the start of the lift. Then, after suffering though the slowest lift we had ever taken, a buckle of Lukas’s backpack got stuck in the seat and got ripped off at the top. Luckily, we survived with just a fall and a missing buckle.

Now certainly on our way back, we took Grangettes instead of the closed Tovets (hiking over indoor cobblestones and finding the piste again added some time compared to taking Tovets) and picked up the checkpoints of Le Praz, La Tania and Méribel Village. We were still nicely ahead of schedule, but our legs started to become seriously tired due to the heavy snow in the lower villages. We suffered through more slush down into Méribel, over Roc de Fer and down Verdet to the start of the Saint-Martin Express. By now, we knew we would complete the challenge, but still had to make it to the village in one piece. Almost everyone else took the gondola down into the resort, but we had to persevere through the heavy slush. No shortcuts on an Escapade.

At 16:12, we were back at the Saint-Martin Express with 48 minutes to spare before its closure. The rest of the route back home was familiar and before we knew it, we water-skied into Le Bettaix, where we were greeted by our families and could enjoy a well-deserved celebration drink. All-in-all, a great day of skiing.

Would we do it again? Sure, but maybe not on a summer day in April.

Michiel

• Bettex 8u45
• Tortollet 9u
• Pointe de la Masse 9u15
• Reberty 9u35
• Bruyeres 9u41
• Peclet 10u04
• Moraine 10u24
• Face Nord 10u38
• Peyron 10u53
• Bouchet 11u02
• Orelle Caron 11u20
• Pionniers 11u46
• 3 Vallées 11u53
• Mont Vallon 12u09
• Pas du Lac 12u36
• Chanrossa 12u57
• Chapelets 13u14
• Ariondaz 13u27
• Aiguille du Fruit 13u45
• Grandes Combes 13u58
• Grangettes 14u10
• Foret 14u25
• Tania 14u39
• Dou Des Lanches 14u51
• Golf 15u07
• Legends 15u25
• Olympic 15u37
• St Martin 1 16u01
• St Martin Express 16u12

ESCAPADE 2026 – 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 – doing it in a day was a bit tricky though!

It all started out as a late night “is it possible?” discussion – the history and our original route from 2006 are here

Originally punch cards had to be stamped at each check point until electronic passes arrived and then the use of a lift was recorded – now we use Apps such as Ski Tracks or Relive to prove our route.

Note that the Escapade is no longer officially promoted by Les 3 Vallees from Winter 2017 but we still record successful tracks for anyone who is interested in being in the sought after La Tania Escapade Hall of Fame

Send a pic of yourselves on the day with your successful tracker data & screenshot plus a story of your day to toffa@latania.co.uk and you’ll get your place in the HoF.

The ESCAPADE 2026 Strava Flyover here (if you’ve a Strava login)

2026 Escapade Video inc Flyover

2025 Escapade Video with Relive

The original Escapade took 30 lifts, around 13000m vertical with 70km length and by 2016 reached 34 lifts, 17000m vertical (twice the height of Everest) and around 80km skiing (140km total distance). With the newer, longer, faster lifts we’re now at 32 lifts (depending on the route) ESCAPADE 2026 Route

Changes through the years
2006 – First year and cards with hole punches stationed at lifties huts are used.
2008 – Electronic lift analysis is now used – no use hiking out the 4th Valley now!
2010 – The piste map did not include the top of the 4th Valley and the Col lift in Val Thorens.
2011 – The X-Wing Discovery was launched but only had 10 check points and doesn’t count!
2012 – Peclet included and Biollay / Vizelle used for Saulire access.
2015 – Foret used instead of La Tania gondola.
2016 – Mont Vallon is included for the first time plus the Montaulever drag lift.
2017 – Chapelets replaced by Petite Boss drag and La Tania’s Bouc Blanc chair replaces Tovets.
2018 – The new Roc de Tougne chair replaces the drag lift of the same name.
2019 – Legends replaces Roc de Fer and the Montaulever drag in Les Menuires has been removed.
2020 – Cime Caron now back in use.
2022 – New Pointe de la Masse and Orelle-Caron Gondolas (for example) could be used.
2023 – Using the new lifts, we ski all the resorts, all the perimeters and classic peaks – ESCAPADE 2023
2024 – No changes to 2023 route!
2025 – No changes to 2024 route!
2026 – Grandes Combs and Tortollet are added – ESCAPADE 2026