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 3 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
Escapade in a Day Success! Well done The Pearson Family
Congratulations to the Pearson Family – Adam, Sam, Charlie (19), Henry (17) & Alexander (14) on a successful Escapade in a Day this week starting in Les Menuires (we forgive you!).
From Adam..
“On 26 March, we took up the challenge of Escapade in a Day for a second time, this time starting in Les Menuires. We have been long time La Tania loyalists, coming every year for about ten years in a row, but for various reasons have chosen Les Menuires this time. We hope you will accept our submission!
We used the 2017 route you provide on the website, but obviously started in Les Menuires. We noticed that the route took an off piste connection between La Masse 2 and Plan de l’Eau, and we didn’t want to do that, so we reworked the route so that you work your way through the Val Thorens lifts in the opposite order. This allowed us to stay on pistes throughout, with Blvd Cumin connecting between Plan de l’Eau and La Masse.
We are sharing our route with you in case you would like to share on the website.
In the end, we just managed to make it, with a few minutes to spare. The weather was not good on Monday so all our skiing above about 2500m was in very low visibility and therefore very slow. We think on a clearer day it could be done with more time to spare. We also got held up at Mt Vallon, one of our first lifts, which had not opened. We got on our first lift (Sunny Express) at about 9.07, and reached the last obligatory lift, La Masse 2, at 16.45, five minutes before it closed. Escapade completed!
It was an epic day, we didn’t stop, and loved getting to know all the corners of the Three Valleys again. It was just a pity we couldn’t fit in a cheeky Folyeres run into the day (so we came back on Tuesday for that!).”
The Pearson’s Route…
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 featured them in our Escapade in a Day Hall of Fame
It is looking like this is no longer being promoted by The 3 Valleys for Winter 2018 – even though the Escapade lift points are marked on the 3 Valleys FatMap for 2018 linked from the S3V and Courchevel web sites. We’ll still stick you in the Hall of Fame if you complete it though…
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…
For an easier 3 Valleys Day Challenge try the Selfies in a Day (note that Signal machine is at the top of Biollay and the Plan des Mains unit is at the top of the chair for 2018).
PDF list of lifts here for downloading to a smart phone – note Roc de Tougne chair not the drag now.
The full size 3 Valleys Escapade in a Day image
