ESCAPADE 2026: Wayne, Clinton, David and Tony

20 January 2026

The first successful ESCAPADE of 2026?

Tuesday 20th January dawned bright and sunny, which was clearly all the encouragement needed for Wayne, Clinton, David and Tony to decide it was the perfect day to attempt the new 2026 Escapade route. Sensible people would have had a relaxed ski. We, however, chose adventure.

Starting from St Martin, the route looks considerably harder on paper. The last Olympic lift now shuts at 4:15pm in January and, thanks to two additional lifts being added to the route this year, we reckoned the route would be about 15 minutes longer. That estimate turned out to be… optimistic.

The two new lifts are great additions. But . . . they are also glacially slow.

The Tortellette lift in Les Menuires was rammed with beginners and seemed to stop every few minutes, generously donating about ten minutes to our day all on its own. The Grandes Combes section also caused me a moment of concern — I genuinely wondered if “Grandes Combes” was a typo and Toffa had actually meant the Grand Couloir. In fairness, the Grandes Combes lift isn’t exactly inspiring… but the Grand Couloir is utterly brutal and we absolutely hate skiing it, so on reflection we were quite relieved.

The run down towards Aquamotion had very little snow and, despite the lift only being a couple of years old, it’s a surprisingly leisurely affair — another ten minutes gone. But that was kind of the point: make the route longer, slower, and more character-building. Mission very much accomplished.

So… did we make it?

Yes. Just.

We hit the final lift at 3:56pm, leaving a very respectable 19 minutes to spare. Around lunchtime in Orelle, the lift queues were so big it looked like the whole thing was about to unravel dramatically. But as the afternoon wore on, the sun dropped, the queues disappeared, the pistes emptied, and we were able to move properly.

Not a perfect ski day — around 90% of the slopes appeared to be ungroomed — but with short (or non-existent) lift queues later on and beautifully quiet pistes, we successfully completed the new 2026 Escapade.

Would we do it again?

Absolutely.

Would we leave earlier next time?

Unless we invent a time machine, no — we were already on the first lift at 9am.

Next attempt will be in March when the lifts stay open later, or on a Saturday transfer day, when half the resort is packing suitcases, the roads are jammed, and the slopes are blissfully empty.

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 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

This is NOT a race

ALWAYS CONTROL YOUR SPEED. 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 (you won’t be insured), think about the safety of others as well as yourself but above all, think of other people, take care, don’t wreck things for others & don’t even think of blaming anyone else if it all goes wrong….. Note that setting of record times and max speeds WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED.

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