ESCAPADE 2026: Ollie, James & Sean with a proper match report…

05 March 2026
Spring skiing conditions with a light haze

Participants
Sean Deschamps (Experienced Lead officer and Pathfinder of the Expedition)
James Stoy (Snowboarding great from theU.A.E. & Escapade 1st timer)
Oliver Terry (Support staff, Escapade 1st timer)

7am
Wake up and mental prep.
Game day nerves! 7+ hours of precise skiing covering almost 100km chasing ever collapsing timeliness based on lift closing times. Can’t let the team down! Relentless pursuit!

7h30
Breakfast Les Peupliers.
Double coffees and double pain au chocolat to build enough calories for the day. NO STOPPING for food or comfort breaks. …
Talk of tactics and timeframes surround the breakfast table for the debutants (James & Oliver).

8h30
Olympic sport for James’ kit collection.

9h05 FORET
World cup Downhill teams and course technicians flood the departure area of Foret lift …. luckily they open the lift 5 mins early to clear out the pros because they would probably slow us down on the Escapade!

9h22 TANIA
After a glorious groomed Folyeres track and 1 early tumble we hit La Tania, adrenaline pumping.
It quickly became obvious that the documentation of every twist and turn would be …..tricky!! (Time horizons were appearing and evaporating at warp speed and the mission objective could not have been more clear…)

We glided through Meribel and swiftly found ourselves down in Saint Martin and Bettex. A running theme was appearing – the Ski lift queues were extremely LOW (a game changer / time saver) This countered James’ boot binding/ shuffling activities at the beginning and end of each run. Did we have some time slippage ….YES. …and this became a permanent feature of our pre-planning analysis on lift and gondolas. 10 mins behind schedule … 24mins ….. back to 18mins only. OH THE DRAMA! Val Thorens already but a few moments of gut wrenching fears when incredible winds built up from nowhere. The skies above us remained hazy and more so with the violent gusts whipping snow dust up from the slopes … was there a possibility of lift closures? Force Majeure de L’Escapade?

We nonetheless soldiered on and just as soon as the howling gale appeared she dispersed into the
sunshine and let us proceed on our merry way! More respect to our snowboarder James who at many moments was thrust towards the abyss by the crosswind.

…. and this whilst the Snowboard boot dramas emerged– Super TIGHT boots! “IM A UK 9!” exclaimed James as he lamented over why he had been ruffled in to size 7s by the extremely confident and
persuasive equipment technician. Despite the discomfort we remember Sir Winston Churchills famous quote … “if you’re going through Hell. … KEEP GOING”

Ok so now we are really pushing it ….we hit the top of Aguille De Fruit at 16h45. ….WE HAVE 10MINS TO GET TO GRANDE COMBES! Cometh the hour cometh the men! Once moreunto the breach dear friends ONCE MORE! The culmination of the day rested upon our swift expedition through end of day traffic.
All going well past the base of Pralong. ….5 mins to go ….. OH NO! A potentially fatal wrong turn! What
followed next can only be described as a Jurassic Park style bunch of raging velociraptors tearing through the trees off piste tumbling through the forest towards Grandes Combes ….. A shocked looking lifty had already drawn the gates closed …..

DISASTER! But just as Moses did at The Red Sea our new best friend (we have nominated him for the highest French accolade -Chevalier & Legion D’Honneur) parted the red netted gates and waved us on thus allowing the last leg of the Escapade to continue ……16h55 and 30 seconds. …WE MADE IT!

Total elation and screams of joy! The final leg down to Le Praz was merely a celebratory procession. We had done it! Over 8 hours of theatre, pain and excitement. The apres at Les Peupliers where the day began was a beautiful moment for us andnow I can say that “ne’er a day goes by, from this day to the ending of the world, we in it shall be remembered, we few, we happy few, we Band of Escapade Brothers”.

Same again next year??? YOU BET!

Special thanks to Sean for expert guidance throughout the day and James for flying all the way from Dubai!

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

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