€50 per day French Congestion Charge coming to La Tania & Courchevel for Winter 2020.

This was an April Fool!
Confirmation over the weekend that the planned Congestion Charges will come in to play from December 2019. In La Tania & Le Praz this is expected to be €50 a day / €300 a week for Class 1 vehicles (height less than 2 metres & total weight less than 3.5 tonnes). The charges will rise traveling up to 1550 & 1650 with charges in 1850 expected to be €100 a day / €600 a week.

Free parking and a continual 24/7 bus service will be provided from Bozel using driverless, electric vehicles similar to the shuttles that started running in Val Thorens this Winter pictured below. These will be fitted with snow ploughs during bad weather to aid road clearance although French Unions are in dispute regarding safety issues and a threat to members jobs.

All car parks in the resorts will be free of charge including the new underground multi-story car park in Le Praz opening in December 2019 (part of the Alpinium Building – more details here).

A congestion disc (which will look similar to the CRIT’ Air discs required in certain French cities) will be available to purchase on-line from 1st September 2019. How hire cars from airports will get discs is still unclear.

The Pay-As-You-Go payment system will utilise Number Plate Recoginition technology similar to the Dartford Crossings rather than Transponder Tags as used on the Autoroutes – pity you couldn’t use one system for both…

The aim of these measures is to reduce the huge amount of traffic entering the resorts, improve air quality, reduce road accidents and improve the sustainability image of Courchevel. In addition, all vehicles with a congestion charge disc must have Winter Tyres fitted – snow chains or snow socks are not a substitute – so traffic delays are kept to a minimum.

In La Tania season passes will be available for €875 for Class 1 vehicles and all mini buses, vans and pickups will be regarded as commercial vehicles and pay at least twice the private car charge depending on size / capacity. Camper Vans will not be entitled to season passes and must pay a daily charge.

Note that parking a car in La Tania (or a camping van) will require a charge each day (or week) even if it hasn’t been moved. A resolution for increased charges on Saturdays was not approved.

Pure battery electric vehicles (BEVs) will be exempt from all charges and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) will benefit from a 50% reduction in the charge. So that’s why a certain business man in La Tania has a Range Rover PHEV on order…

3 Valleys Charity Day 2019 – The Radio Advert, Get Yourselves Out Here!

The Radio Méribel Advert…

The full lineup and provisional stage times for 3 Valley Charity Day 2019 in Méribel Village on 10 April 2019 have now been released:

1230 Sian Hayley Smith
1300 Blazin’ Strings
1335 The Daisy Chain
1410 Les Lunettes
1445 Queens of the Snow Stage
1520 The Dominos
1540 MAPS
1615 Pink Miami
1700 Bring Your Sisters
1800 Jaguar Skills

Courchevel Valley lifts scheduled to open from Sat 30 March to Fri 5 April

Basically Tovets in 1550 and Coqs up to Chenus plus some minor drag lifts are closing next week – must be going to be quiet!

Use the new Grangettes gondola from 1550 and for access back to La Tania from 1850 use Chenus, Plantrey or Loze drags.

La Tania regular Jack Bruce in World Record 8 Hour Ski Attempt Today

On Saturday 30th March 2019 Jack Bruce is attempting to set a new Guinness World Record (GWR) for the greatest distance skied in 8 hours. GWR measure such events in ‘vertical feet’ and although there is no current record they have set a ‘minimum requirement’ of 118,110 vertical feet. The equivalent of skiing down Mount Everest four times!

Jack learned to ski with the British Army in Cyprus and will be raising money for Walking with the Wounded. Always on first lift when he’s here – lookout for the distinctive Ruroc “Stormtrooper” Helmet…

The Foret chair was the original plan for the main uplift today but we understand Aiguile du Fruit and Creux is the likely majority of the skiing today.

Good luck to Jack and if you’d like to make a donation his JustGiving page is at: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/guinnessworldrecordski

29th March and The Red Piste, Moretta Blanche groomed down to La Tania resort level

While the blue Folyères piste down to resort is always expected to be open from the first day until the last day of the season (only once at the beginning and twice at the end in the last 17 seasons since snow cannons were installed has it not been skiable) it’s not so common to find the red Moretta Blanche piste still being groomed down to resort as we head in to April. Looking pretty good today…

La Tania Public Meeting Tue 2 April 2019 at 18:00 in the Cinema

After the poor communication of the consultation regarding the new green piste on Monday and the general dissatisfaction of the status of La Tania with regard to the Courchevel takeover (activities, animations, New Year’s Eve debacle, Grand Bois Lift / Chalet Access, removal of the Swimming Pool, state of the coach arrival area and village centre, lighting, security, SaboIa B etc etc) it’s good to see a public meeting being held next week – all be it at pretty short notice…

There will also be more information on the progress of the plans for the huge Moretta Village development on the Car Park near the Gondola.

Hopefully this is a positive way forward and a constructive discussion takes place.

The plans from Momday’s consultation on the new green piste below…

Return of The Dominos to La Tania at Après Ski Today

And rocking their Charity Day T Shirts…

Congratulations to Roman – Another Escapader in a Day

From Roman:
Just wanted to write and log in my attempt for the Three Valleys Escapade. The stars aligned and I managed to complete it on Thursday 21st March despite having a recovering knee from MCL damage and some key lifts/runs being shut that I had planned to use; Cime Caron, and thus access to Orelle and also the Chasse Run linking one side of Les Menuires to Plan De L’eau.

To my surprise the route I came up with worked quite well, although I missed Petite Boss in the morning due to it not opening till 11am! I used Signal instead but to my surprise I had enough time to go back again in the afternoon! The full list of lifts I took are below.

What’s all this 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 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…

PDF list of lifts here for downloading to a smart phone – this needs a 2019 update as Roc de Tougne chair is not a drag now, Legends replaces Roc de Fer and the drag in Les Menuirs, Montaulever is no longer there.

Suisses – Our Monday Morning Piste du Jour

Nothing better that a freshly groomed classic black run – Suisses this morning…

Another Escapade in a Day! Congratulations to Timo, Erwin & Tom

From Timo:

I wanted to let you know that we (Tom, Erwin and me Timo) fulfilled the Escapade in a day today.

We started in Meribel Village at the Golf chair lift at 9am sharp. We only had queues at the two Masse gondolas, Bruyeres and Moutiere lifts. We had lunch in the Moraine lift and finished the Dent du Burgin lift at 4pm so we had an extra go on the Saulire Express 2 and Vizelle before heading back to Meribel Village.

Perfect day to do it and next time we want to improve the itinerary with a few lifts so we can do some nicer slopes instead of some connecting boulevards.

What’s all this 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 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…

PDF list of lifts here for downloading to a smart phone – this needs a 2019 update as Roc de Tougne chair is not a drag now, Legends replaces Roc de Fer and the drag in Les Menuirs, Montaulever is no longer there.