{"id":67335,"date":"2026-03-15T14:04:01","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T13:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.latania.co.uk\/blog\/?p=67335"},"modified":"2026-03-15T14:07:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T13:07:50","slug":"escapade-2026-ollie-james-sean-with-a-proper-match-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.latania.co.uk\/blog\/2026\/03\/15\/escapade-2026-ollie-james-sean-with-a-proper-match-report\/","title":{"rendered":"ESCAPADE 2026: Ollie, James & Sean with a proper match report…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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05 March 2026<\/strong>
Spring skiing conditions with a light haze<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participants<\/strong>
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)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7am<\/strong>
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!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7h30<\/strong>
Breakfast Les Peupliers.
Double coffees and double pain au chocolat to build enough calories for the day. NO STOPPING for food or comfort breaks. \u2026
Talk of tactics and timeframes surround the breakfast table for the debutants (James & Oliver).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8h30<\/strong>
Olympic sport for James’ kit collection.

9h05 FORET<\/strong>
World cup Downhill teams and course technicians flood the departure area of Foret lift \u2026. 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<\/strong>
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 \u2026..tricky!! (Time horizons were appearing and evaporating at warp speed and the mission objective could not have been more clear…)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2026.YES. \u2026and this became a permanent feature of our pre-planning analysis on lift and gondolas. 10 mins behind schedule \u2026 24mins \u2026.. 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 \u2026 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026. 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 \u2026 “if you’re going through Hell. \u2026 KEEP GOING”

Ok so now we are really pushing it \u2026.we hit the top of Aguille De Fruit at 16h45. \u2026.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. \u2026.5 mins to go \u2026.. 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 \u2026.. A shocked looking lifty had already drawn the gates closed \u2026..

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 \u2026\u202616h55 and 30 seconds. \u2026WE 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”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Same again next year??? YOU BET!<\/em>

Special thanks to Sean for expert guidance throughout the day and James for flying all the way from Dubai!<\/p>\n\n\n

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ESCAPADE 2026 \u2013 What\u2019s this all about\u2026<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2013 doing it in a day was a bit tricky though!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It all started out as a late night \u201cis it possible?<\/em>\u201d discussion \u2013 the history and our original route from 2006 are here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally punch cards had to be stamped at each check point until electronic passes arrived and then the use of a lift was recorded \u2013 now we use Apps such as Ski Tracks or Relive to prove our route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a> and you’ll get your place in the HoF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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