{"id":67585,"date":"2026-04-14T13:45:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T12:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.latania.co.uk\/blog\/?p=67585"},"modified":"2026-04-14T13:45:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T12:45:44","slug":"escapade-2026-another-late-season-hot-escapade-in-a-day-well-done-michiel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.latania.co.uk\/blog\/2026\/04\/14\/escapade-2026-another-late-season-hot-escapade-in-a-day-well-done-michiel\/","title":{"rendered":"ESCAPADE 2026: Another late season Hot Escapade in a Day, well done Michiel!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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06 April 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hottest escapade ever?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since learning about the Escapade last year, we had been wanting to give it a try. The only problem: we only visit Le Bettaix in the Three Valleys between Christmas and New Year and during the Belgian Easter holidays, which are both prone to lift closures and \u2018lack of snow\u2019 warnings. Fortunately, this year brought extraordinary spring snowfall, so we started hoping that we might actually have a chance during the Easter holidays. Two of us wanted to take on the challenge: snowboarder-transitioning-into-skier Lukas and myself, skier Michiel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arriving on Easter Saturday, the Courchevel lift closure schedule gave us limited options: Chapelets would be closed from Tuesday on, so only Easter and Easter Monday were viable days. Logically, we settled for the very last possibility of the season: Easter Monday. This meant we could spend the Sunday refreshing Lukas\u2019s ski technique and refining navigational details (how do you get to Tortollet or Cospillot again exactly?). The weather on Sunday was extremely hot and Monday would be even hotter, so we knew that the lower sections of the resort would provide challenging conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday, we got up early and arrived at the Bettex lift at 8:35. Surely, we would be the first on the lift when it opened at 8:45? Instead, we arrived at a crowd of about 20 people who were already waiting in line. Most of then were dads trying to get their kids to ski school in Les Menuires by 9:00, but we even overheard others talking about the Escapade. Apparently, more and more people are becoming tempted by the challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of the planned first lift, we took the sixth, and after racing over icy pistes to Tortollet, we arrived just as this lift opened. We hit Pointe de la Masse at 9:15, just ten minutes after opening, but were already greeted by a pretty long queue. If crowds were like this everywhere, this could become a difficult day. Fortunately, the queue moved quickly and we could squeeze into a half-filled gondola to skip part of the line. We took the first part of the black Masse piste down to avoid having to push all the way around the peak of La Masse and then promptly lost the time we gained by choosing the ungroomed Longet piste, which was filled with icy moguls. All in all, not the greatest start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, the rest of the morning went smoothly: we breezed through Reberty and Bruyeres, took the Folie Douce route to Peclet and pushed through an ungroomed Christine to reach Moraine. On the whole Orelle part, we only lost a couple of minutes because of a sudden nosebleed on Face Nord (quick elevation changes), lingering fog on the peaks, medic training at Peyron and a brief breakdown of Orelle Caron. No queues at Pionniers or Trois Vall\u00e9es, so we made it to Mont Vallon around 12:10, about ten minutes ahead of schedule. As noon hit, however, we knew things would get more complicated, as the remaining half was at much lower altitude and the heat was starting to become very real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We pushed through the long Combe du Vallon piste, and were already thinking about lunch in the Pas du Lac gondola when the Ours piste hit us like a brick. The snow was like rubber, the slope felt more uphill than downhill and the only way to make progress was pushing like crazy. After what felt like hours, we finally reached Mottaret, dripping in sweat and cursing about taking Ours in spring. Perhaps choosing Campagnol and Plan des Mains would have been the better choice. Even if slightly slower, it would certainly have been less tiring.<\/p>\n\n\n

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After a fifteen minutes cooling-down and lunch session in Pas du Lac, we sped to Chanrossa, now almost 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Chapelets and Ariondaz fell quickly, but then we hit Gravelles, which posed similar uphill challenges as Ours and made us lose valuable minutes. We pushed through to Aiguille du Fruit, easily found Cospillot due to our Sunday preparations and dropped into the piste to Grandes Combes. This corner of the resort was totally unknown to us, but it certainly left its impression. First, an unfortunate manoeuvre by myself made Lukas crash right in front of the start of the lift. Then, after suffering though the slowest lift we had ever taken, a buckle of Lukas\u2019s backpack got stuck in the seat and got ripped off at the top. Luckily, we survived with just a fall and a missing buckle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now certainly on our way back, we took Grangettes instead of the closed Tovets (hiking over indoor cobblestones and finding the piste again added some time compared to taking Tovets) and picked up the checkpoints of Le Praz, La Tania and M\u00e9ribel Village. We were still nicely ahead of schedule, but our legs started to become seriously tired due to the heavy snow in the lower villages. We suffered through more slush down into M\u00e9ribel, over Roc de Fer and down Verdet to the start of the Saint-Martin Express. By now, we knew we would complete the challenge, but still had to make it to the village in one piece. Almost everyone else took the gondola down into the resort, but we had to persevere through the heavy slush. No shortcuts on an Escapade.<\/p>\n\n\n

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At 16:12, we were back at the Saint-Martin Express with 48 minutes to spare before its closure. The rest of the route back home was familiar and before we knew it, we water-skied into Le Bettaix, where we were greeted by our families and could enjoy a well-deserved celebration drink. All-in-all, a great day of skiing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would we do it again? Sure, but maybe not on a summer day in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michiel<\/p>\n\n\n

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