Three Valleys 2014/2015: Méribel, Courchevel, Val Thorens, Les Menuires

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@dode,can they not hire a car and drive?

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@ansta1, dunno if they have considered that, only going by facebook updates. Know they had a flight booked that they missed. Rebooked for a later flight and missed that too. All other later flights now appear full and cheapest flight option seems to be flying to Edinburgh via London. Not heard from them since 10.30pm last nite. I'll suggest hiring a car via FB.

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It's gotta be cheaper. Pick it up from the airport and drive to Calais or lille.

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We left Morzine mid morning and took hours to get through Les Gets, Megeve and down to Albertville due to various accidents and incidents. At Albertville we avoided the autoroute because we could hear the traffic reports and only joined it for the very last little bit into Moutiers. We arrived in La Tania around 3.30am the audi quattro with chains on the front made light work of the conditions. In resort we were told no one else had got trough for ages. Friends told us Police had simply stopped folk going up the mountain and they had to overnight in a church! We saw no sign of road blocks though and no other traffic on the last bit.

The skiing is good today though! Very Happy

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Made it back from VT this afternoon after transfer coach was cancelled last night. A few hours sleep in the sports centre but fortunately Bens Bus managed to run one which left at 5.00am this morning. The queues of cars heading up from Moutieres was crazy. I had managed to swap flight from last night to 12.00pm today. Made it to Geneva in plenty time for the flight. Very relieved to get back to the UK after what could have been a real nightmare!

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Interested to hear from anyone who was travelling with Esprit ski to/from Chambery or GVA - how did they handle the transfers on Sunday?

After all it is free

We have made it back yesterday after Christmas in Meribel with Ski Olympic.

The snow on piste was fine up high but there were limited runs and lifts open. However, still enough to keep us skiing under blue skies all week and we had Saturday to ski in the most wonderful 50cm plus of fresh snow. The lifts out of Chaudanne were closed above the mid station but there was still plenty of fun to be had on the lower slopes.

The journey down the mountain was very good as the ploughs and gritters must have been working through the night on Saturday. The traffic in Moutiers heading up was very heavy and it was as a standstill on the motorway. Our journey through to Grenoble was fine but the airport itself and the flights were chaos. We had about 1 1/2hrs delay on our flight and had to wait 2hrs at Gatwick for baggage so all in all we got off very lightly considering the conditions and what others have been unfortunate to experience.

Once you do get there the 3V will be great this week Toofy Grin

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Hey guys, We got home from VT 3am this morning. We were out with Crystal on the Eurostar but they never even attempted to get us down the mountain Saturday to get to the train station. I am convinved if they left enough time we would have made it to Mouties for our 10.20pm train. Anyway they put us on a Sunday night flight from Lyon but tried to fly the ski train passengers to East Midlands and then coach us down to Gatwick, then another coach to Kings X!!. After some serious high blood pressure we were put on the Stansted flight and my Dad dug out at Midnight to pick us up.

I am interested to hear anyone else who went out with Crystal Xmas week as nearly everyone I spoke to said they had been told a string of lies about replacement flights etc. I accept the delays due to the weather, but the constant lies were not good enough and an honest answer was nowhere to be found.

Also reports of Crystal putting people in homeless shelters which meant taking beds from the homeless Saturday night!.

I have heard nothing but great reports from all the other TO's!

Did Crystal lose the plot on this one????

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Oh all you people in the Alps this week. I am SOOOOOOO jealous. You will have the most amazing conditions once it brightens up and the snow in VT was waist deep when we left yesterday

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@chrisrawles, Hi, I noticed that Crystal were accepting comments on their FB page - other operators too canny for that! Must have been very frustrating that they couldn't get you down only to Moutiers station.
I think the prob is people look for a good deal on price, so TOs have to trim their margins, which means no slack when needed in extraordinary events. They also pay peanuts ands get young keen lively staff who are great in most conditions but don't have the experience or authority to manage a crisis situation. But most people are not going to look at a TO and pay a premium for something that might inconvenience them only once, if ever, in many years of skiing...
Sympathy for people stuck in schools, gyms, hospitals, even, but buses (and drivers!)can't be magicked up from nowhere - there is not a massive redundancy of buses and drivers waiting around for a rare event...

Looks like blue skies in 3V today. So the rare (for Europe) bluebird powder day

You know it makes sense.

Always great reports from the Man on the Spot. Ray Lambert, here:

http://raylambert.pagesperso-orange.fr/snow/index.htm

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Skiing in the immediate vicinity of La Tania is quite variable. The blue run down from the gondola was very icy in places yesterday and many folk were struggling. It gets a lot of traffic and by mid afternoon has been well scrapped by boarders. Those of my party who have been over to Courchevel say the skiing is better there. As @boardiac, says there are blue skies and brilliant sunshine today.

A snowHead

anyone here had experience/can give opinions on Basecamp season courses?

A snowHead

Blue skies and great snow conditions today, but very busy, and very cold

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Heading to Val Thorens on Saturday. What are the on piste conditions like at the moment? Is that big snowfall holding up well during the busy week?

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@jacknottm, I would say that snowfall will last the season now. We left VT on Sunday AM and it was waist deep in places!

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Well four days of skiing done so far, based in La Tania as usual. Is has been cold, but clear skies everyday with good conditions in Courchevel especially up on the higher slopes. Today being New Years Day it has been much quieter with no queues to speak of. Was over toward Les Menuires yesterday with some good snow in the slopes there, but the usual icy run down to Meribel from La Tania - as least we did that early so it was not too bad. The blue into La Tania has been very icy and we have used the green and then the shut red to get back to base instead. There was a nasty fall at the bottom of the blue last night with the helicopter needed to take the poor soul away.

Snow should hold up well across the 3V for next week as it has been cold, until today when a bit warmer. Some snow is forecast for Saturday night.

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@chrisb, The home red is skiable then? I'm out there in a weeks time and would prefer the red to ski into our chalet but have noted the official website is showing it as closed.

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Skiing at Courcheval the last couple of days has been good. As @chrisb, says the blue into La Tania is really rather nasty and lots of folk have taken tumbles. I think it is only classed as a blue because there are few alternatives to get back to the resort!

After all it is free

@chrisb, good to read you have been getting some good skiing in. Enjoy the end of your week and safe journey home. Happy new year!

Just got back from a days skiing. Staying in VT and made our way over to Courcheval 1850 at the Verdons gondola and back, all nice and leisurely. Conditions are quite good but getting thin in places. Quite a few runs with plenty of ice in the high traffic areas. Took pluviomètre back into our apartment and there were quite a few thin patches with grass poking through and a great selection of moguls which is standard for late in the arvo. Took a nice gouge out of one of my skis sliding over a rock that had poked through on piste Shocked

Still a great days skiing in good weather. Could just do with a sprinkle to thicken it all up a bit so the runs are in great nick the whole day.

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Thanks for the updates guys - much appreciated snowHead

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If you mean actual ice your edges will make f-all difference.

You must mean polished, hard snow pack....edges can make a difference.

Ice != ice

You know it makes sense.

I'm not talking boiler plate/ black ice. More the ice you get once all the surface snow has been pushed off of areas of the run. In some cases edges did f all. Still ice in my opinion. Early in the morning everything is fine and dandy, just gets a little bit slippy later on especially for the more inexperienced skier and there were plent of them about trying to get home. A small dump would solve all this.

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@TheDoctor, How is the green into La Tania? I am arriving on Saturday with a nervous skier in tow.

A snowHead

@TheDoctor, you mean hard pack. Sorry to be an utter pedant.

A snowHead

@Corduroy Sorry didn't get that low down on the Courcheval side only went down to 1850. All of 1850 was brilliant and lovely. Some great skiing. I know it's a different valley but we were in St Martin de Belville 2 days ago which is 1450 and it was great getting there. Some great skiing. Combining these 2 things I think you you will be fine down at 1400. The Bashers are doing great work spreading it about.

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@TheDoctor, Sorry. Thanks for the updates Very Happy

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@Corduroy, based on chrisb's earlier post the green certainly seems to have been open. I would imagine that late in the day it will be rough round the many bends on it, based on my experience a few years back. But if you get an answer from somebody actually there, rather than me just speculating, they'll probably tell you I am wrong!

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Been in les menuires for the past week. Skiing was excellent from last Saturday when we skied off piste with q guide all day with the white fluffy stuff flying over my head- one of the best days ever (and most.tiring). The snow has held up all week and only really started to turn brown/icy today. Val thorens is getting a bit busy today as people headed higher for good snow. The pistes down from car on and grand fond where excellent and still lots skiable at lower levels although it was very icy this afternoon back to les menuires.

Skied yesterday in meribel but conditions not as good as LM or VT. When the temps are low at night the canons do great jobs. Currently 3 degrees and drizzling in LM. But snow predicted Tomorrow.

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Just got back from Meribel. Conditions in Meribel in my opinion worst in the 3V. Motterat and above good in the mornings but a lot of hard pack in the afternoon. Below Motterat mostly good in the morning with a few patches of grass and rock showing, late morning/afternoon all runs bar Truit into central lift area, hard pack, exposed grass and some stones. Courchaval excellent above 1850. Below into 1450, La Paz, and La Tania some exposed areas of grass/rocks turning to hard pack late morning in high traffic areas but definitely skiable. VT best by far of the 3V! Excellent conditions all week. With only a few patches of hard pack, and stones appearing on busy pistes later in the day at the end of the week. These conditions extend all the way down to Les Mens with only the runs to StMdb getting iffy from late morning onwards. In reality I've seen better and skied a lot worse, plenty to keep you very busy all week but a title more regular sprinkling of snow would be the icing on the cake. Hope this helps but in the end it's one persons opinion and one persons's black is another blue etc, etc... Very Happy

After all it is free

Just got back home on the snowtrain Sad

Spent Saturday morning skiing over to Les Menuires 1850. Change over day and the sun was out but the condition of the pistes was horrible. Coming down most of the runs to the Sunny Express all the surface snow had been brushed aside to leave a few moguls in the middle but plenty of hard pack and ice which lead to some interesting slips. Also plenty of frozen corduroy to rattle the teeth. Coming down the red alpage was a massive mistake. Hadn't been bashed and was pretty brown in places. Was like skiing on rubble just made of ice clumps of snow. Not fun. Had enough of slipping around with no grip we all called it a day fairly early on heading back to VT were things had warmed up a bit but still plenty of hard pack to skate around on.
It started to snow just before we got on the bus to Moutiers but not enough to make a difference. Really needs a second dump to make the skiing truly enjoyable like it was earlier in the week.

@Theluji, @Bigdog, @TheDoctor, Thanks for the updates folks Smile

Conditions sound "exciting"

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Just got home after flight back from GVA. Easyjet on time both out bound and in bound into NCL (well maybe 5 mins late into NCL).

It was raining a lot last night in La Tania and very spring like by the time we got to GVA.

Ironically the best run of the week was on the last day, the red into Le Praz which had snow cannon snow on it, but soft because of the warm temps on Saturday (7 degrees at 1300). My youngest wanted to "have a go on the new lift" so we went that way on Saturday afternoon.

Runs that had snow cannons had held up ok, but where there was only natural snow it was brown and gravel, even above 1850. Hopefully the rain in La tania last night was snow higher up. Although I could not see any snow on the trees up towards Col de Loz they were blasting snow this morning, so it must have had a reasonable snow fall on the Sauliere.

@puplett, the red past the chalets was "closed" all week. I just went down the green and then cut down the red towards the end to go to the gondola and avoid the end of the blue, especially after the person had to be airlifted off the slope. Bearing in mind how close to the road he / she would have been (it was just beside the free drag lift) they must have been in a bad way to be lifted from there. There was still snow on the red yesterday, but after the rain I am not sure how much will be there now.

@SteveM, Happy New Year to you as well, lets hope the snow returns in the next few days

Help!!

Three Valleys 2014/2015: Méribel, Courchevel, Val Thorens, Les Menuires

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