TR Les Menuires 14/01 - 21/01/23

A snowHead

Hi all

Got back from Les Menuires yesterday so thought a trip report might be useful!

We flew Bristol to Geneva with Easyjet which was fine and parked in the Long Stay outside of Bristol Terminal, you might not want to do that if you have a lot of luggage as the bus doesn't seem to be running and it's a long walk dragging suitcases and board bag! Ski's and board bags were very slow coming out at Geneva and took about 45 minutes leaving only about 10 minutes for us to make our transfer.

Booked Bens Bus for the transfer which was easy although the coach was almost full so stowing luggage was a bit problamatic but the bus driver got it all on. Coming back the transfer bus didn't have a spare seat so one of our cases and a couple of others had to come inside the coach and were put on the steps by the toilet/mid exit door.

Arrived into Les Menuires about 6 pm so had time to get the apartment keys (rented through the Tourist Office) and trek up to the apartment. We had a 2 bedroom apartment in the Brelin building accessed using the Brelin pedestrian lift. Beware just how difficult it is lugging everything up loads of steps and lifts to get to the building- it was hard work! Great location though, walk onto the La Violette piste to access Roc 1 and the Menuires chair. You can ski/board back to the apartment quite easily unless a complete beginner.

I was quite surprised to find a bar in the middle of the Sherpa shop in the Brelin, never seen that before Very Happy

Now for the conditions and the skiing/snowboarding!

First 3 days there was a lot of snow. Don't think I've seen that much since going to Norway! I was struggling a bit to remember how to board (missed 3 years due to Covid) and with the bad visibility we only managed half days from Sun - Tues which was a shame. Weather improved massively for the 2nd half of the week, Plenty of powder to be found and clear and sunny which was great.

In terms of the ski area, we didn't get out of Les Menuires. The links were either closed or advised against at the beginning of the week so we stayed where we were.

We made good use of the pistes Montagnette and Boyes/Gaston to get me back up to speed. Really enjoyed Montagnette for a green and even La Violette (managed the flat sections ok on this one).

Mont de la chambre and 3 marches are great blue pistes, loved doing those but absolutely hated Grand Lac. On a snowboard, the flat and slightly uphill sections on Grand Lac come after steeper sections and I just couldn't keep up enough speed to get over, queue lots of walking for me! Loved the whole of the Pointe de la Masse side. You can easily avoid the steeper sections on the blue Vallons run and the view is spectacular. Signs are a bit confusing but we found that on both sides, directions tend to point you towards certain lifts rather than using the name of the run so we did have to stop and check where we were going a few times. At one point we ended up on Bettex by mistake. 2/3 of the run is lovely but the narrow flat path in the middle is almost completely impossible on a snowboard.

We had a lovely take away pizza from the place by the Sherpa on the last night but other than that, didn't eat out anywhere. Seemed a bit expensive to us and we don't mind self catering anyway. Good choice of groceries in the Carrefour and we did get a few pastries from the patisseries.

We will definitely be back but I think we'll be choosing a different apartment block!

Help!!

TR Les Menuires 14/01 - 21/01/23

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