Courchevel greens vs Blanchot Meribel

A snowHead

Hello everyone!

I'm in the middle of a ski holiday in Meribel and am LOVING everything about Blanchot - I'm learning loads on the variety of gradients and camber (my fave bit is at the end of the Altiport lift, up to the Rhodos lift station).

The weather is nice and my group want to hit up Courchevel. Does anyone have experience of both and might know which runs might be similar? Specifically, the steepest bit of Blanchot is 15% (I'm told) and is still way over my head. I don't want to hit too much of that - it won't be as fun and I won't learn as much (I don't learn well when over my head).

Any recommendations would be very welcome Eh oh!

Thanks in advance!

A snowHead

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Bien fait! Sorry can't help much with Courchevel greens but when I was last there (long time ago) there was a fantastic green slope with a lift up each side, near the altiport. Consistent gradient and the width of several football pitches. Are you having lessons? Your instructor could point you in the right direction.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@STyler, yes, the area that @pam w mentioned is extremely similar in gradient to the Altiport area of Meribel. It's the Jardin Alpin gondola, Bellecote, Altiport and Ferme drag lifts in the Pralong area on the piste map. Very similar terrain.

My two questions would be though, how are you going to get there and can you use a drag lift? Have you been up the Altiport drag in Meribel or only the chair? If you can't use drags, there's no point in going. It's also unrealistic for you to ski across to Pralong in C1850 from Meribel if you only want 15% slopes so you'd have to take a taxi to the C1850 Croissette. Better still, get the taxi driver to drop you in the Crystal 2000 hotel car park where you can walk straight onto the Pralong slopes.

You CAN ski to Pralong on flat blue paths and greens via the Loze chair from the Meribel Altiport area (Col de la Loze blue and Loz Est/Lac Bleu greens all the way to the Jardin Alpin) but there'd be some poling involved and I've no idea if you'd go the right way without knowing the area. A couple of the junctions are not super obvious which is the green run so you'll have to check the signposts.

You'll need to Register first of course.

@STyler, for you to get over and back from courchevel, you will need to go on a couple of blue runs, but they are fairly straightforward.
you will need to take the loze chair, on the right hand side towards the altiport.
then go on the col de loze blue run, its quite wide so even if you do find it a bit steep at first, you can put lots of side to side turns in.
this leads in to a green "loze est" which takes you down to courchevel 1850, there are then several nice green runs around this area.
verdons gondola will take you to a couple of good green runs around the family zone

then on the return, go through the centre of 1850 and down to the "plantrey" chair, take "arolles" blue run to
"dou des lanches " chair back to the top of col de loze, then there is the blue "boulevard (bld) de la loze" back to where you started.

hope this helps

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Should have mentioned also that you need to get home. There are no greens from Courchevel to Meribel, the links are all blue. You would have to take Chenus gondola or Plantrey chair, Loze Est green, Arolles blue, Dou des Lanches chair and the Boulevard blue before you hit greens back to Meribel centre. Do NOT take Pic Bleu at the top of Dou des Lanches, it's a very purple shade of blue snowHead

After all it is free

Great info, thanks everyone! We were going to get the gondola - cable car over and back...

Fair point, would be a good option normally. But the Saulire cable car is closed for the season so you can't download on that from the Saulire Express on the way there, you'll have to punt against the flow to get to Vizelle. And you'll have to walk uphill from Vizelle to either Pas du Lac or Saulire Express to get home.

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Oh shoot, I didn't realise the cable car was closed down. With the high winds lately lots of high stuff has been closed, we assumed that's why. The plan was always only to do it if I have a gondola /cable car /other such lift option as an escape route. Thanks for the heads up!

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

No, they broke it last year and spent all their money on the world cup this year... so it's in next year's budget rolling eyes

snow reports

It's why it's marked with a dotted line on this year's piste map - there in spirit but not in body Laughing

I love the Courchevel green network and agree it is at least the equal of Blanchot in Méribel for some of the best extremely mellow terrain in the Alps (and therefore the world) in terms of width, sense of distance travelled and just enough terrain variability (with better, but more expensive, piste-side restaurants). We have been going to the 3Vs for many years and alternate between La Tania and Méribel as bases. I endorse everything Raceplate/terrygasson have written as to navigation, but with two additional notes:

* from time to time Boulevard de la Loze is shut due to winds/avalanche risk, at which point you are in a spot of bother if you’re already up there and your only route home is Pic Blue, which really should not be a blue at all (I suspect is is classified as such to provide a “blue” route on the map). Check in advance on the 3Vs app.
* Arolles (needed to get down to the Dou de Lanches chair near the top of the La Tania bubble) is a little steep (but reasonably wide) in parts. The alternative would be to download in 1850 on the La Praz bubble then take the Foret chair back up.

Also, it is worth looking at Open Ski Map which will show you the gradient profile of most every piste in any resort. For my many sins, I am affiliated with the world’s most nervous skier that no amount of private instruction, CBT, or medicinal genepi shots can cure. I spend a *lot* of time studying gradients.

You know it makes sense.

Thanks so much everyone, this advice had been invaluable. I've decided to stick to what I know, today. Tbh what I really want is to practice and I'm getting the best progress ever on Blanchot. Today is a bit of a body imposed rest day it turns out so not the day to go adventuring.

I don't know if you've tried it already @dyrlac but I'm finding the Fatmap app helpful for getting gradients on a piste (sort of, annoyingly it's missing the top of blanchot)

Help!!

Courchevel greens vs Blanchot Meribel

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