 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I was driving along the A9 back to Geneva from Zermatt yesterday. It was nice to see the 4 Valley’s Rhône Valley facing slopes all looking white. Looks like next week could be tasty as well.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Good news today with the symbolic first spade in the ground for the new lift running between Verbier’s Essert/Planards and the summit of Savoleyres. It’ll be built over the next two summers.
https://verbier4vallees.ch/en/media/press-releases/Work-starts-on-the-Esserts-Savoleyres-Telemixte-hybrid-lift_ptd_1134037
The finished route will comprise a hybrid of 10-person gondolas and chairs, replacing the bus from Carrefour to the Chalet d’Adrien roundabout and the ancient gondola up from there to Savoleyres. There will be a new run from Carrefour down to Esserts.
What’s not clear from the press release is how people going from La Tzoumaz to Ruinettes will get from Esserts up to Mayentzet, or even if that’ll be possible. The topographical map shows that Esserts and Mayentzet are both at around 1730m, but traversing this would be on the flat for about 600 metres, which is quite a long way to pole it.
In recent years, the run down to Carrefour-Mayentzet from Savoleyres has often seen the avalanche gate shut, forcing skiers to turn right and ski down to the road above the learner slopes. You then either get the bus up to Carrefour, or continue across the learner slopes, across another road, then down through a narrow route through chalets to a drag lift up to Mayentzet via a rope-pull at the top.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@LaForet, This is a real game changer – particularly for those of us who base ourselves in Nendaz and have quite a treck at present to the La Tzoumaz sector. We were discussing this on our 4 valleys whatsapp group when you posted and I was saying similar things to you.
I can see where the bottom and middle lift stations are. You ski down from Les Ruinettes and the new piste will take you to the left of Carrefour Restaurant and to the left of Rte de Golf. The piste runs through what is now woodland and you reach the lift station before the road Chemin des Esserts (with the chalets on the other side). The middle lift station is then just the other side of the higher section of Route de Golf, close to where the bus now picks you up (I think that is where the photo in the article is taken from?).
All great news. The lift time up at just over 12 minutes compares amazingly with the current: wait for bus, take bus, get the slowest gondola in the alps.
As you say though the problem is getting back. If the Planards-Carrefour link is open then it is no problem. You can ski round to the Mayentzet chair as at present. However, as you also say that route seems to be closed more often than it is open. The avalanche risk of the face above that piste is always going to be high. I am not sure there is much (anything) you can do about that. So it might be you ski down to the new mid-station and get the bus back to Carrefour as at present (the other route you describe probably takes longer and is not the most interesting stretch of skiing to say the least). What I would love would be for them to continue the piste down to the lower lift station (again it is through woods not disturbing any chalets). From the bottom lift station you could then have a relatively short drag lift running alongside the new piste to take you up to Carrefour.
I am looking forward to finding out.
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Verbier at 1600 m today
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| LaForet wrote: |
| You then either get the bus up to Carrefour, or continue across the learner slopes, across another road, then down through a narrow route through chalets to a drag lift up to Mayentzet via a rope-pull at the top. |
This is the only way back up. I don’t understand why the new lift goes from the top of Les Esserts and not from Carrefour as that would solve the problem.
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Anyway first world problems. First proper dump of the season for Western CH. Another one on Thursday night as is forecast and we’ll be skiing powder into town at the weekend
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| BobinCH wrote: |
| LaForet wrote: |
| You then either get the bus up to Carrefour, or continue across the learner slopes, across another road, then down through a narrow route through chalets to a drag lift up to Mayentzet via a rope-pull at the top. |
This is the only way back up. I don’t understand why the new lift goes from the top of Les Esserts and not from Carrefour as that would solve the problem. |
 Definitely first world problems but I can’t help finding it interesting.
The lift station being at Carrefour would certainly be better for me. I wonder if they didn’t want to put it there because then the lift line would run closer to the area that is regarded as avalanche prone and which results in the Plannards-Carrefour track being closed so often. As we saw in Zermatt in 2018 when that avalanche took out several pylons and the Kumme bottom lift station in the far north of the ski area, snow is no respecter of lift infrastructure. Despite the old lift having safely sat there for 36 years when they built the new lift infrastructure they put the pylons quite a bit further up the (non-avalanche) side of the gully. Maybe with the bottom lift station at Les Esserts they think a Les Esserts to Les Planards line is less at risk from avalanche.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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I dug up the original public presentation from Téléverbier from way back and if it’s the route described there, then if you’re arriving by lift at Esserts (1725m) from Savoleyres, you’ll either have to walk ~300m up the road to Carrefour (1755m, so 30m higher), or there will still be a navette running the current route that will connect the two (rated at a pretty low 100 people/hour capacity). So this is effectively a missing link, if you’re on an excursion from La Tzoumaz up to Ruinettes etc., or returning and want to transit via Mayentzet to get back to Nendaz, Siviez etc.
The top of the drag lift to Carrefour will be shifted to the right about 7m and those coming up the drag from central Verbier will loop ‘round to the right and back underneath the drag in a tunnel, onto a new piste that will run down to Esserts.
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