Evasion Mont Blanc - Megeve/St Gervais/Combloux/Les Contamines - 24/25

A snowHead

Thought I'd kick off a new thread for this winter.
Starting with the newest lift to enter service.

The Valléen - not officialy a ski lift, it is public transport! But it does connect directly between the train station on le Fayet and the new lift to Bettex (still under construction)

I rode it the other day, these pics are from the remontees-mecaniques.net as they are better than mine

A snowHead

It's €2.50 a go each way. Annual and season passes available. It also works with a Mont Blanc Unlimited (Anuual) or a Evasion Mont Blanc (Anuual) pass.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Thanks @Idris. We hope to be over next month and try it out. That view from high over the Parc des Thermes looks quite something.

I don't know whether you saw my post on the weather thread responding to someone who posted a link seemingly created by bad AI which I thought would amuse you. It described the best black in Megeve as one running from the top of Aiguille Croche right down to the village. Characterising such a run as "challenging" would be something of an understatement!

I trust you will be on duty as usual this season.

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Looking forward to hearing what is going on this season.

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Thanks for setting up a new thread. We have booked Megève on a free cancellation for 26-31st December. Fingers crossed for decent snow or may have to do a plan b to 3V.

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@Moorzee10, I would hope 26 Dec isn't too risky. There will certainly be skiing even if the lower slopes don't have a good base.

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After all it is free

@LondonHawk, download the Y84 bus timetable.

@Idris, good pics. Somewhat disappointed however that they haven't built a big car park to support it rolling eyes

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@under a new name, one of the original presentations suggested there might be new parking the other side of the railway line and a footbridge giving access to the gondola. But it presumably wasn't part of the funding bid.

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@j b, my impression is that it may be a later stage. But a lot of money spent hoping that people will switch to slow trains for transfers. Seems to me.

You know it makes sense.

@under a new name I assume the rationale was more around the day visitor market, than airport transfers. But 1h45 from Geneva (1h15 from Annemasse) is a long trip. There has been talk of the gondola encouraging SNCF to schedule some faster train services, missing many intermediate stations, but that won't be easy with a single track line where trains in different directions can only pass at stations.

In terms of airport transfers, many of the transfer companies serving Chamonix have always been prepared to take bookings to Le Fayet station and I guess more might as demand increases. And that is about an hour.

Of course what it has done is enhance Le Fayet as a place to base a holiday. There seem to be several new apartment developments and Plan B from Chamonix have bought the old Hotel Terminus and are doing it up, I think aiming to open for the coming season.

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

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@porkpiefox, we have met people recently who regularly used it as a base for the reasons you give. I guess they simply weren't making enough to fund a renovation which was becoming more necessary. And its value for redevelopment by someone else increased massively once the new gondola was confirmed.

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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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@Idris, Not an area I know well... so you have the "Petit parking" maybe 70 spaces? and the "Parking du Stade", a good 5 minute walk in boots with skis, ~180 spaces? I'm still thinking someone's missed a trick??

(I mean, I can see us using it coming down from Cham, if I was reasonably sure I could get parked...)

And I do get your train comment, but 1hr45 from Geneva (as @jb says)?

I'm struggling with the temporal arithmetic and the appeal. OK, transfer buses from Geneva centre, maybe?

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@under a new name, yes there is parking just beyond the bridge under the railway leading to the casino. I think part is designated long stay and the rest short. But it isn't close, the road is off the roundabout beyond the one which has the new gondola over it. In fact last season they ran a park and ride service up to the Bettex lift from there, to make up for the significant loss of parking by the lift due to the building site.

I think it would most likely take a good 15 minutes walking in ski boots, too much. Obviously they could run a shuttle bus though. The presentation I referred to above appeared to indicate parking closer to the station on the other side which would be a realistic walk with a footbridge.

I wonder if companies like FlixBus which already run Geneva to Chamonix might introduce a service timed to drop off at Le Fayet around 9 am?

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@j b, re Flixbus, I can well imiagine, not just as they often stop at the Gare to consolidate passengers, etc.

After all it is free

Have come back from an inter-season visit to StG which was very enjoyable. Some days we had to dodge the showers but others were glorious sunshine and the perfect temperature for walking, and we had fun finding some new walks that could be done as a loop from town or making use of the new year-round navette service to St Nicolas. Most of the cafes, bars and restaurants were open as usual, just the odd one had a sign saying they were closed for their annual break (I don't know whether they plan to do that in rotation).

Our visit was timed to include the annual Foire Agricole which got the good weather and attracted big and jolly crowds. There weren't as many cows as the previous time we saw it, apparently there is some veterinary infection in France which has put some farms under livestock movement restrictions, but they still managed to get enough entries for the prize classes.

We discovered that the previous weekend there was a similar but smaller Foire aux Moutons in the village of Servoz along the Chamonix valley. It would previously have been hard to access, but the new gondola made it a doddle to get down to Le Fayet to catch the little train there. There was a motive for going to it, my wife had bought a beautiful scarf from a craft fair in StG last March to accessorise the dress she was planning to wear to my nephew's wedding. It was great for that, and got worn for multiple going-out events during the year until she got a stain on it and decided to give it a wash: to paraphrase the immortal Monty Python it became an ex-scarf. She tracked down the maker on Facebook and discovered that she would have a stall at the Servoz Foire, which was how we found out about it, why we went, and a successful replacement mission.

While that lower gondola is working well (and quietly, as @Jonny996 reported above) work continues on the one up to Bettex, and I hope it is on track to open for the ski season. At the town level things look good, they have cabled the new section and were dismantling the scaffolding structure used for splicing the wires. Gondolas were being delivered and parked in the storage shed. Some fit out was continuing, including the ski locker room at lower level. The only question is with the upper station in Bettex where the new construction looks far from complete from the webcams, but I guess if the pulley gear is fine they can get on with the safety tests which probably need a while.

One of the main reasons for us going at this time was to be around for the installation of new electric heating. There had previously been communal heating from an oil-burning boiler in the basement, but the coprop had decided to decommission that when it became impossible to upgrade the flu which was degrading. Everyone had to remove the old radiators from their apartments and replace them with electric heating. We were very lucky that one of the permanent residents offered to get ours done as an add-on to hers, and the contractors seem to have done a good job though we will have to do some more redecoration around the location of the old radiators. It will be interesting to see what it does to costs, as occasional visitors we have paid our share of year-round communal heating and will now just pay for heating while there - or when it comes on to maintain a low frost- and condensation-free temperature in cold spells.

And then home, with the gondola again making it easy to catch a train to the airport. The plane was delayed though, EasyJet came up with an excuse new to me: "incoming aircraft grounded due to an infestation of flies". So a pretty late arrival home.

@j b, Thank you for interesting read and local update. Where did you get the train from back to GVA?

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@Moorzee10, the new Valleen gondola goes directly to the railway station in Le Fayet*. If you look carefully at the second of @Idris's photos in the first post you will see the overhead power wires for the trains behind the lower gondola station, the actual station building is to the right out of picture.

As discussed above it isn't a fast route to/from Geneva, it is mostly single track so trains have to wait in some stations for the trains going the other way to cross and it takes a longer route than the motorway because it goes via Roche-sur-Foron which is the junction to Annecy. But there is an hourly service from Geneva centre (Cornavin) taking about 1h40 that runs all year; sometimes you need to change at Annemasse but it doesn't change the timing. And you need to allow time for the train to/from the airport. It used to be the case that the problem was getting between Le Fayet and the main town, about 3km and 250m elevation away, but now that is simple with the gondola running until 8.30pm.

In the ski season there are other more efficient transfer options, such as AlpyBus shared transfers direct from the airport (taking not much more than an hour).

[*On the timetable they call it St Gervais les Bains Le Fayet].

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I noticed today on the webcam signs of definite progress on the new upper gondola station in Bettex. Having looked for weeks as if there wasn't much more than concrete footings and a few slabs, the last few days have seen construction of a steel frame above that and attachment of wall panels. It is still awaiting a roof but the rafters are in place and it definitely looks like a building.

Deadline for completion is only 6 weeks away (start of ski season) which seems to me tight. However the bit where the gondolas actually arrive (including pulleys and presumably motor) is well ahead of the rest, so it is possible they can run it even if part of the building isn't yet opened.

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Can see testing in progress earlier today

You know it makes sense.

@devilabit, thanks, good that the testing has begun. Five weeks may be enough for that.

Since my post above they have put on at least part of the roof, but while internal fit out can start it will surely take several months. But as you say it might be usable, the Bettex ticket office is in the side of the building with the second gondola and was operational in the summer with temporary access stairs which for all I know may still be in place and provide a temporary entrance/exit for the new gondola up from town. However it looked from the webcam as if they have done some roof work on that side of the building too, which gives the possibility the inside was affected.

As your informant says, a challenge!

I take it the ticket offices in Le Chatelet are on the lower floor (below the gondola boarding level) alongside the new ski locker room which they were fitting out when we were there last month.

[Edit: thanks for the picture including a gondola running which appeared while I was writing the above reply. It looks as if the roof on the left hand side of the building is still being completed so fingers crossed. It also looks as if the new bit is going to have a ramp going up to gondola level, which perhaps can go temporarily into use with just rubber matting and some temporary lighting, plus screens to separate skiers off from the ongoing construction alongside].

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

Hopefully they also come up with a new way to manage queues for the top lift as the long queue out onto the piste has been a mess during the holidays in the last few years.

A snowHead

The French can sometimes get on with these things surprisingly quickly.

A snowHead

The French can sometimes get on with these things surprisingly quickly.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@Origen, yes we have been impressed by the organised way they have been getting on with the major construction project.

Even so I got the impression the new Valeen lift (the one from Le Fayet station up to town) was a few weeks later than planned, although they did (just) have it working in time for it to be the new autumn term transport for the schoolchildren going to the Lycee in Le Fayet. There isn't much room for slippage in December, they could drop the pre-season weekend opening (always very limited anyway) but it would be embarrassing to miss the scheduled opening for Christmas week and disastrous to miss New Year.

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I recall asking anxiously one summer about the opening of a new lift in Les Saisies - would it be open by Christmas? Little seemed to be happening out on the hill. That's when I learnt that the French "normalement" doesn't mean "normally". And yes, it was open for Christmas.

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As used in the sort of situation I described "normalement" is an expression suggesting a certain amount of optimism and there might be an unspoken "but....." at the end. And a hand gesture indicating that perhaps you wouldn't put a huge amount of money on it.

After all it is free · The crane at Bettex will be removed on the 28/29/30 of November.

The crane at Bettex will be removed on the 28/29/30 of November.

@devilabit, that does sound as if all the roof and wall panels that need hoisting in will be complete. And presumably they plan as part of the work to remove all the contractor's temporary buildings so that the piste reaches the gondola station.

Of course the question is whether those dates are subject to @Origen's hand gesture caveats.

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Hi guys, I'm going Evasion/Chamonix area, using St Gervais as base. We're doing 9 days starting the 12 of Feb and planning to do some days in Evasion & Cham region.

It is the first time I'll be heading at the time of French holidays and saw that it would be the South's week off... Do you know if it gets busy around these particular resort?

Tks!

Help!!

Evasion Mont Blanc - Megeve/St Gervais/Combloux/Les Contamines - 24/25

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