 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi,
I'm trying to get a few days in Val d before moving on to Val thorens, is there any way I can ski it????.
I'm planning to use a rucksack instead of a case for the trip regardless.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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You can buy ski specific maps which show touring routes on them, your best bet would be to buy said map and see if there are any trails over to the 3 valleys.. However I can't imagine the route would be easy even if it existed. There would be lots of back country to undertake which would have its risks. The trip in a car would take around 45 mins to an hour so by ski over mountains I can't imagine it would be possible in a day.
Best of luck. 
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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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Consult a map (eg this one). Shows a long trip across high mountains and low valleys with no lift support, I estimate ten miles in straight line from the edge of the Tignes and Val d'Isere pistes to the edge of the Three Valleys.
I would suggest finding another method of changing resorts.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Didn't Graham Bell do something similar for High Altitude a couple of years back 
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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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From te Leisse chair on the Grand Motte you can access the Leisse valley, this takes you behind the Grande Motte and Grande Casse mountains and you can get to the Ponte de la Rechasse, from here you can access the col de Vanoise (about 600m of climbing) and the refuge Felix Faure and ski down to the top of the Pralognan lifts. From Pralognan you have 1200m of climbing to reach the Courchevel lift system.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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By road it is about 34 miles. I would estimate by skiing over the mountains it will be at least 20miles or 32 km. The route has to cross the Paradiski area.
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davidof,
Cool how long did it take you?
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| phillip33 wrote: |
davidof,
Cool how long did it take you? |
Hi Phillip, I wouldn't do it myself, seems like madness to me. I've skied the Grande Casse / Pralognan section which is enough  .
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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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600m climbing with a heavy pack sounds like hard work......even if all the relevant lifts are open. Maybe a tad dangerous given current avalanche levels. Sounds like a challenging trip for those up for such challenges!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Can it be done on blues and the odd easy red?
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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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| Quote: |
By road it is about 34 miles
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 from Val d'Isere to Val Thorens are you kidding? More like 70-80 miles and best part of 2 hours even in good conditions! Skiing it would be great fun, going from col de palet at tignes down towards champagny le haut is doable in half a day, then you could get a bus to brides les bains for the gondola to meribel...
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Colin B, the route described by altis looks to be all reds to me
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You know it makes sense.
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| Quote: |
from Val d'Isere to Val Thorens are you kidding? More like 70-80 miles and best part of 2 hours even in good conditions! Skiing it would be great fun, going from col de palet at tignes down towards champagny le haut is doable in half a day, then you could get a bus to brides les bains for the gondola to meribel...
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This is more like what I had in mind, a mix of skiing marked pistes and local buses, it turns out that theres three of us making the trip so it might be a taxi all the way!
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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There used to be a company called "Skiez 12 Vallees", who lead trips from Val Thorens to Val d'Isere. I think they took 6 days to complete the jouney, with a guide in tow.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Quote: |
a mix of skiing marked pistes and local buses
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hi tangowaggon, just to clarify the ski from tignes to champagny le haut is off-piste all the way so you need to know what you're doing...
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| halfhand wrote: |
| Didn't Graham Bell do something similar for High Altitude a couple of years back |
Yes - iirc the Vanoise Express wasn't working that year so you would need one less bit on the road now. On a related note wasn't there a plan some years ago to link Espace Killy to Paradiski which is now blocked by the national park? And is there anything stopping a link between Paradiski and 3V via Champagny?
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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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The route from Tignes around to La Plagne and then Les Arcs to Villaroger and back, is a famous one-day route that guides regularly take big groups with not that much off-piste experience (called the Tarentaise Tour but actually not needing skins).
It starts off from Val Claret (Via Col du Palet lift and straight on over the back and along the right side of the valley) using off-piste, and then a bit of poling/skating/skiing along a track to Chalet Le Laissoney (I think that's the name) and pre-arranged mini-buses to Champagny en Vanoise at the Back of the La Plagne ski area. However from Champagny it is only a short way on further down (and then up) the road to the bottom of the Courchevel Ski area at Le Praz. Le Praz to Val Thorens being all part of the 3 Valleys ski area. Should be easy in a day. Perhaps a possibility? Perhaps you could pre-arrange for one of the minibuses to take you the rest of the way to Le Praz.
Without a guide, though, you would need a lot of information on avalanche danger since the valley often gets avalanches (that was the route the group of British doctors got avalanched many years ago) so unless you have the expertise I would suggest a guide. Find out if a tour is scheduled for that day - they normally divide the group into different abilities with several guides. (It could be organized by the ski-school or the guides, I am not sure which, but I'm sure either could tell you.) Though of course, if there is high avalanche danger it will not run.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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tangowaggon ,As has been mentioned above Tignes to Champagny is off piste all the way and crosses some potentially dangerous terrain. You could use a mix of buses & pistes but it would take a while - bus to Bourg SM, funi to Les Arcs, ski Paradiski over to Champagny, bus to Bozel, bus to le Praz, ski 3V over to Val T. Don't think bus connections etc will make life particularly easy but if you split the journey in Bozel it would be fine...
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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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| agw wrote: |
| And is there anything stopping a link between Paradiski and 3V via Champagny? |
Its not really logical as the two are a long way diagonally across a valley. Would be pretty pointless really...
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Quote: |
is there anything stopping a link between Paradiski and 3V via Champagny?
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Champagny to courchevel as the crow flies is probably about 5x longer than the vanoise express between les arcs & la plagne so it would be a hell of an engineering problem. A bigger issue is surely these mega ski areas are already big enough. For either the 3V or Paradiski it already takes a full day to go from one end of the ski area to the other end and back again, so what would be the point of the link?
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I have been looking into doing a similar trip in the future.
Something along these lines.
3 Vallees, Paradiski, Espace Killy
I think this could be possible in 1 day!
Any help / suggestions would be appreciated.
Orelle (bottom of 4th valley)
Val Thorens
Mottaret
Courchevel
Courchevel 1300 - Le Praz
taxi 14Km to Champagny
La Plagne
Vanoisse Express
Les Arcs
Villaroger
Taxi 14Km to Tignes Les Breviere
Tignes
Val D'Isere
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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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You forgot:
taxi 164km Val d'Isere to Orelle
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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tangowaggon, this is an interesting one. A small group of us have done the hut tour over a few days and it was fun all the way round and back to Les Arcs. The off piste route from Tignes to Champagny is ok, but only if you have a good knowledge of off piste. There is a bus from Champagny to the link with the three valley system so you can do it in a day. Be sure to post the route you take if you do ski it. Much more fun than taking a taxi from Val.
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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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Roger C - thanks for the comments, I was expecting a whole load of trolling, so am pleasantly surprised to get a sensible reply.
As I have had some interest, I am going to stop hijacking this thread and start another.
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You know it makes sense.
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| offpisteskiing wrote: |
| agw wrote: |
| And is there anything stopping a link between Paradiski and 3V via Champagny? |
Its not really logical as the two are a long way diagonally across a valley. Would be pretty pointless really... |
I've heard talk of a proposal to install a lift from Bozel to Courchevel. A lift from Bozel to Champagny would surely be no more difficult. If this happened then Paradiski and 3V would be linked by lifts.
There is nothing intrinsically illogical about lifts being installed a long way diagonally across a valley; Difficult maybe, but not illogical.
The 'point' of installing such lifts would be to link the two biggest ski regions in the World so that people skiing in one region could also be able to ski in the other by travelling on the lifts(s) instead of road transport.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Eventually there would just be a single ski resort called 'France', and the lift pass would cost ten grand for 6 days.
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Poster: A snowHead
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paulio,
Given that a lot of skiers struggle to cover the whole area of the 3V or Paradiski or EK in a week why the need to make ever bigger links? There were proposals a while back to link Courchevel & Pralognan which would have meant putting lifts in the 'fringe' area of the National Park and ruining a great off-piste & touring area...
As for the Bozel-Courch link there is still a lot of resistance to this as many residents are concerned (rightly) about Bozel becoming a 'car-park'. Given that they can't even put on a decent regular bus service down here a lift does seem (hopefully) rather unlikely...
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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offpisteskiing, you're right, a lot of 3V locals live in Bozel so I think they want to keep it a local village for local people...
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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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| Mr Marmot wrote: |
| offpisteskiing wrote: |
| agw wrote: |
| And is there anything stopping a link between Paradiski and 3V via Champagny? |
Its not really logical as the two are a long way diagonally across a valley. Would be pretty pointless really... |
I've heard talk of a proposal to install a lift from Bozel to Courchevel. A lift from Bozel to Champagny would surely be no more difficult. If this happened then Paradiski and 3V would be linked by lifts.
There is nothing intrinsically illogical about lifts being installed a long way diagonally across a valley; Difficult maybe, but not illogical.
The 'point' of installing such lifts would be to link the two biggest ski regions in the World so that people skiing in one region could also be able to ski in the other by travelling on the lifts(s) instead of road transport. |
I'm sure I read that there was a plan but it was scuppered by them making the Vanoise a national park.
I think it would've been good as I could have skiied across from LP to see my mate who was working in Courchevel...  Rather than the stupid transfer via Moutiers that took forever.
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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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If you do end up going for a taxi from Val d'Isere then you could get it to drop you off at Brides-Le-Bains (BLB) and ride the Olympic bubble up from BLB to Meribel then it's a short ski up and over to Val Thorens. This would probably save on taxi mileage/costs up the Belleville Valley (St Marin/Les Menuires/VT valley).
This may save you money (mind you, you will still need to fork out for a lift pass for the Meribel valley)
Best way over to VT from Meribel (without needing any up lifts in VT Valley [If don't want to fork out the upgrade for the VT valley for that day too]) is up Plattiers 1 & 2 bubble from Meribel Mottaret then the up Cote Brune chair lift.
from the top of Cote Brune take the pluvometre or mont de la chambre piste 3/4 way down then make a hard left onto a traverse (cat track) and straight into VT.
A fella I know called Sam Grayson has his own transport company in Courchevel and if it's mid week he may be able to sort you a discounted transfer from Val d'Isere to BLB or up to VT. Or even pick you up from Chapagny en Venoise if you ski over from La Plagne which would be the shortest route for taxi/transfer by far (tell him Richie the daft geordie put you on to him).
http://www.snowlinx.com/index.html
best of luck.
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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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| mr black wrote: |
| offpisteskiing, you're right, a lot of 3V locals live in Bozel so I think they want to keep it a local village for local people... |
- and 'expat-people' too...
The point is Bozel is the one village in the valley which is busy year-round, the shops are very rarely shut (the occasional week for an annual holiday..). The more connected it becomes to the ski area, the more likely it is that tumble-weed will be blowing down the streets from April through December as per the villages further up the hill. Given that it is only 15 mins on the bus up to Le Praz all they need to do is run the buses a little more regularly and most people would be happy.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@247snowman,
Thanks for the tips, I had arrived at similar conclusions, about going to BLB and up and over, the night before, stay in Orelle and then head back.
I have moved this thread to here http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=2014516#2014516
and had some great advice to go the other way round: go from top of Le Fornet off piste down into Bonneval, then get bus (10 euros) to Modane, much easier, much quicker and more skiing adventure.
Thanks for tip on transfer company - might give him a call ref link from Le Praz to Champgny (it will be mid week)
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