 Poster: A snowHead
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Last May I posted a request on  . I was looking for a place where I could fulfil the promise to Bogus Junior that he would spend his 21st Birthday in the Alps with a selection of his best friends and family. I had a few replies and after a lot of deep consideration I chose to go with the Chalets Philippine and Felicie in La Tania.
http://www.the3valleys.com/chalets
These chalets are run by British owners who include at least one
So, we had 27 guests including 22 young people (aged 19-21 and mostly university students) and five grown ups. Of these there was a wide range of skiing experience from none whatsoever to a few who had been skiing almost from birth.
Getting there:
Most flew Easyjet to Geneva, and through the good offices of Liz from the3valleys.co.uk we were able to arrange a coach transfer at a cost of only €64 per person. Six people, including all the grown-ups travelled by car via the Tunnel. I was the advance party and travelled with the chef (my nephew who is a 3rd year catering student) on the Friday, arriving in la Tania at around 8.30 PM.
The Accommodation:
The Chalets Philippine and Felicie are semi detached with a connecting door. They are timber built and have beds for 28 people in all, arranged in a combination of double, twin and a couple of triple rooms. Most have modern en suite shower rooms although a couple of twins in both houses share a bathroom. There are spacious boot rooms with heaters in both houses. Each house has a dining room off the kitchen and a large sitting room. Because we were a single large party we re-arranged things so that everyone could eat in one house and there was a "snug" off the kitchen in the other. This proved to be very popular as it was the best place in the house to use the Wifi network from the Chalet Hotel (run by the same people) next door. Furniture moving was achieved by a party of strapping young saisonnaires from the Chalet Hotel. This was one of many times that the team from the3valleys went far above and beyond the call to ensure that we had the best week possible.
Food and Drink:
As mentioned we took a chef. He had his work cut out to cater for 27 from a normal (albeit very well equipped) domestic kitchen and there was a certain amount of running back and forth when he needed to use the oven space in the other house. Despite this he managed to produce excellent food - including the requisite daily cakes - to the satisfaction of all, including the vegetarians. We set up the second kitchen as a self-service tea, coffee and hot chocolate station and this worked pretty well. Major food shopping was done in the large Carrefour in Moutiers with top-ups from the Sherpa in the village.
The Village:
La Tania was a revelation. Compared to other French resorts it is extremely pretty and had everything we needed, including a bar that catered very well to the 20-year-old set. The Ski Lodge Pub is an excellent example of a resort bar. There are a few quieter bars, including the Taiga, owned by the same people as the Ski Lodge. There are several equipment rental places and a couple of ski schools, including ESF. There is a very good nursery slope with a free drag lift right in the centre of the village and a gondola linking La Tania to the enormous 3 Valleys system.
The Skiing:
I am not going to describe the 3 Valleys. There must be thousands of posts on covering this subject. Just one observation really. We were there in the first week of the season and the snow was the best in living memory. Why on earth were so many lifts and pistes closed? I may have been spoiled by doing most of my skiing in the Espace Killy, but my expectation is that if a lift company sells me a pass - even in the first week of the season - it will open the damned lifts. Maybe you could make a case that where there are multiple lifts serving the same slopes you don't need to open all of them when numbers are low. But that's not what I am talking about. I am talking about some of the main links between the valleys remaining resolutely shut for the whole week. Jolly bad show 3V and will definitely put me off returning in the opening week.
Overall:
Just a few overall thoughts. Not everyone will want or be able to organise a trip like this one. It was hard work and kept me busy for weeks before and extremely busy during the week itself. It would never have worked so well without a lot of things coming together.
The team at the3valleys.co.uk was absolutely fantastic. Nothing was too much trouble and everything was done with a smile. I would recommend them absolutely without hesitation. In fact I hope to return some time - but without the party of 27.
The ski school we used (Magic) was very good. I set up some beginner lessons and at least two guys who had never skied in their lives were happily tackling red runs by the end of the week.
We used Ski Higher for equipment rental and they were terrific, even when I turned up with 20 people in tow on the Sunday morning. They dealt with the inevitable minor problems and adjustments with good grace and offered very good package prices for online advance bookings.
Pub Le Ski Lodge was excellent.
La Tania had the most fantastic snow. I was quite nervous about going so low, so early but in the end we won the jackpot. The weather forecast invariably said it would rain and invariably it was wrong. We must have had half a metre of new snow fall during the week. We even got two sunny days to enjoy it to the full.
As a 21st birthday celebration for a dedicated snow sports enthusiast it is hard to think of a single way it could have been better. Junior and his mates had a week they will remember all their lives. And the grown-ups had a blast too.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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| Bogusman wrote: |
We were there in the first week of the season and the snow was the best in living memory. Why on earth were so many lifts and pistes closed? I may have been spoiled by doing most of my skiing in the Espace Killy, but my expectation is that if a lift company sells me a pass - even in the first week of the season - it will open the damned lifts. Maybe you could make a case that where there are multiple lifts serving the same slopes you don't need to open all of them when numbers are low. But that's not what I am talking about. I am talking about some of the main links between the valleys remaining resolutely shut for the whole week. Jolly bad show 3V and will definitely put me off returning in the opening week. |
Because the avalanche risk was 5/5 and 4/5 and they can't make the links safe at the same rate as the snow is falling.
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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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| Raceplate wrote: |
| Bogusman wrote: |
We were there in the first week of the season and the snow was the best in living memory. Why on earth were so many lifts and pistes closed? I may have been spoiled by doing most of my skiing in the Espace Killy, but my expectation is that if a lift company sells me a pass - even in the first week of the season - it will open the damned lifts. Maybe you could make a case that where there are multiple lifts serving the same slopes you don't need to open all of them when numbers are low. But that's not what I am talking about. I am talking about some of the main links between the valleys remaining resolutely shut for the whole week. Jolly bad show 3V and will definitely put me off returning in the opening week. |
Because the avalanche risk was 5/5 and 4/5 and they can't make the links safe at the same rate as the snow is falling. |
Exactly this. The Espace Killy region was exactly the same on the first week.
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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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We had the same lift problem at thePSB. I can appreciate that there was a lot of snow throughout the week and that they had to make pistes safe, but I don't think Tufs ever opened on time, and for a while Tichot was the only lift open from Val Claret, forcing everyone on the same piste - scary and dangerous for novices. I can't see why they didn't open Bollin as it would have eased the pressure.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| welshskier wrote: |
| We had the same TOO MUCH SNOW problem at thePSB. |
Corrected it for you. 
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James the Last, no, there was certainly a lot of snow, but not too much. It was the lack of open lifts that was the problem.
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geepee, The avalanche risk, as displayed at the base stations, was consistently 3/5 all week. I am not an expert and so must concede that avalanche risk could have been a factor in some cases but it's hard to see how it could have been the whole story. For example Chenus out of 1850 was open but not Coqs. And out of Les Menuires Roc des 3 Marches 2 was shut when Becca was open. To get from Becca to the alternative route to the top of Saulire, Granges, involved descending the same pistes on the LM side that are served by Roc Des 3 Marches 2.
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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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Bogusman, the first week of the season always has reduced lift opening. That's why the 6 day 3V lift pass is reduced in price from €260 to €208 for the first week and €234 for the second week of the season. You get what you pay for.
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Raceplate, Is that really the justification for the reduction? I thought it was an incentive to encourage people to go at a time when the snow might not yet be up to much. Anyway I now know not to go to the Three Valleys in the first week of the season. No big deal. I don't have another 21st party to organise any time soon. And maybe things are similar in other areas although the messages I was getting from EK suggested that pretty much everything was open last week.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Bogusman, the EK 6 day pass for the same period is €211.50 for a maximum of 300km of pistes. Even if the 3V's was reduced from 600km to 500km (which it probably wasn't - it's usually duplicated lifts that are closed), I fail to see how you think you got a raw deal.
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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 don't think I got a raw deal overall. I think my review above makes it pretty clear that we had a fantastic week. On the specific question of the lift openings though I do think that the lift company was under performing. If you publish a lift map and sell a pass that covers all the lifts then it seems to me reasonable that you make a decent effort to open them. There is no indication at the pass office that your 20% price reduction is buying you a 30-40% reduction in the number of lifts that are open. You have to discover that for yourself. Where routes are duplicated then OK, it's not a big issue. When significant "trunk" routes stay closed the whole week I think it is.
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As I've already said, some of the lifts were shut due to safety reasons. Latania.co.uk tweeted that the avalanche risk was 4/5 on Dec 19th.
There are massive interactive boards outside every lift office (including La Tania, right by the ramp for the gondola) which tell you which lifts are open, so you don't have to find out for yourself.
The "significant" trunk route that you're moaning about (3 Marches 2) is duplicated by Granges. If you take the view that it is just a link between the LM/Belleville Valley and Meribel it is duplicated by Granges, St Martin 2, Mont de la Chambre and Bruyeres all of which were probably open when there was no avalanche risk, and all of which can be skied to directly from Becca. Of all of those, 3 Marches 2 is easily the quietest lift and only gets queues in absolute peak season, which is why they don't open it in off season. There is also the surface lift, Teppes, which tends to be kept in reserve as a way of getting people back to the right valley if high winds force them to shut all the chairlift/gondola links.
And are you really trying to suggest that 70+ of 180+ lifts were shut for reasons other than too much snow? I don't think so.
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You know it makes sense.
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Part of the issue is clearly my unfamiliarity with the ski area. Starting from the Croisette in Les Menuires and wanting to get over to the Meribel Valley the obvious route from the map is via the two Roc des 3 Marches lifts. I am really surprised to hear that Rd3M2 is the quietest route, but as I say I am not familiar with the area. This is just one example though. Another is that there was no open route into the Meribel Valley from the top of Dou des Lanches, so to go from la Tania to Meribel involved getting across to Suisses, above Courchevel 1850 - unless the Saulire cable car was open which sometimes it was and sometimes it wasn't. BTW, I fully accept that the intermittent availability of the cable car was indeed due to snow and wind conditions. I am less convinced that this was the case with lifts that simply didn't open at any time in the week. And of course the illuminated boards tell you which lifts are open or closed right now. They don't give an indication of which ones are not going to open at all.
I think that this argument has gone as far as it reasonably can and clearly we have different views. The partial availability of the lifts didn't spoil anyone's week and I don't think that you or I will change each other's opinion. You are of course welcome to have the last word. 
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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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FAQ
but very 
When I first went there I followed an experienced person around like a lemming with no clue where I was...
