 Poster: A snowHead
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We've just returned from a great week in La Tania, and I thought it might be useful to share some of our experience here. We were a group of 4 intermediate skiers and 2 intermediate boarders, with the least experienced being in only his 4th week of skiing. However, we're all comfortable on pretty much any red run (and the occasional black).
A bit of squinting at the piste map revealed that the highest point of the 3V is actually on Pointe du Bouchet, above Orelle (which is rather disconcertingly actually the 4th Valley), so clearly this was where we needed to head "because it's there".
We did a bit of research on the web to try and see how feasible it is for a group of intermediates to get up to above Orelle and planned (with the help of the latania.co.uk website) our route the night before.
We set off at about 09:10 and by around 11:00 we were in Val Thorens, then reached the highest point of the 3V at 12:15. The view from the top, followed by the run down from there (we chose bouchet), more than made it a worthwhile journey. We easily made it back to La Tania well before the lifts closed.
We stopped for lunch at the Chalet de Caron in Val Thorens at the intersection of Moutiere, Cairn and Caron lifts, which I'd highly recommend for good food at reasonable prices in the 3V. It's a self service restaurant, with hot meals such as pizza, spaghetti bolognaise and tartiflette plus a drink coming in at under 20 euros. (After looking at the prices in the Cap Horn in Courcheval these prices seemed very reasonable.)
I've described our route below for ease of anyone doing this. (I'd be interested in any views on where we went wrong.)
Our route
La Tania to Meribel Mottaret: Via Saulire, (down into Courcheval Valley up Biollay chairlift then the Saulire cable car, then down niverolle and aigle to the bottom of the Plattieres gondola). We went this way, as the seemingly more direct route on the piste map of dropping straight down from above La Tania to Meribel valley involved a fairly long, flat traverse along boulevard de la loze, which the boarders hated. Interestingly, the family sharing our chalet went the other route and we met them at the bottom of the Plattieres gondola, so it makes little difference which way you go.
Meribel Mottaret to Val Thorens: The most direct route is to drop down into Val Thorens from Mont de la Chambre (accessed from the Cote Brune chair in Mottaret, which is in turn accessed by dropping down from the top of Plattieres gondola). From Mont de la Chambre, take your pick of routes down into Val Thorens. (We particularly enjoyed pluviometre.)
Val Thorens to the Sommet des 3 Vallees: Drop down through Val Thoren, following the line of the Cairns gondola, and take the Moutiere chair up to the left. From there it's a very short (signposted) traverse to the Grand Fond funitel. From the top of the funitel, you have a little bit of uphill before dropping round to the top of the Roseal chair, and then down mauriennaise to the bottom. From here, there are 2 slow old chairs (Peyrey and Bouchet) that take you to the top.
Return leg: Enjoy the lovely runs down from Bouchet to the bottom then take the Roseal chair. From here you're heading for the bottom of the Cairn and Caron gondolas. From here, you can go back either via Les Menuires or Val Thorens - having done both, I'd highly recommend going via Val Thorens as the route down to Les Menuires is long and flat (even on skis). Basically, retrace you're route across (up Cairn, Plain Sud, 3 Vallees 2, then drop down towards Mottaret. From there, choose your route back via either Saulire, or the slow old Loze chairlift from above Meribel, which takes you to above La Tania. Whichever way you go, I'd personally avoid the blue piste Ours into Mottaret, as it's another flat, annoying run.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Nothing wrong with the routes you've chosen. There are umpteen variations on ways to get to VT - if you go via Meribel you don't have to go on the Boulevard, you can take Pic Bleu as a warm up and the Altiport chair and if you take Plan de l'Homme/Tougnete 2/Granges you don't have to take your skis off. From Granges you can still go to Cote Brune but Allamands into LM is a nice run and gives you the choice of Mont de la Chambre or Bruyeres into VT. The self-service cafe in Orelle is good value too.
When you come back if you keep bearing right on the runs from the top of Rosael you will see the other end of VT around the Moraine and Portette chairs. 'Ours' IS the dullest, most boring Blue path on the planet. 
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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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| Raceplate wrote: |
| 'Ours' IS the dullest, most boring Blue path on the planet. |
The worst of it is, we didn't learn the first time around and skied it again later in the week. Doh!
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