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Al Jones does the Escapade in a Day (not that one!)
Monday 27th January 2020
Al Jones, Pete Middleton and Jack Brown at the third time of trying completed the Escapade in a Day starting in La Tania on the first bubble and getting the last lift at Foret at 4.20.
We skied the standard route including the off piste section from the back of Pointe da la Masse. Most challenging run of the day was the icy black Combe de Rosael. Conditions were ok but flat light and snow made the afternoon tricky. We lost/left (Top Gear rules applied!) one guy, Mark, to tired legs but he made it back safely.
We have dedicate our little trip to Charlie Smith who broke his ankle on our first attempt in 2018.
Cheers, Al Jones (not that one!)
What’s all this about?
The 3 Valleys Escapade was the lift company promotion of visiting (originally in 2006) 14 points across the Three Valleys and gaining a certificate & badge over the period of your holiday – then we had the idea of doing it in a day…
It’s probably the toughest day skiing ever for a recreational skier but lots of people have got involved over the years so we feature them in our Escapade in a Day Hall of Fame
This is no longer being promoted by The 3 Valleys but we’ll still stick you in the Hall of Fame if you complete it – send a Ski Tracks or similar trace in plus a pic of your group.
What started out as a late night “is it possible?” discussion became a challenge the following week – the history and our original route are here
Originally punch cards had to be stamped at each check point until electronic passes arrived – they could then be checked by the lift company. The original Escapade was 30 lifts, 13000m vertical and 70km and 2016 peaked with 34 lifts, 17000m vertical (twice the height of Everest) and around 100km total distance. It became a little less for 2017 and 2018 saw the use of the Roc de Tougne fast new chair instead of the drag and we lost the Montaulever drag altogether. In 2019 we gained the new faster Legends chair out of Méribel and then an improvement in speed on the Mont Vallon lift too.
Certainly getting a lot easier and we’ll make it much harder next year! But it’s still an enjoyable, big, big day out with all talking (and lunch) kept to the lifts…
Updated 2020 PDF route with the 19 “Escapade Lifts” in bold
You do this entirely at your own risk, act responsibly, take full ownership for your own actions and all of those with you, respect other people (& the mountain), ski & ride within your limits, always obey the skiers & snowboarders code, observe all signs, pay attention to all notices, advice & instructions from Pisteurs, only ski off piste if fully equipped & knowledgeable, it’s not a race (you won’t be insured), think about the safety of others as well as yourself but above all, take care, don’t wreck things for others & don’t even think of blaming anyone else if it all goes horribly wrong…..
Important Dates: La Tania Family Fête & Bring Your Sisters BYStival Reunion
La Tania Family Fête
The La Tania Family Fête returns to the centre of La Tania this year and will be held on Easter Monday 13th April 2020.
This family and kids orientated event consists of stalls, activities, an easter egg hunt, cake competition, plus tombolas & raffles as well as an outside bar, BBQ and live music for the adults.
Everyone is welcome and all money raised goes towards the 3 Valleys Charity Day British & French charities including Sebastian’s Action Trust and the Ligue Nationale Contre le Cancer
3 Valleys Charity Day 2020 will be held in Méribel Village on Wednesday 8 April 2020. More info here
The Bring Your Sisters Reunion Gig – BYStival
The Après Party of Summer takes place on Sunday 24 May 2020 (Bank Holiday Weekend) at Cobham Avorians Cricket Club and this year has the excellent Wingmen as support too.
There’ll be plenty of food and drink (including Jäger) with an outdoor bar and BBQ kicking off from noon. This will be the only chance to see Bring Your Sisters in the UK this Summer. See you down the front…
Earlybird tickets are £17 (or with a T-shirt £27) and kids under 12 go free.
Earlybird tickets are on sale online until 1 March 2020 exclusively from Eventbrite on the following link latania.co/bys2020
The fast trains from central London to Cobham take 35 minutes.
BYS through the years…
Rich Roberts – Guitar, Vocals
Stevie Hay – Drums, Keyboard, Guitar, Vocals and anything you can hit, blow, strum, play etc…
Ben Westaway – Guitar, Vocals
Gareth McKane – Bass, Vocals
And The Roadies… Aaron, Joey, Rachel, Phil & Paul
Simon & Bethan complete the Escapade in a Day – last one for now until February!
After coming here for years, we finally pulled our fingers out and had a shot at the Escapade in a Day…
We followed Andy’s route from the 11th of January, but used Bruyeres 2 rather than Sunny Express to get to Becca.
Great day out; early bubble from La Tania, lunch on the lifts, no stops, tactical-weighing-down-of-Bethan-with-the-bag-for-extra-momentum-on-Ours, hardly any queues and no technical problems. Made it to Foret by 16:13, which gives you plenty of time to ski down to the La Tania bubble to compete the lap, then take it back up to Bouc Blanc for a celebratory Jupiler.
With the extra Bouc Blanc lap, it was 92.1miles total, 55.7miles skiing.
Definitely recommend it; it’s a great challenge!
What’s all this about?
The 3 Valleys Escapade was the lift company promotion of visiting (originally in 2006) 14 points across the Three Valleys and gaining a certificate & badge over the period of your holiday – then we had the idea of doing it in a day…
It’s probably the toughest day skiing ever for a recreational skier but lots of people have got involved over the years so we feature them in our Escapade in a Day Hall of Fame
This is no longer being promoted by The 3 Valleys but we’ll still stick you in the Hall of Fame if you complete it – send a Ski Tracks or similar trace in plus a pic of your group.
What started out as a late night “is it possible?” discussion became a challenge the following week – the history and our original route are here
Originally punch cards had to be stamped at each check point until electronic passes arrived – they could then be checked by the lift company. The original Escapade was 30 lifts, 13000m vertical and 70km and 2016 peaked with 34 lifts, 17000m vertical (twice the height of Everest) and around 100km total distance. It became a little less for 2017 and 2018 saw the use of the Roc de Tougne fast new chair instead of the drag and we lost the Montaulever drag altogether. In 2019 we gained the new faster Legends chair out of Méribel and then an improvement in speed on the Mont Vallon lift too.
Getting easier, but it’s still a big, big day out with all the talking (and lunch) kept to the lifts…
Updated 2020 PDF route with the 19 “Escapade Lifts” in bold
You do this entirely at your own risk, act responsibly, take full ownership for your own actions and all of those with you, respect other people (& the mountain), ski & ride within your limits, always obey the skiers & snowboarders code, observe all signs, pay attention to all notices, advice & instructions from Pisteurs, only ski off piste if fully equipped & knowledgeable, it’s not a race (you won’t be insured), think about the safety of others as well as yourself but above all, take care, don’t wreck things for others & don’t even think of blaming anyone else if it all goes horribly wrong…..
Congratulations Oliver, Martin & Zoe on completing the Escapade in a Day
La Tania regulars Oliver, Martin & Zoe completed the Escapade on 16th January. It was Oliver’s second time having completed the original route a few years ago.
“We got one of the first lifts on the La Tania bubble at 9:03 and got the final Foret lift at 15:44 – giving us a time of 6:41. As previous posters have said you don’t need to ski ridiculously fast but you can’t hang around for a leisurely lunch or copious toilet breaks.
We took the itinerary run down the back of La Masse which avoids the need to get the Reberty and Bruyeres lifts. The crusty snow wasn’t the most enjoyable and we could have done it much quicker in better conditions but we think it was still quicker than going down La Masse the conventional way plus the two extra lifts in Les Menuires.
It was a lovely blue sky day but with better snow on the La Masse run and a couple of less busy lifts we reckon we could have shaved off some more time. Maybe next time!”
LA TANIA 09:03:00
BOUC BLANC 09:12:00
SOURCES 09:23:00
SAULIRE 09:28:00
DENT DE BURGIN 09:45:00
GOLF 09:57:00
LEGENDS 10:11:00
OLYMPIC 10:22:00
ST MARTIN 1 10:43:00
ST MARTIN 2 10:48:00
ROC DE TOUGNE 10:56:00
MASSE 1 11:14:00
MASSE 2 11:22:00
PLAN DE L’EAU 11:52:00
CIME CARON 12:03:00
PEYRON 12:26:00
BOUCHET 12:35:00
ROSAEL 12:53:00
MORAINE 13:15:00
COL 13:21:00
PECLET 13:37:00
PIONNIERS 13:58:00
3 VALLEES 14:02:00
BECCA 14:15:00
MONT VALLON 14:27:00
PAS DE LAC 1 & 2 14:51:00
ROC DE MUGNIER 15:17:00
PETITES BOSSES 15:24:00
AIGUILLE DU FRUIT 15:28:00
FORET 15:44:00
What’s all this about?
The 3 Valleys Escapade was the lift company promotion of visiting (originally in 2006) 14 points across the Three Valleys and gaining a certificate & badge over the period of your holiday – then we had the idea of doing it in a day…
It’s probably the toughest day skiing ever for a recreational skier but lots of people have got involved over the years so we feature them in our Escapade in a Day Hall of Fame
This is no longer being promoted by The 3 Valleys but we’ll still stick you in the Hall of Fame if you complete it – send a Ski Tracks or similar trace in plus a pic of your group.
What started out as a late night “is it possible?” discussion became a challenge the following week – the history and our original route are here
Originally punch cards had to be stamped at each check point until electronic passes arrived – they could then be checked by the lift company. The original Escapade was 30 lifts, 13000m vertical and 70km and 2016 peaked with 34 lifts, 17000m vertical (twice the height of Everest) and around 100km total distance. It became a little less for 2017 and 2018 saw the use of the Roc de Tougne fast new chair instead of the drag and we lost the Montaulever drag altogether. In 2019 we gained the new faster Legends chair out of Méribel and then an improvement in speed on the Mont Vallon lift too.
Getting easier, but it’s still a big, big day out with all the talking (and lunch) kept to the lifts…
Updated 2020 PDF route with the 19 “Escapade Lifts” in bold
You do this entirely at your own risk, act responsibly, take full ownership for your own actions and all of those with you, respect other people (& the mountain), ski & ride within your limits, always obey the skiers & snowboarders code, observe all signs, pay attention to all notices, advice & instructions from Pisteurs, only ski off piste if fully equipped & knowledgeable, it’s not a race (you won’t be insured), think about the safety of others as well as yourself but above all, take care, don’t wreck things for others & don’t even think of blaming anyone else if it all goes horribly wrong…..
Mr and Mrs Slippery (& Neil) complete the Escapade in a Day…
More old people with the help of youngsters complete the challenge…
From Michelle:
Me, Alan and my cousin (Neil Stubbington) did the Escapade today. Quite pleased how we did, especially as Neil’s a boarder! Here are our timings taken from Ski Tracks – we started at 9am and clocked through our last needed lift (foret) at 3.30pm. However, we then decided that Dou Des Lanches still looked good so finished off with an extra chair.
Michelle, Alan and Neil’s 3 Valley Escapade
20th January 2020
1 09:03 La Tania gondola
2 09:09 Bouc Blanc
3 09:20 Rocher de L’ombre (or Sources) drag lift
4 09:26 Saulire cable car
5 09:38 Dent de Burgin
6 09:51 Golf
7 Rope Tow
8 10:05 Legends
9 10:15 Olympic
10 10:29 St Martin 1
11 St Matin Express
12 10:53 Roc de Tougne
13 11:10 Masse 1
14 11:20 Masse 2 Gondola
15 11:38 Reberty
16 11:43 Bruyeres 1 Gondola (off at 1st station)
17 11:53 Plan de L’Eau
18 12:03 Cime Caron Cable Car
19 12:21 Peyron
20 12:28 Bouchet
21 12:45 Rosael
22 12:59 Moraine Gondola
23 13:12 Col
24 13:30 Peclet Funitel
25 13:47 Pioneers
26 13:53 3 Valley Chair
27 14:07 Becca
28 14:17 Mont Vallon Gondola
29 14:40 Pas Du Lac 1 Gondola
30 Pas Du Lac 2 Gondola
31 15:08 Roc Mugnire
32 15:10 Petite Bosses drag
33 15:16 Aiguille du Fruit
34 15:29 Forêt
35 15:39 Dou Des Lanches
What’s all this about?
The 3 Valleys Escapade was the lift company promotion of visiting (originally in 2006) 14 points across the Three Valleys and gaining a certificate & badge over the period of your holiday – then we had the idea of doing it in a day…
It’s probably the toughest day skiing ever for a recreational skier but lots of people have got involved over the years so we feature them in our Escapade in a Day Hall of Fame
This is no longer being promoted by The 3 Valleys but we’ll still stick you in the Hall of Fame if you complete it – send a Ski Tracks or similar trace in plus a pic of your group.
What started out as a late night “is it possible?” discussion became a challenge the following week – the history and our original route are here
Originally punch cards had to be stamped at each check point until electronic passes arrived – they could then be checked by the lift company. The original Escapade was 30 lifts, 13000m vertical and 70km and 2016 peaked with 34 lifts, 17000m vertical (twice the height of Everest) and around 100km total distance. It became a little less for 2017 and 2018 saw the use of the Roc de Tougne fast new chair instead of the drag and we lost the Montaulever drag altogether. In 2019 we gained the new faster Legends chair out of Méribel and then an improvement in speed on the Mont Vallon lift too.
Getting easier, but it’s still a big, big day out with all the talking (and lunch) kept to the lifts…
Updated 2020 PDF route with the 19 “Escapade Lifts” in bold
You do this entirely at your own risk, act responsibly, take full ownership for your own actions and all of those with you, respect other people (& the mountain), ski & ride within your limits, always obey the skiers & snowboarders code, observe all signs, pay attention to all notices, advice & instructions from Pisteurs, only ski off piste if fully equipped & knowledgeable, it’s not a race (you won’t be insured), think about the safety of others as well as yourself but above all, take care, don’t wreck things for others & don’t even think of blaming anyone else if it all goes horribly wrong…..
Escapade in a Day – Another for the Hall of Fame
Congratulations to Phil and family…
From Phil:
What an enjoyable day skiing in the beautiful 3 Valleys sunshine with my two sons and daughter. Our attempt at the 3 Valleys Escapade in a Day Challenge was blessed with quiet lifts, fast pistes and a few cheeky beers at Col de la Loze to end our day.
We believe our only mistake was having to take an extra lift and do an extra run on our way to Becca and, aside from ourselves the only other obstacle put in our way was the relatively slow off piste route via Lac du Lou to Plan de L’eau due to the lack of fresh snow.
All in all a fun day.
All the Best,
Phil, Bradley, Jordan & Brooke.
Lifts & Pistes
◦ La Tania – 9.00am🚠 ◦ Bouc blanc 🚠 ◦ Lac bleu ⛷ ◦ Sources/Roche de l’ombre 🚠 ◦ Saulire 🚠 ◦ Biche – chamois – renard ⛷ ◦ Dent de burgin 🚠 ◦ Renard – blanchot – Lapin ⛷ ◦ Golf (meribel village) 🚠 ◦ Foret(rope pull) 🚠 ◦ Doron ⛷ ◦ Legends 🚠 ◦ Roc de fer- gelinotte ⛷ ◦ Olympic 🚠 ◦ Verdet – biolley ⛷ ◦ St Martin 1 🚠 ◦ St Martin express 🚠 ◦ Dahu – martre ⛷ ◦ Roc de tougne 🚠 ◦ Teppes – gros tougne – la violette ⛷ ◦ Masse 1 🚠 ◦ Masse 2 🚠 ◦ Off piste bit ⛷ ◦ Plan de l’eau 🚠 ◦ Boulevard d’telepherique ⛷ ◦ Cime Caron 🚠 ◦ Combe de rosael ⛷ (4th valley) ◦ Peyron 🚠 ◦ Bouchet 🚠 ◦ Bouchet ⛷ ◦ Rosael 🚠 ◦ Chamois – eterlou – rhodos ⛷ ◦ Moraine 🚠 ◦ Col 🚠 ◦ Col – moraine – green into VT⛷ ◦ Funitel de peclet 🚠 ◦ Beranger ⛷ ◦ Pioniers 🚠 (3 valley link) ◦ 3 valleys 🚠 ◦ 4 Vents – Alpage ⛷ ◦ Bruyeres 2 🚠 ◦ D Douillet ⛷ ◦ Becca 🚠 ◦ Alouette ⛷ (to mont vallon) ◦ Mont vallon 🚠 ◦ Combe du vallon – Ours ⛷ ◦ Pas du lac 🚠 ◦ Creux ⛷ ◦ Roc mugnier 🚠 ◦ Gdes bosses ⛷ ◦ Petit bosses 🚠 ◦ Shoosh ⛷ ◦ Aiguille du fruit 🚠 ◦ Courchevel 1850 – le praz ⛷ (altiport – amoreux) ◦ Foret – 3.30pm 🚠
What’s all this about?
The 3 Valleys Escapade was the lift company promotion of visiting (originally in 2006) 14 points across the Three Valleys and gaining a certificate & badge over the period of your holiday – then we had the idea of doing it in a day…
It’s probably the toughest day skiing ever for a recreational skier but lots of people have got involved over the years so we feature them in our Escapade in a Day Hall of Fame
This is no longer being promoted by The 3 Valleys but we’ll still stick you in the Hall of Fame if you complete it – send a Ski Tracks or similar trace in plus a pic of your group.
What started out as a late night “is it possible?” discussion became a challenge the following week – the history and our original route are here
Originally punch cards had to be stamped at each check point until electronic passes arrived – they could then be checked by the lift company. The original Escapade was 30 lifts, 13000m vertical and 70km and 2016 peaked with 34 lifts, 17000m vertical (twice the height of Everest) and around 100km total distance. It became a little less for 2017 and 2018 saw the use of the Roc de Tougne fast new chair instead of the drag and we lost the Montaulever drag altogether. In 2019 we gained the new faster Legends chair out of Méribel and then an improvement in speed on the Mont Vallon lift too.
Getting easier, but it’s still a big, big day out with all talking (and lunch) kept to the lifts…
Updated 2020 PDF route with the 19 “Escapade Lifts” in bold
You do this entirely at your own risk, act responsibly, take full ownership for your own actions and all of those with you, respect other people (& the mountain), ski & ride within your limits, always obey the skiers & snowboarders code, observe all signs, pay attention to all notices, advice & instructions from Pisteurs, only ski off piste if fully equipped & knowledgeable, it’s not a race (you won’t be insured), think about the safety of others as well as yourself but above all, take care, don’t wreck things for others & don’t even think of blaming anyone else if it all goes horribly wrong…..
More pics of the new Cime Caron Gondola under construction from Orelle
The 3 Vallées never stop investing in new infrastructure – this new gondola will give an alternative, faster, more comfortable route out of the 4th Valley from this December. For those coming out of the Orelle base there is also a new replacement gondola with the top station connected to the Cime Caron lift.
The foundations for the stations and some of the pylons are already in place with work continuing this summer. When complete travel from Orelle to the centre of Val Thorens will be possible entirely via gondola and cable car.
La Tania veteran Andy Lee does the Escapade in a Day
Andy & Kyle completed the Escapade in a Day on Saturday 11th January in perfect conditions with blue skies, quiet lifts and perfect pistes throughout the 3 Valleys. We see they skied back down La Masse rather than an unpleasant cruddy, crusty off piste run down via Lac du Lou to Plan de L’eau.
From Andy:
Got to La Tania Gondola at 9am and didn’t stop all day, no need to ski at break neck pace, just get the route right and don’t stop between lifts. Tiring but great fun! I have listed the lifts we took and the times we got on them, it may help people to see how they’re getting on time wise, we arrived at Foret with 16 minutes to spare.
Congratulations Andy & Kyle and thanks for the timings, very useful – you’re now in the Hall of Fame
1, 9.00 Tania
2, 9.11 Bouc Blanc
3, 9.23 Rocher
4, 9.31 Saulire
5, 9.48 Dent De Burgin
6, 10.03 Golf
7, 10.09 Tow rope
8, 10.17 Legends
9, 10.27 Olympic
10,10.42 St Martin 1
11, 10.49 St Martin 2
12, 11.01 Roc de Tougne
13, 11.17 Masse 1
14, 11.26 Masse 2
15, 11.44 Reberty
16, 11.49 Bruyeres 1 (get off at first station)
17, 12.01 Plan de L’eau
18, 12.13 Cime caron
19, 12.35 Peyron
20, 12.42 Bouchet
21, 12.59 Rosael
22, 1.14 Moraine
23, 1.26 Col
24, 1.44 Peclet
25, 2.00 Pioneers
26, 2.07 3V Funitel
27, 2.22 Sunny Express
28, 2.34 Becca
29, 2.48 Mont Vallon
30, 3.14 Pas Du Lac 1
31, 3.25 Pas Du Lac 2
32, 3.36 Roc Mugnier
33, 3.45 Petite Bosses
34, 3.50 Aiguille du Fruit
35, 4.09 Forêt
The “Escapade Lifts” in bold
This route as a PDF to download and save on a smartphone
What’s all this about….
The 3 Valleys Escapade was the lift company promotion of visiting (originally in 2006) 14 points across the Three Valleys and gaining a certificate & badge over the period of your holiday – then we had the idea of doing it in a day…
It’s probably the toughest day skiing ever for a recreational skier but lots of people have got involved over the years so we feature them in our Escapade in a Day Hall of Fame
This is no longer being promoted by The 3 Valleys but we’ll still stick you in the Hall of Fame if you complete it – send a Ski Tracks or similar trace in plus a pic of your group.
What started out as a late night “is it possible?” discussion became a challenge the following week – the history and our original route are here
Originally punch cards had to be stamped at each check point until electronic passes arrived – they could then be checked by the lift company. The original Escapade was 30 lifts, 13000m vertical and 70km and 2016 peaked with 34 lifts, 17000m vertical (twice the height of Everest) and around 100km total distance. It became a little less for 2017 and 2018 saw the use of the Roc de Tougne fast new chair instead of the drag and we lost the Montaulever drag altogether. In 2019 we gained the new faster Legends chair out of Méribel and then an improvement in speed on the Mont Vallon lift too.
It’s still a big, big day out though with all talking (and lunch) kept to the lifts…
Updated 2020 PDF route with the 19 “Escapade Lifts” in bold
You do this entirely at your own risk, act responsibly, take full ownership for your own actions and all of those with you, respect other people (& the mountain), ski & ride within your limits, always obey the skiers & snowboarders code, observe all signs, pay attention to all notices, advice & instructions from Pisteurs, only ski off piste if fully equipped & knowledgeable, it’s not a race (you won’t be insured), think about the safety of others as well as yourself but above all, take care, don’t wreck things for others & don’t even think of blaming anyone else if it all goes horribly wrong…..
MessyWeekend Ski Goggles Review
You may have seen our reporter Tim Wall wearing new goggles in last week’s Snow Report courtesy of MessyWeekend, the Copenhagen-based eyewear startup. We’ve now had a bit of time to ski with them and we’re very impressed so far…
First impressions were good with the FLOAT goggles coming in a hard case with a spare flat light lens and both of these in soft lens cleaning bags too. Even the strap buckles seems to be have been thought about and allows for quick size adjustment with gloves kept on. Helmet fit was perfect on the couple of lids we tried with no “tw*t gap” visible!
Putting on a new pair of goggles is always a welcome event and the chances are they are replacing an old worn, scratched and dirty pair so the initial view is always going to be better. However, these really did seem to enhance your vision with the clarity and sharpness of everything really standing out while any glare was almost eliminated – feeling like someone just turned the contrast button up!
Remaining comfortable all day in variable conditions and the flat light lens really coming in to its own late in the day in the January shaded runs. Absolutely no fogging issues too – when really hammering down a piste you could just about feel the venting towards the top of the lens doing it’s work.
The XE2 lens has two layers of high-quality, optical-grade polycarbonate, is easily interchangeable, light-weight, practically unbreakable and comes with a NASA developed Revo and Mirror coating that protects from harmful UV light.
If you’re quick you can get 20% off at the MessyWeekend website with the code MESSY2020 and they’re cheaper than you’d think…
MessyWeekend in partnership with ProArtso facilitate the clean-up of 2kg of plastic waste from the Ocean with every product they sell.
The new INUIT goggle with an option of a MessyWeekend XEp Photochromic lens is coming soon with a crowdfunding opening offer
And yes, we do love the name, reminds us of 3 Valleys Charity Day stalwarts The Dub Pistols and their Mucky Weekend….
As for doing Plake goggle straps – he was our hero too!
