The La Tania Ski Blog

Latest news, snow, pics, gossip and information from the locals in La Tania – latania.co.uk

 
All the latest news from around the Three Valleys from the La Tania locals. A real blog since 2006, not just endless re-posts for search engine optimisaton! Photos, gossip, snow reports, what's on and all the latest on the Apres Ski scene... Now fully optimised for iPhone, Touch and Android Mobiles - just go to latania.co.uk/blog and view on your phone. Our other past blogs & favourites here

 


 

3 Valleys Charity Day 2019 – The Radio Advert, Get Yourselves Out Here!

The Radio Méribel Advert…

The full lineup and provisional stage times for 3 Valley Charity Day 2019 in Méribel Village on 10 April 2019 have now been released:

1230 Sian Hayley Smith
1300 Blazin’ Strings
1335 The Daisy Chain
1410 Les Lunettes
1445 Queens of the Snow Stage
1520 The Dominos
1540 MAPS
1615 Pink Miami
1700 Bring Your Sisters
1800 Jaguar Skills

Courchevel Valley lifts scheduled to open from Sat 30 March to Fri 5 April

Basically Tovets in 1550 and Coqs up to Chenus plus some minor drag lifts are closing next week – must be going to be quiet!

Use the new Grangettes gondola from 1550 and for access back to La Tania from 1850 use Chenus, Plantrey or Loze drags.

Click on the image for full size pic

 

La Tania regular Jack Bruce in World Record 8 Hour Ski Attempt Today

On Saturday 30th March 2019 Jack Bruce is attempting to set a new Guinness World Record (GWR) for the greatest distance skied in 8 hours. GWR measure such events in ‘vertical feet’ and although there is no current record they have set a ‘minimum requirement’ of 118,110 vertical feet. The equivalent of skiing down Mount Everest four times!

Jack learned to ski with the British Army in Cyprus and will be raising money for Walking with the Wounded. Always on first lift when he’s here – lookout for the distinctive Ruroc “Stormtrooper” Helmet…

The Foret chair was the original plan for the main uplift today but we understand Aiguile du Fruit and Creux is the likely majority of the skiing today.

Good luck to Jack and if you’d like to make a donation his JustGiving page is at: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/guinnessworldrecordski

 

29th March and The Red Piste, Moretta Blanche groomed down to La Tania resort level

While the blue Folyères piste down to resort is always expected to be open from the first day until the last day of the season (only once at the beginning and twice at the end in the last 17 seasons since snow cannons were installed has it not been skiable) it’s not so common to find the red Moretta Blanche piste still being groomed down to resort as we head in to April. Looking pretty good today…

La Tania Public Meeting Tue 2 April 2019 at 18:00 in the Cinema

After the poor communication of the consultation regarding the new green piste on Monday and the general dissatisfaction of the status of La Tania with regard to the Courchevel takeover (activities, animations, New Year’s Eve debacle, Grand Bois Lift / Chalet Access, removal of the Swimming Pool, state of the coach arrival area and village centre, lighting, security, SaboIa B etc etc) it’s good to see a public meeting being held next week – all be it at pretty short notice…

There will also be more information on the progress of the plans for the huge Moretta Village development on the Car Park near the Gondola.

Hopefully this is a positive way forward and a constructive discussion takes place.

The plans from Momday’s consultation on the new green piste below…

Return of The Dominos to La Tania at Après Ski Today

And rocking their Charity Day T Shirts…

Congratulations to Roman – Another Escapader in a Day

From Roman:
Just wanted to write and log in my attempt for the Three Valleys Escapade. The stars aligned and I managed to complete it on Thursday 21st March despite having a recovering knee from MCL damage and some key lifts/runs being shut that I had planned to use; Cime Caron, and thus access to Orelle and also the Chasse Run linking one side of Les Menuires to Plan De L’eau.

To my surprise the route I came up with worked quite well, although I missed Petite Boss in the morning due to it not opening till 11am! I used Signal instead but to my surprise I had enough time to go back again in the afternoon! The full list of lifts I took are below.

Foret
Bouc Blanc
Sources
Saulire
Roc Mugnier
Signal
Aguille du Fruit
Marmottes
Dent De Burgin
Golf
Mini Tow Rope
Legends
Olympic
St Martin 1
St Martin Express
Roc De Tougne
Granges
Cote Bruin
Funitel Peclet
Moraine
Col
Portette
Thorens
Peyron
Bouchet
Rosael
Plan De L’eau
Masse 1
Masse 2
Reberty
Sunny Express
Becca
Mont Vallon
Pas Du Lac 1
Pas Du Lac 2
Roc Mugnier
Petite Boss
Aguille du Fruit
The last lift in sight…

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 sees the use of Roc de Tougne fast new lift instead of the drag – still a big, big day out though with all talking (and lunch) kept to the lifts…

PDF list of lifts here for downloading to a smart phone – this needs a 2019 update as Roc de Tougne chair is not a drag now, Legends replaces Roc de Fer and the drag in Les Menuirs, Montaulever is no longer there.

Click on the image for the full size pic

 

Suisses – Our Monday Morning Piste du Jour

Nothing better that a freshly groomed classic black run – Suisses this morning…

Another Escapade in a Day! Congratulations to Timo, Erwin & Tom

From Timo:

I wanted to let you know that we (Tom, Erwin and me Timo) fulfilled the Escapade in a day today.

We started in Meribel Village at the Golf chair lift at 9am sharp. We only had queues at the two Masse gondolas, Bruyeres and Moutiere lifts. We had lunch in the Moraine lift and finished the Dent du Burgin lift at 4pm so we had an extra go on the Saulire Express 2 and Vizelle before heading back to Meribel Village.

Perfect day to do it and next time we want to improve the itinerary with a few lifts so we can do some nicer slopes instead of some connecting boulevards.

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 sees the use of Roc de Tougne fast new lift instead of the drag – still a big, big day out though with all talking (and lunch) kept to the lifts…

PDF list of lifts here for downloading to a smart phone – this needs a 2019 update as Roc de Tougne chair is not a drag now, Legends replaces Roc de Fer and the drag in Les Menuirs, Montaulever is no longer there.

Click on the image for the full size pic

 

Lac Bleu / Chenus will take some beating today – our Pistes du Jour

Why you get up early – mint pistes first thing with perfectly groomed slopes so anyone can feel they can ski like a rock star…