Demolition of Hotel Courcheneige moves closer…

Rather like the ski lift from Bozel, the demolition and re-construction of Hotel Courcheneige has been talked about for years.

This planning review document (signed in London a couple of weeks ago we noted) looks to move things along and confirms that the reconstruction will upgrade the hotel from a 3 star to a 4 star in typical Courchevel planning style.

Planing docs and environmental impacts go back to 2011 and this looks like a further review with a decision due on this one by 26 June 2018.

The Courcheneige and La Tania Bean Bag Corner used to be THE place in 1850 for reasonably priced food and drink until the Aussie owners moved to Hôtel La Pomme de Pin (keeping the reasonable prices). Was €9 a pint this season although there are Seasonnaire discounts now – can’t see it getting any cheaper when it become a 4 star!

Seems quite a strange strategy considering all the refurb work they’ve done on the place in the last couple of years mind…

Join the 10th Mountain Clean Up on Sat 23 June 2018

Auto translated – original below

[CLEAN MOUNTAIN ACTION]
The 2018 edition of Montagne Propre will take place on Saturday, June 23 and this year, we celebrate the 10 years!
For the occasion there will be a concert at the beginning of the afternoon.

Program
Meeting at 8.30 am at the Praz (room under the gondola) for breakfast and training of pickup groups,
Departure given around 9h15-30,
Barbecue offered between 12h30 and 13h, following the arrival of groups.

Montagne Propre is at the end of the process since Tuesday, June 26 will be sorting the collection, down the street Lugeurs, around 13:30.

Will be present, and this for 3 years, children from the school of 1850, and for the first time, children with disabilities from an association in the Paris region who will be on vacation that week in Courchevel.

[ACTION MONTAGNE PROPRE]
L’édition 2018 de Montagne Propre aura lieu le Samedi 23 Juin et cette année, on fête les 10 ans !
Pour l’occasion il y aura un concert en début d’après-midi.

Programme
Rendez-vous à 8h30 au Praz (salle sous la télécabine) pour le petit déjeuner et la formation des groupes de ramassage,
Départ donné vers 9h15-30,
Barbecue offert entre 12h30 et 13h, suivant l’arrivée des groupes.
Montagne Propre va au bout de la démarche puisque le mardi 26 juin se fera le tri de la collecte, en bas de la rue des Lugeurs, vers 13h30.

Seront présents, et cela depuis 3 ans, des enfants de l’école de 1850, ainsi que pour la première fois, des enfants handicapés d’une association de la région parisienne qui seront en vacances cette semaine-là à Courchevel.

Bring Your Sisters in Oxshott, Surrey

Great turnout at The Victoria Pub in Oxshott for their final public gig (for a while)…

Latest on the new lifts going in across The 3 Valleys during Summer 2018

In the 3 Valleys, lift infrastructure improvements never stop…

Until our comprehensive What’s New in La Tania & The 3 Valleys update in October here’s an update…

In Summary:
New Grangettes Gondola between Courchevel 1550-1850
New Le Praz Gondola (and complete base station, car park etc)
Bozel to St Bonn and Courchevel Village (1550) lift in (real) planning stages
New Plan de l’Homme “premium” chairlift in Meribel
Old Plan de l’Homme replaces the Cherferie drag
Replacement cabins on Mont Vallon & Bruyères
Additional capacity on Granges & Roc 1
Work rumoured to start on the Orelle side with a new gondola and then a stage 2 gondola to the top of Cime Caron.

Other major work started includes the extension to the Combes Reservoir while planning and debate goes on for the re-modelling and refurb of La Croisette in 1850, the link from Val Thorens to La Masse, the World Cup preparations for the Men’s downhill World Cup in 2023 (via top of the Bouc Blanc then Jockeys including the orignal start of Jockeys) and of course the La Tania Moretta Village/Extension project and Chairlift – no further news since this article last year.

It appears that a mid-station on Grangettes with a gondola to Aquamotion (and the new hotel/apartment complex l’Ecrin Blanc where earth work has started) is not going in just yet.

Courchevel

New Grangettes Gondola

Opening in December 2018 from Courchevel Village (1550) up to La Croisette in 1850 this replacement to the old Grangettes will have 10 seater cabins offering a faster and more comfortable ride up. More info in our What/s New / Future Stuff article from October 2017.

The original plans for a mid-station for a gondola link with Aquamotion and the new apartment residence down there appear to be on hold for now. A different (and cheaper and smaller capacity) lift up from there may now be used.

 
Le Praz Gondola and New Base Station Building
Work has already started on the new base station incorporating a Tourist Office, Ticket Sales, Underground Car Park etc. The new 10 seater gondola will now arrive near the top of Tovets chair – an easier walk up to La Croisette area and take only 5 minutes instead of the current 8 minutes. The gondola base station will integrate in to the new base building which will have sports facilities and a running track on the roof!


Work is expected to be completed by Dec 2019 and is now underway…

Photo Credit – Skifan

 
Bozel to Courchevel Lift
This has been talked about for as long as anyone can remember but seems to be gathering momentum now and will come to fruition. The Torchlit descent this Winter and the chance to ski down for a long period did give this quite a bit of publicity.

A study has already been carried out with a planned route from Bozel in the hamlet of Moulins, an intermediate station in St Bon (Jairaz bridge) and an arrival in Courchevel Village next to the Dou du Midi car park. The plan is to reduce traffic on RD91a road (Bozel to 1550 takes 16 minutes – a gondola would take just 6 apparently) and also link St Bon (the administration capital of the valley) in to the 3V system.

Meribel

New Plan de l’Homme Charlift
A very smart new lift is going in to the centre of the resort at La Chaudanne complete with bubble hood and heated seats! Although still a 6 seater it will have a higher throughput raising the capacity / skiers per hour figure.

Photo Credit – Skifan

Work started as soon as the lifts closed – progress on the base so far below from end of the season to now…



Photo Credit – Skifan

 
New Cherferie Charlift
The old Plan de l’Homme is getting move up the hill and replacing the dog leg exposed drag following the ridge for a much faster and comfortable route up here (although now more and more people will ski this area of course!).

 
New Gondola cabins are being installed on the Mont Vallon Gondola
These will be Sigma Diamond 8 Seater cabins made in Veyrins, France similar to the design below. Sigma is Poma’s oldest subsidiary, Poma and Leitner are owned by HTI Group – thanks to Bouctou for the clarification on this.

The new cabins will be a welcome change with a sitdown rest when doing circuits of this epic area.

Les Menuires

The Bruyères Gondola is also having new 8 seater cabins and it’s whole electrical system refurbed with increased speed next season too. It won’t be open for hikers and bikers this Summer as usual).


Photo Credits – Skifan

 
Also, extra chairs for the Granges lift and additional capacity on the Roc 1 gondola is planned (this won’t open this Summer either).

Orelle

New Orelle Gondola

Work is set to start on the replacement of the Orelle Gondola, The 3 Vallees Express and there are plans to put a mid station and continue the gondola up to the Cime Caron – exact dates aren’t know as yet for this major project which would include a blue piste from the top.

Further Future Developments

La Croisette Refurb
Artists impressions so far, but plans being drawn up to modernise the whole building.

 
Latest on the La Masse / Val Thorens link – Dame Blanche
No work yet on the new proposed Dame Blanche lift near the Plan de l’Eau chair (high enough to link across to access Masse 2) which includes a new piste down the Lac de Lou side. An artist impression video has been released of the proposal. Ultimately a single gondola to the top of La Masse is planned when Masse 1 & 2 need replacing.

2023 World Ski Championships – HERE!

As we revealed live, the rights to host the 2023 FIS World Ski Championships was recently won in a joint bid by Courchevel and Meribel.

This bi-annual event was last hosted in France by Val d’Isere in 2009.

Expect more improvements plus athletes and spectators facilities to be built leading up to the events when the area will be showcased to a TV audience of up to 600 million!

As can be seen from the video, Meribel will host the Women’s and Team events on the regularly used for competitions, Roc de Fer piste from the top of the Olympic Chair while Courchevel will host Men’s events primarily on the classic black Jockeys piste. Spectator access down the sides of Jockeys will be interesting!

The Men’s Downhill will start from near the top of the Bouc Blanc piste and cut across on to Jockeys (possibly using the original start of Jockeys Piste or via the bottom or Arolles) the final section uses the bottom of Murettes near to the bottom of the Ski Jump where no doubt extra grandstands etc will be situated.

Please don’t let them ruin Jockeys piste…!

The 2023 FIS Alpine World Skiing Championships take place between 9 and 23 February 2023 – yep smack in the middle of half term! As always, book early…

Thanks to the relevant Tourist Offices and kind permission from Skifan for the photographs.

Precautionary recall of 3+ avalanche transceivers

PRECAUTIONARY RECALL OF 3+ AVALANCHE TRANSCEIVERS RUNNING SOFTWARE VERSION 2.1

Message from Ortovox – Further Information Here

Dear ORTOVOX customer,

Feedback from our SAFETY ACADEMY PARTNERS has revealed that, in some very rare situations, temporary disruption of the transmission function may occur on our 3+ avalanche transceivers running software version 2.1. The reason for the disruption is a software error. The new software version 2.2 will rectify the error.

There have been no known accidents caused by the software error. As a precautionary measure to ensure our customers are not at risk, we are recalling all 3+ transceivers running software version 2.1. Devices affected by the recall may no longer be used without the required software update.

This precautionary recall applies exclusively to ORTOVOX 3+ avalanche transceivers running software version 2.1. – no matter what color.

3+ devices running the following software: 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 2.2 and all other ORTOVOX avalanche transceivers (S1+, S1, ZOOM) are not affected.

Devices can be sent free of charge from May 25, 2018 onwards.
Details at: www.ortovox.com/uk/services/emergency-equipment/avalanche-transceivers/recall-3/

That’s it for The 3 Valleys – Val Thorens has just closed for the season…

From the Courchevel free preview day way back on 15th November 2017 until today, 8th May when Val Thorens has just closed, The 3 Valleys has had an amazing season for snowfall. While the off piste gurus have certainly had better seasons (too much wind, often warm and poor visibility etc) it’s been great for the vast majority, although a few more sunnier days would have been welcome too!

The great season is already showing in early bookings with the school holiday weeks especially in big demand. Don’t leave it too late – BOOK NOW!

Thanks to Charlie for these pics from Val Thorens from yesterday and today – we expect some touring photos in the next few weeks…

Val Thorens opens for Winter 2019 in exactly 200 days…

Improve your French en-route to La Tania… New service coming to easyJet

The UK’s biggest language company uTalk teams up with the world’s leading airlines in pioneering new ‘Learn-as-you-Fly’ scheme…

Millions of British holidaymakers jetting abroad this summer will have the chance to start learning a new language while they fly to their destinations.

It’s thanks to a pioneering new ‘Learn-as-you-Fly’ scheme being launched by Britain’s biggest language company, uTalk

The award-winning company, which already offers customers 136 different languages, has teamed up with two of the world’s top airlines, Emirates and easyJet, and is also in talks with other airlines.

Videos and taster demos are being installed in hundreds of planes, with passengers being given free access to uTalk’s language learning facilities.

Business passengers travelling to meetings with overseas contacts also stand to reap the benefit of using their flight to learn the language basics in their destination country or brushing up on their linguistic skills.

uTalk’s deal with the world’s largest international airline, Emirates, has been cleared for take-off in a deal confirming language learning videos will be available fleet-wide on its award-winning inflight entertainment system, ice. Emirates customers across its six-continent global network will be able to use the new language package.

Travellers, including British families flying to their summer holidays on selected easyJet flights across Europe, will be able to learn a language while they fly. They will use easyJet’s inflight entertainment system, which allows you to access any of uTalk’s 136 languages from an onboard server to learn the language’s basics on your own phone, tablet or computer.

Snow Farming – Recycling this year’s snow in Courchevel…

Due to the amazing snowfall this season, we nearly did our annual April Fool with Courchevel trucking out tons of snow to a refrigeration plant to be brought back next year…

They are however trying to prevent a massive amount of snow from melting this Summer on the Emile Allais Stade area above 1850 to keep it for next season’s Ladies World Cup in December.

This Snowfarming technique stores an area of snow under a special tarpaulin and then blocks of insulation panels are placed on top.

Some 20,000 cubic metres are being stored (equivalent to 50 football pitches covered in snow 10cm deep). It is expected that 15,000 cubic metres will remain by the end of November.

The La Tania Tourist Office in Inter-Season

Update on the La Tania Tourist Office in Inter-Season (auto-translated with original message below).

The new email address for the La Tania Tourist Office is latania@courchevel.com

The 2018 Summer Courchevel Summer Brochure is on-line here. Looks like this is incorporating the La Tania brochure now – the “benefits” of the commune merger starting to become apparent it would seem… But at least the outdoor swimming pool in La Tania is definitely open this Summer.

The Summer in La Tania web page is starting to be updated now.

[LA TANIA TOURIST OFFICE]
In the inter-season, the La Tania reception desk will now be managed like the other villages of Courchevel.

In a logic of efficiency, the staff will be grouped in the administrative offices of Courchevel (1850) to work as a team.

This decision was made in consultation with the members of the management committee of Courchevel Tourisme, and in particular with the representatives of La Tania.

In order to maintain continuity in La Tania, the office will remain open until April 28, two weeks after the closing station.

In the same way, it will re-open on June 25, in order to be operational when staff arrive in order to prepare the summer season.

Of course, during the physical closure of the office, telephone reception and messaging will be provided from Courchevel (1850).

In case of appointments or other imperative requirements, the staff of Courchevel Tourism will go to the reception of La Tania.

We remain at your disposal for any further information.

[BUREAU D’ACCUEIL DE LA TANIA]
Aux inter-saisons, le bureau d’accueil de la Tania sera désormais géré comme celui des autres villages de Courchevel.
Dans une logique d’efficacité, le personnel sera regroupé dans les bureaux administratifs de Courchevel (1850) pour travailler en équipe.

Cette décision a été prise en concertation avec les membres du comité de direction de Courchevel Tourisme, et notamment avec les représentants de la Tania.
Dans un souci d’accueil sur la Tania, le bureau restera ouvert jusqu’au 28 avril, soit deux semaines après la fermeture station.
De la même manière, il rouvrira le 25 juin, afin d’être opérationnels quand les socioprofessionnels viendront s’installer pour préparer la saison d’été.

Bien entendu, pendant la fermeture physique du bureau, l’accueil téléphonique et la messagerie seront assurés depuis Courchevel (1850).
En cas de besoin, rendez-vous ou autre impératif, le personnel de Courchevel Tourisme se rendra à l’accueil de la Tania.

Nous restons à votre disposition pour tout complément d’information.