Les 3 Vallees
Wednesday 2 January 2002

Weather

Conditions

Furet

Once again, Chris and I set pout on our own and th weather was absolutely perfect. I managed to pursuade Chris to take a gondola and we set out for the far reaches of Courcheval, with the objective of getting to the further point on the lift map.

Pas du Lac 1 (1746) :

Pas du Lac 2 (1538) : Creux

We headed down Creux with the objective of taking the Cole Brune lift. We missed it and ended up at Chanrossa instead.

Chanrossa (1402) : Roc Merlet

From the top of Chanrossa we skied straight on. The run was groomed but not very well, with ridges between the groomed strips, rocky strips and upill sections.

Groomed slope at the top of Chanrossa	The top of Chanrossa
Chanrossa lift	Top of Chanrossa
Mike at the top of Chanrossa	Mike at the top of Chanrossa
Saulire from the top of Chanrossa	Choice of runs from Chanrossa

Roc Merlet (487) : Mont Russe Roc Merlet, Combe Roc Mugnier

We didn't actually have enough speed to get past the bottom of Roc Merlet lift, so we took the lift back up and tried again. This time we did manage to keep enough speed to crest the hill and carry on further into the Courcheval valley. We were aiming for the Signal lift but lost our way.

Hot air balloon ready for take off

Prameruel (627) : Grandes Bosses

Prameruel took us more or less in the direction we wanted.

Coucheval landscape	Hor air balloons over Courcheval

Signal (1485) : Chapelets

At the top of Signal we faced a dilema. There was a sign indicating that the lift we were intending to use, the Signal drag lift was not operating because of poor snow conditions and that there was a 25 minute wait for the next lift, Bel Air. The lift map was not clear whether it was possible to ski further down towards Courcheval. We decided to ski on anyway. We wanted to get to the far reaches of Courcheval and if the wait was 25 minutes, we had time.

Bel Air (861) : Blvd Gravelles

At the bootom of Chapelets our worst fears were confirmed. The slope onwards was in fact uphill. However, the wait for Bel Air was considerably less than 25 minutes. In fact there was no queue at all.

Bel air lift

Aiguille de Fruit (1904) : Unnamed Blue Run Suisses

Plan A was to take the Aguille de Fruits lift and then the Park City run back towards Meribel and then to the base of Coqs run back towards the Col de la Loze. But, Suisses lokked in such good condition, despite being a black, that we changed to plan B almost immediately.

We skied on down towards Coqs and stopped for a break at a café overlooking the Altiport. This was about the worst service all week and to make it worse, there was a group of very loud British "hooray Henries".

Light plane preparing for take-off	Plane preparing for take-off
Plane taking off	Plane arriving
Plane arriving	Plane preparing to take-off
Mike at the café

Unnamed Blue Run

Loze (1617) : Cretes

After the break, we found that we had missed the run to Coqs and ended up skiing down into the centre of Meribel-1850. There were a number of alternatives including a drag lift back the way we had come, a gondola with a queue and a drag lift Loze which was marked on the map as a "Téléski difficile". We decided on the difficult surface lift which was in fact a double drag lift, parallel to each other. We managed to synchronise so that we climbed side-by-side. The lift seemed to be "difficult" because in places it would be difficult to find somewhere to go if you fell off, but it was not physically difficult.

Chris on Loze lift

Cretes (525) :

Loze did not take us high enough to get to Col de la Loze, so we had to take a run and Cretes to get a little more altitude. Even that was not quite enough and it was an unpleasant walk uphill.

Col de la Loze (251) : Blanchot Tetras

Having seen Tetras from below, we knew that there were no hidden surprises. The top 50m or so was closed, so entry to the run was via a mogulled traverse from a little lower down on the Boulevard de la Loze. That section and the next section were fine. The moguls were not too big and the snow was in good condition. As we got lower, things got worse. Snow cover was a lot worse and there were plenty of rocks. At this point, I managed to drop my glasses without noticing. At the bottom, Chris summed it up nicely. "We can tick that one off, but we don't have to do it again!" This was just as well, because the run was closed for the rest of the week.

Tetras run from the bottom

Rope Tow : Doron, Foret

The rest of the run down to Meribel was uneventful. The rope tow was not very pleasant and lower down there were plenty of slick patched.

Plan de l'homme (1921) : Perdrit Grive

After lunch we had another "plan". Cathy was bringing Sue to the Col des 3 Marches for a coffee and then we were going to ski down into the Valley de Belleville. Chris and I agreed that we would ski up and meet them at 2:20. Meanwhile Cathy and Sue took the Chalets gondola down into Mottaret and the Plattieres gondola up.

Slopes above Mottaret	The Plattieres gondola
View towards Mont Vallon

Table Verte (1538) : Martre

Chris and I took the very convenient Table Verte lift .. No queues as usual and then made our way via Martre and the Sittelle and Chatelet lifts. We got onto the 3rd section of the Plattieres gondola without a wait but then had to wait for about 10 minutes part way up while the gondola stopped.

Sittelle (363) :

Chatelet (1231) : Unnamed Blue Run

Sun at the top of Chatelet	Sun at the top of Chatelet

Plattieres 3 (974) :

We got to the pass more or less on time. Cathy and Sue were about 10 minutes behind us. The weather was terrific, so we were able to sit outside and avoid the smoke.

Sue and Cathy arriving at 3 Marches	Col des 3 Marches
Sue at the café	Looking down Grand Lac towards Les Menuires
Looking towards the top end of Meribel valley	Col des 3 Marches
View along the ridge between Meribel and Belleville	The top of Allamands lift
Skiers and boarders at 3 Marches	Choice of runs
Sign post

While we skied down towards Led Menuires, Sue returned to the apartment via the gondolas.

Gondola section above Plan des Mains	View from the gondola
Plattieres gondola	Chalets gondola
Meribel from Chalets gondola

The run down Grand Lac took a long time! Once again Cathy had problems with her boots (since she changed boots at the end of Monday, she was trying to ski withy boots that were too small!). The top section of the run was fine. About 1/3 of the way down she started to have problems. By the time we got half way down Cathy decided that she could not make it as far as we planned, so we stopped at the bottom of the Grand Lac drag lift.

The top of Grand Lac run	The café at 3 Marches
The café at 3 Marches	Chris on Grand Lac
Cathy on Grand Lac	Pile up on Grand Lac
Cathy on Grand Lac	Cathy on Grand Lac
Chris on Grand Lac	Cathy starting to have boot trouble again

Grand Lac (1247) : Mouflon

Grand Lac was the most unpleasant experience of the week. There was a "scrum" trying to get onto the lift, with people pushing from all directions. The approach to the lift was slightly uphill, so in addition to pushing, everyone was making sure that they did not slip back. Twice, the person in front of me lost his grip and slid back about 8 feet, taking the people behind him (including me) with him. On each occasion, the area in front filled with people instantly. Overall we probably queued for nearly half an hour. After the queue, the lift was not too bad, although several people fell off in front of me, including one man who tried valiantly to get back for abput 100m before finally falling in an area where there was no obvious escape route. After the ride up the lift, Chris and I skied back to the apartment, while Cathy took the gondola.

Martre

Path to Le Hameau

When we got back to the apartment we finally worked out what to do about Cathy's boots. She agreed that there was nothing wrong with the first pair she had, and we went back to the ski shop and changed back. At the same time, I bought some new boots. The lining on my previous "new" boots split. I tried to repair it and found that the inner boot had perished. On checking, I found that my "new" boots were in fact 6 years old and I had skied in them 106 times. So, I got new ones. Next, we tried to get Cathy a lesson to get her weight in the right place. This involved a trip down to Mottaret in the gondola, but it wasn't possible, so we agreed that I would try to help her the foloowing day. Things weren't getting any better. Sue came down with a bug. We had booked at The Crocodile for a Cheese Fondue meal. Sue was not able to join us, but did send her camera. The meal was excellent.

Cheese fondue	Cheese fondue
Cheese fondue	Mike and the fondue
Chris

Runs

Last updated: 1/15/2002