SKiing the 3 Vallees

Happy Easter Everyone

By now you would have all made it back to work (except for those lucky souls who are still on holidays) and be wondering no doubt how I got on in France.  First things first.......I have never, ever seen mountains so big and I have never ever seen so much different skiable terrain.

Three Vallees Skiing

OK here is a rough acount of the trip:

DAY 1 - Meribel Valley

We skied from about 11:00am to 4:30pm and were well and truly stuffed by the end of it.  It was a day of reaquainting oneself with the two planks and getting to know the Mountain......this may sound dumb, but believe me if you ever go the France and ski Les 3 Vallees you will understand what I mean.  The lift network is amazing and the amount of skiable terrain is huge.....of course that didn't stop Deano and I going Off Piste......warning, just b/c snow look soft and fluffy doesn't mean it is and just because it appears like a great opportunity for "First Tracks" doesn't mean it is.....also trying to make first tracks when you haven't skied for 10 months is not a bright idea.

That evening 2 things happened:  the first was that Deano and I  found out we had a room mate - Tommy, and English guy from lincolnshire (just imagine Geoffrey Boycott commentating the cricket and you'll get a picture of how he sounded) the second was that after plying Tommy with a few beers at Happy Hour, we found out he was still in high school and that he had a very high opinion of Australians :)

DAY 2

Day 1 was a warm up, and although we found some fantastic skiing in the Meribel Valley around Mont de la Chambre, of eyes kept gaing further afield to Val Thoron.  The lure of skiing above 3000m was great.  Tommy our new friend joined us.  Given the celebrations of the night before, getting up at 8:00am and being on the Mountain by 9:00am was a remarkable effort.  We headed up, and up and down and the across and up and down and across before we finally got to Val Thorens - it took about 2 hours with a slight detour oon this huge rune whihc to aboue 20 to 25 mins to complete.......legs hurting, lungs screaming.  The Val Thorens is about 2100m, so the snow cover was great.  We skied extensively the whole area, before deciding deciding to brave the longest chair lift I have ever seen to get above 3100m......We got there and it was cold...probably the first time on the Mountain we'd felt cold and only the first time I'd brought out the scarf.......It was worth it though.  The views were out of this world.  At 3:30pm we decided to leave Val Thorens and ski back to Meribel......that took about 1:30mins......this place is huge.  Sat night we took it easy.....we sort of - and our new friend Tommy gave Deano and I a lesson in Pool.....

DAY 3 - Courcheval

The move to Daylight Saving was a real mess up with time so we didn't end up on the Mountain until 9:30.  Then the Gondola to take us to Courcheval was not opeating so we had to go via a circuitous route.  It tool a while but it was worth it.  To paint a picture, think bright blue sky, really warm and fantastic snow conditions.  Combine that with easily the most breathtaking terrain and some steep and scary runs and you have what can only be described as Paradise.  Of the thre Courcheval was my favourite, Val Thorens is higher and had better powder, but for some good hard skiing Courcheval is the place to go!

We skied until we dropped - literally before heading down the Mountain at around 4:00pm.  I got to the stage where my legs just refused to turn they were that tired.  The one break we had was at around noon where we fell into some deck chairs at 2000m and just basked in the sun.

Attached you'll find some pics :)