jamesdeluxe
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
After four days on my mid-March trip to the French Alps, I had a less than stellar record with only one of the bluebird powder outings that you hope for/expect in the Alps. With a second whiteout storm day in a row forecast for Day 5, I decided to wait it out and figure out my next move to hopefully end the visit on a high note.
At that point, I decided that given my location, only a short drive from Les Trois Vallées/The Three Valleys (3V), which continues to enjoy the title of largest ski resort in the world, I should give it a quick two-day visit. You may recall that NYSBer Face4Me spent a week there last winter and returned pretty impressed even with less than optimum conditions. From my hotel, it was 20 minutes along a flat two-lane valley road -- no need for chains, snow tires, or four-wheel drive on high-mountain passes -- to reach the back-door access point, Orelle, from which you take a gondola and a chair up 7,500 vertical feet.
They put the "world's largest ski area" tagline wherever possible and who can blame them?
As we've discussed in years past, Euros measure the size of ski areas according to the length of marked trails instead of skiable acres -- something that makes some American skiers like me bristle a bit. 3V continues to use a brochure quote of 360 miles even after the Alps-wide 2014 Pistegate controversy, where a German cartographer did his own measurements and came up with "only" 300 miles. Regardless of how you measure the terrain, 3V is mind-boggingly huge.
Even though it's been called the 3 Vallées for something like 50 years, since the opening of the Orelle gondola in 1996 it could've been accurately renamed The Four Valleys as the Orelle sector (map below) is more than a mile wide with a ton of offpiste terrain; however, that would nullify decades of brand building (in addition to the fact that there's already a Four Valleys resort in Switzerland, i.e. Verbier).
While waiting for crews to secure the upper parts of Val Thorens, I did a handful of warmup runs in knee-deep powder on the south-facing Orelle sector with 2,800 feet of vertical and steep, frequently cliffy offpiste.
Finally at 10:15, the ropes dropped and I took a separate gondola to the top of Cime Caron. Once there, instead of everyone trampling each other in a powder frenzy to get at the fresh snow that had fallen overnight, most people stopped at the edge to gape for a bit:
You're looking out over Val Thorens with the village 3,200 verts below and the Les Menuires sector further down over the ridge on the left:
It's far too wide to capture with one shot so here's another. I could've kept scanning much further right to get it all in:
I was standing in the far right corner, which I circled in blue:
Funny how based on the trail map, I had expected the lifts to be literally one on top of the other in parallel; however, that isn't the case at all. The map is heavily condensed and there's lots of space between everything.
With a 4/5 avalanche rating and being solo, I stuck to obvious low-hanging fruit on the 12-18 inches that came down the previous day. For my first run, I followed these guys with a guide not far from the vantage point above:
1,500 verts further down was more easy powder over this knoll to the left:
Gorgeous vistas:
By late morning, I crossed to the middle valley, Meribel:
Just to the looker's right of the Grange chair at the top of the St. Martin de Belleville sector, I did this nice low-angle slope three times in a row -- it extended another ten turns below the bottom right corner:
Because I was alone and had so much terrain to cover, lunches on both of my days at 3V were a quick vegetarian panini at an outdoor shack. In November 2013, I nabbed these 3V goggles at a French ski marketing event in Manhattan and have worn them every sunny day since. Almost ten years later, they finally made it "home."
By 2 pm, I headed back toward Val Thorens.
Val Thorens is supposed to be the highest resort in western Europe. Signs said that it'll be operating during this below-average season daily until May 8 and weekends thereafter. Being north-facing and with seven lifts that go at least to 3000 meters/10,000 feet, the snow quality/preservation is excellent. It's all above-treeline so not the place to be during storms and I bet that during the beginning and end of the season a lot of people from Courchevel and Meribel hightail it over there for the far better conditions.
While I wasn't crazy about the looks of the hotels there, it has a high-energy, Austrian-style après ski atmosphere:
From "odd things Americans notice at Euro ski areas" -- this is the ticket area at the Orelle gondola on Monday morning with a maybe ten-minute wait. Notice anything missing? How about a ski rack! Instead, most people just put their planks on the ground.
For my second day at 3V, I was adamant about seeing as much as possible so I didn't stop to take many photos. Once again, I started with three warmup runs in the Orelle sector, where 4-5 inches had fallen overnight so it was nice and soft. Crossing into Val Thorens, I did lots of short offpiste detours:
Val Thorens is a pretty rocky mountain but despite the comparative low-tide conditions this season, I didn't hit anything offpiste thanks to the several feet of recent snow.
Lots of soft chops between trails:
Nice carvy groomers:
Back into Meribel:
For well-regarded Mont Vallon, I had to wait 15 minutes in a crowded line (no lift corrals) to get on the gondola. I was concerned about autobahn crowds on the way down; however, within a few hundred yards from the bustling summit, I was completely alone and it stayed that way for the next 2,700 verts. That seemed to be an ongoing motif: lots of people in certain spots but deserted across the majority of the terrain.
An obligatory stop:
In short: two bell-to-bell days using Orelle as my access point gave me a basic overview of the 3V; however, not much more than that due to its immense size. I didn't make it to Courchevel, the valley on the far left, which is supposed to be the least interesting of the three. The entire time, I only waited for three lifts -- the rest were ski-on. The window rate on lift tickets is $72, a comparative deal for what's on offer, and it's only $58 on Saturdays (the changeover day for destination visitors).
At that point, I decided that given my location, only a short drive from Les Trois Vallées/The Three Valleys (3V), which continues to enjoy the title of largest ski resort in the world, I should give it a quick two-day visit. You may recall that NYSBer Face4Me spent a week there last winter and returned pretty impressed even with less than optimum conditions. From my hotel, it was 20 minutes along a flat two-lane valley road -- no need for chains, snow tires, or four-wheel drive on high-mountain passes -- to reach the back-door access point, Orelle, from which you take a gondola and a chair up 7,500 vertical feet.
They put the "world's largest ski area" tagline wherever possible and who can blame them?
As we've discussed in years past, Euros measure the size of ski areas according to the length of marked trails instead of skiable acres -- something that makes some American skiers like me bristle a bit. 3V continues to use a brochure quote of 360 miles even after the Alps-wide 2014 Pistegate controversy, where a German cartographer did his own measurements and came up with "only" 300 miles. Regardless of how you measure the terrain, 3V is mind-boggingly huge.
Even though it's been called the 3 Vallées for something like 50 years, since the opening of the Orelle gondola in 1996 it could've been accurately renamed The Four Valleys as the Orelle sector (map below) is more than a mile wide with a ton of offpiste terrain; however, that would nullify decades of brand building (in addition to the fact that there's already a Four Valleys resort in Switzerland, i.e. Verbier).
While waiting for crews to secure the upper parts of Val Thorens, I did a handful of warmup runs in knee-deep powder on the south-facing Orelle sector with 2,800 feet of vertical and steep, frequently cliffy offpiste.
Finally at 10:15, the ropes dropped and I took a separate gondola to the top of Cime Caron. Once there, instead of everyone trampling each other in a powder frenzy to get at the fresh snow that had fallen overnight, most people stopped at the edge to gape for a bit:
You're looking out over Val Thorens with the village 3,200 verts below and the Les Menuires sector further down over the ridge on the left:
It's far too wide to capture with one shot so here's another. I could've kept scanning much further right to get it all in:
I was standing in the far right corner, which I circled in blue:
Funny how based on the trail map, I had expected the lifts to be literally one on top of the other in parallel; however, that isn't the case at all. The map is heavily condensed and there's lots of space between everything.
With a 4/5 avalanche rating and being solo, I stuck to obvious low-hanging fruit on the 12-18 inches that came down the previous day. For my first run, I followed these guys with a guide not far from the vantage point above:
1,500 verts further down was more easy powder over this knoll to the left:
Gorgeous vistas:
By late morning, I crossed to the middle valley, Meribel:
Just to the looker's right of the Grange chair at the top of the St. Martin de Belleville sector, I did this nice low-angle slope three times in a row -- it extended another ten turns below the bottom right corner:
Because I was alone and had so much terrain to cover, lunches on both of my days at 3V were a quick vegetarian panini at an outdoor shack. In November 2013, I nabbed these 3V goggles at a French ski marketing event in Manhattan and have worn them every sunny day since. Almost ten years later, they finally made it "home."
By 2 pm, I headed back toward Val Thorens.
Val Thorens is supposed to be the highest resort in western Europe. Signs said that it'll be operating during this below-average season daily until May 8 and weekends thereafter. Being north-facing and with seven lifts that go at least to 3000 meters/10,000 feet, the snow quality/preservation is excellent. It's all above-treeline so not the place to be during storms and I bet that during the beginning and end of the season a lot of people from Courchevel and Meribel hightail it over there for the far better conditions.
While I wasn't crazy about the looks of the hotels there, it has a high-energy, Austrian-style après ski atmosphere:
From "odd things Americans notice at Euro ski areas" -- this is the ticket area at the Orelle gondola on Monday morning with a maybe ten-minute wait. Notice anything missing? How about a ski rack! Instead, most people just put their planks on the ground.
For my second day at 3V, I was adamant about seeing as much as possible so I didn't stop to take many photos. Once again, I started with three warmup runs in the Orelle sector, where 4-5 inches had fallen overnight so it was nice and soft. Crossing into Val Thorens, I did lots of short offpiste detours:
Val Thorens is a pretty rocky mountain but despite the comparative low-tide conditions this season, I didn't hit anything offpiste thanks to the several feet of recent snow.
Lots of soft chops between trails:
Nice carvy groomers:
Back into Meribel:
For well-regarded Mont Vallon, I had to wait 15 minutes in a crowded line (no lift corrals) to get on the gondola. I was concerned about autobahn crowds on the way down; however, within a few hundred yards from the bustling summit, I was completely alone and it stayed that way for the next 2,700 verts. That seemed to be an ongoing motif: lots of people in certain spots but deserted across the majority of the terrain.
An obligatory stop:
In short: two bell-to-bell days using Orelle as my access point gave me a basic overview of the 3V; however, not much more than that due to its immense size. I didn't make it to Courchevel, the valley on the far left, which is supposed to be the least interesting of the three. The entire time, I only waited for three lifts -- the rest were ski-on. The window rate on lift tickets is $72, a comparative deal for what's on offer, and it's only $58 on Saturdays (the changeover day for destination visitors).
