Snow and Spectacle – Les Trois Vallees (26 January 2018)

Les Trois Vallees is one of the largest ski areas in the world. It is a winter sports paradise with a series of villages up the access roads of three parallel north-south valleys in the French Alps. The meeting point for the three roads and valley waterways is the town of Moutier the main town of the region in the Isere valley to the north.

There are over 20 settlements in the Les Trois Vallees with access to the linked ski terrain network. Its’ resorts range from purpose built high altitude resorts with Val Thorens at 2200m (the highest resort in Europe) down to the traditional villages of the lower valleys and everything in between. The architecture ranges from some 70’s brutalist resort buildings with a few especially notable ones in the Val Thorens valley, to Meribel with its attractive wooden chalet village architecture (very popular with the Brits) through to the ultra up-market Courchevel where chalets change hands for 28 million Euros. These chalets don’t look enormous, just well-appointed and well-located. The numbers are staggering. Russians are a visible feature at Courchevel.

The special feature of Les Trois Vallees is travelling across the landscapes of the different valleys. Lifts from each valley provide access to the pistes of the adjacent valley unless the weather is poor. Winds and weather periodically interrupt the lift access – “Stay in your vallee’ is the instruction. Given it costs 40-80 Euros to return to your valley by taxi, if you are caught out, these warnings are taken seriously. Val Thorens is the western-most valley, the highest and windiest. You can struggle to move forward on sections of high exposed pistes due to the strong winds. Meribel is the middle valley providing ready access in both directions. It was the sight of numerous events of the Albertville Winter Olympics and has a gondola constructed providing access up from Bides le Bains, close to Moutier. Exclusive Courchevel is the easternmost valley and seems to consistently have somewhat better snow conditions and is always buzzing with people around its centralised lift base.

The conditions of the resorts are all about altitude and the fortunes of the ski season. The lower resorts (1100m to 1350m) each year especially can be affected. A lack of snow can make skiing in/out difficult or minimal snow cover or ice can become a hazard. We stayed at Meribel Mottaret, the highest village in the Meribel Valley (at 1750m).

Access to the Les Trois Vallees resorts is straightforward by train, car or bus unless you hit a period of bad weather on the busy ‘changeover’ days, particularly Saturdays. What happens is that all the traffic on the motorway into Moutier gets stuck and a one hour trip can take 8-10 hours. It happens not infrequently when bad weather conditions and the changeover traffic co-incide. They even have shelters along the way where people can spend the night rather than be stuck in their vehicles. The road system is designed deliberately that way to ensure people are stuck on the low motorway into Moutier rather than the more hazardous high roads up the vallees.

The skiing is awesome with a huge array of runs for most skiers. Off-piste options are infinite too though dependent on snow conditions. Snowboarding and off-piste skiing were popular for the young lads until rain made a heavy crust on the snow making off-piste hard labour. Rain should not be allowed to happen on ski holidays in Europe.

French people are keen skiers so it’s not an elitist pursuit outside of the most ritzy centres. You see lots of older folk and families happily skiing together. There are places you can bring a picnic lunch; lots of spots where you can get pictures taken by installed cameras; and there are reasonable restaurants, supermarkets and eateries alongside the exclusive options.

Toboganning options are provided in each valley from little runs at the end of pistes to a big formal run in each valley. It’s such a fun activity though technically a bit hazardous. There is basically control on a toboggan by applying the brake and then sooner or later it all goes pear-shaped and you’re out of control. It’s a hoot. I hit 40km per hour at one point! An awesome new 3km course over at the former Courchevel 1650 (renamed Courchevel Moriond) was a hit with our group.

Snow holidays are awesome.