One of the main questions one faces when planning a ski trip in Europe is where to go; one is simply spoilt for choice. Last year we had a week in Avoriaz, part of les portes de soleil conglomeration, which was fantastic, so wherever we went this time had to have a similar amount of terrain. Logistically it was challenging, as there were four of us: one from Paris, one from Geneva, one from Tübingen (Germany) and another from Budapest. To keep costs down, we did not want to be in Switzerland, which left us with Austria or France. We ended with up with France, as we discovered Les trois Vallées region. Nestled in the northern Alps and comprised of eight resorts, the skiable terrain is the largest in the world and with lifts servicing heights of 3230 metres, it was too good to pass up. The resort of Val Thorens was the initial target, mainly as it was named the world’s best resort in 2013. We did not end up there, but rather at les Menuirs which is in the same valley, but a bit lower down. The lower resort is serviced directly by TGV, but this would have only be convenient for me, so instead we met in Geneva and caught a bus.

The Belleville valley (as seen from our tiny apartment)

Above Saint-Martin-de-Belleville — Above *Saint-Martin-de-Belleville*

As les trois vallées are not particularly close to Geneva, bus services are limited and all depart from the airport, to catch everyone coming from the United Kingdom. Indeed, the bus company was a UK company, BenBus which operates its service only on a Saturday – as most resorts operate a Saturday-orientated 7 day cycle. The bus ride was about two and a half hours and was really slow going due to all of the traffic heading to the exact same location we were. It was school holidays in France for 2 of the 3 regions, meaning the ski resort was going to be packed out. Arriving in town, we headed straight for our accommodation, which was not in town but in the neighbouring Roberty. After having some fun on the local buses and the snowy roads, we arrived to find out that there was no reception on-site, it was instead located back where the bus dropped us, so two people returned back down whilst the other two remained to guard our gear. Eventually we got this sorted, we got our lift passes, hired our gear and did some shopping so by the end of the day, we were primed and ready for some skiing.

The last run of the day with some pretty light

Conditions could not have been better, with snow falling solidly for the previous 30+ hours and clearing that morning. We all took to the slopes and it quickly became apparent that our lift passes did not work. After the mission to get to the ticket office and for them to figure out what went wrong, it turns out they had assigned our tickets for the week previous, so they had expired the day before. How they managed that is impressive, but they had. So after rectifying the problem and some quick thinking to ask for a discount because of the fuss, they said it was not possible but we could each have a free ticket for the SpeedMountain, a “techfun” roller-coaster/cart ride. We now had our passes along with a bonus, so it was go time.

It is not my intention to recount our skiing adventures as this would not be all too interesting for those not involved. I will however share one amusing anecdote, relating to a skiing lesson: at the beginning of the lesson our teacher, a very stern and surly individual, asked what we wanted to improve. Of course we replied with “just tearing it up” and with that we were on our way and we did indeed tear it up. However near the end of the lesson as we prepared to get on a chairlift, somehow going through the gate both Simon and I had a bit much speed and unfortunately for us, there was a step after the loading area, with a height difference of 40 centimetres which was also on a corner. In an attempt to slow down, I idiotically grabbed the bar of the chair in front and was subsequently dragged off the platform and through the snow in comedic fashion. What really rubbed it in however was looking up from my embarrassing mess to see our teacher, who up to that point had shown no emotion, just giving me a thumbs-up as his lift took off. Upon arriving at the top, he said in his broken English “I have never had anyone in my group do that before, congratulations”. It was pretty soul destroying.

One evening we also had our trip down the SpeedMountain, which could have been fun, except for the fact it is speed limited. And even though I did not touch the brakes at any point, I did not receive a top speed ranking, which quite frankly is a scam.

A similar view to above, just one valley over!

So all in all, I could not recommend Les trois Vallées highly enough. The terrain was awesome, the conditions were bodacious and it is very accessible. For skiing, one cannot really ask for much more.

A mobile snapshot of le Parc national des Ecrins — A mobile snapshot of le Parc national des Ecrins

Adventures

Les Trois Vallées