Trip report of our visit to the Three Valleys Ski area today!!

Trip report of our visit to the Three Valleys Ski area today!!

Had an excellent day over in the Three Valley Ski area up in the Val Thorens and Orelle Valley today.

Having finally got away just after 8am we reached Val Thorens just after the lifts had opened and hit the slopes by about 9.30am. Heading straight up to the top of Cime Caron we went off the back with a blue sky and some nice spring snow down the Vallon du Lou. Well tracked but with a few places where we could still put down some fresh tracks.

Then back up to the Col du Rosael and down off piste to the bottom of the Peyron chair. Up top and down through the cliffs onto the Glacier du Bouchet in the fourth valley. Had a nice picnic then carried on down. Once more it was soft spring conditions most of the way with hard crusty crud starting to melt lower down.

Back up to the Col du Rosael and off piste down to the bottom of the Grand Fond lift on chalky snow most of the way through the cliffs. Back up and this time skiers right off piste down to the new Thorens Gondola. From the top, again skiers right down through yet more cliffs and onto the meadows before reaching the Moriane Chair.

Up the chair to the top of the Glacier du Thorens. Managed to put some more fresh tracks in the spring snow on the glacier before going all the way down to the Funitel Peclet.

Up to the top of another Glacier one last time and then off piste once more all the way back into Val Thorens taking in as many untracked areas and soft spring snow as possible on the way down. Finally reaching the car park below Val Thorens again around 5.30pm.

Quite a fun day. Covered all the high spots and low points of the Val Thorens ski area and found plenty of good spring snow, although unless you hike, it was not that easy to find untracked areas although we did manage to ski a few. The piste we crossed were all in good condition with firm hard packed snow and a few boiler plate areas in the morning. Most areas in the sun were warming up nicely and making it much easier to ski in the afternoon. The off piste was in a very similar condition and so by starting low and moving higher as the day progressed we managed to have good snow most of the day.

Anyone thinking of heading out to val Thorens is in for a good time as there is plenty of snow and although busy on piste, the off piste areas were still quite empty. We shall be back again before the end of the season.

The pics of todays trip to the Three Valleys will be in a new March 2012 Album Two on my Les Arcs Winter facebook page when I have time to post them.

http://www.facebook.com/LesArcsWinter

Yesterday, 5 April, we had another day in the Three Vallays. This time we started in Meribel - Mottaret and then on finding Mont Vallon closed first thing in the morning headed over to Val Thorens.

We spent most of the day over in the Val Thorens area where we found some good untracked fresh snow high on the Glacier and then down from the Thorens Gondola.

The snow high up was very good until about 2pm when we went for a late lunch and even lower down into Val Th...orens it was not to soft until around midday.

On the way back from Val Thorens to Mottaret from the top of the Col de la Champe we found some more good off piste on the higher slopes, but the piste lower down became soft very quickly.

The final run down from Plattieres 2 was very soft but skiable to within 20m of where we parked which was very good for this time of year.

For anyone going to the Three Valleys in the next week, you are in for a good time and it is still well worth buying the full area pass. We plan to go back again next week.