Maps and suggested piste routes for Val Thorens / 3 Valleys

I'm off to Val Thorens this Friday for 6 days of skiing. It'll be my first time ever skiing in Europe and I'd like to be sure to make the most of it. Please forgive my ignorance, but do the European resorts freely hand out piste maps as they do here in the states?

At some resorts in the northeastern US there are daily internet reports as to which pistes were groomed overnight. Are such reports available for the 3 valleys? I've been unable to turn anything up on their website or elsewhere.

Also, can anyone recommend a good website for suggested piste itineraries? (i.e. recommended runs and strategies to make the most of a day)

Thanks so much for any advice you can lend!

There are free piste maps available all over ..it all depends on what you like to ski ...there are hundreds o kilometers of piste all I can say is remember you have to get back from where you get to..and I haven't found any indication of which piste is prepared but most are

enjoy yourself its a great area

You can pick up piste maps at the main lift stations no problems.
Have you seen this "live" page?
http://www.valthorens.com/winter-en/val-thorens/live.55.html
and on the piste grooming front - I'm pretty sure that all marked runs will be groomed overnight every day, particularly as the season progresses and spring conditions start to dominate.

You may be in kuck as there is abit of snow forecast for the week you are going, not a huge dump but a god few cm's.

It may be worth looking at both the Meribel valley website and Courchevel as well - but with the present conditions you should be looking forward to a week with pretty much everything open but maybe not much easy to find good off-piste conditions.

Merinet may have some useful info for you ...
http://www.merinet.com/ski/area/ski-itineraries.html

The Three valleys is the most monstrously large ski area - I doubt you will cover anywhere near all of it in six days.

There are many off-piste itineraries but maybe a guide is your best bet when you want to really escape the pistes?

Whatever you choose to do I hope you enjoy your experiences. I would love to read about your views of your first European skiing experience whan you get back to wherever home is, do please come back and let us know the high and low-lights.
:thumbup:

From memory, there are large signposts at piste juctions, among them are 3v signs which are the ones to follow for the routes between the valleys.
Do take note of the opening and closing times of the lifts. It's eye wateringly expensive to have to get a taxi back via the valley!

Every lift pass office will offer area maps.

Suggest you buy Carte (Carre) Neige with your lift ticket. If you are injured and need to call for help it will make your life easier. Expect to pay 2-3 Euros a day.

Most pistes are groomed daily, the only likely exception are Itineraries, and bump fields.

This being France, there is no queue etiquette at all, sharpen your elbows )

Hi Khjr,
There are several on-piste itineraries arouind the 3 Valleys suggested here:
http://www.valthonet.com/ski/area/ski-itineraries.html

I have been to the area 5 times now and the first 4 times all the pistes I went on, except the ones they were deliberately keeping as moguls, were pisted every night.

But I went a few months ago, over New Year, and for the first few days there seemed to be lots of pistes that were left in their natural state - all lumps and bumps and piles of loose powder everywhere. The only reason I could think of for this was that the machines were out clearing the roads as the snow was incredibly heavy - 5 metres in 5 weeks I seem to remember at Val Thorens.

The 3 Valleys is a fantastic place and I'm sure you'll have a great time :D

Ally

I was in 3V last week, virtually all pistes were groomed every night except intended black runs & mogul fields.

There were virtually NO queues all week (except for Val T on Wednesday for some reason) and it should be quieter from now-on because all French Schools have returned.

The one main problem spot seemed to be the main bubble "Plattieres" out of Motteret (which is the main link back to Val T.) This kept stopping and is slow at the best of times (30-50 min queue, plus 22 mins lift time, plus random stoppages). So if you're are skiing back to Val T from Courchevel keep an eye out and allow plenty of time.

And contrary to normal expectations, those short lift lines that there were, were very well ordered with etiquette too [I know, amazing :!: ]

I was going to write-up a few favourite runs of mine from last week's visit, I might get it done before you go!

We went to VT in December and were impressed by the huge ski area. It is also quite an amazing site looking out from the village onto the huge bowl that opens up before you. It's a lovely place to sit and enjoy the sunshine and watch the skiers coming down the valley.

We did find that mogul fields appeared where there hadn't been any a few days before because they did not piste all the runs every night, this may have changed since then. I am not a mogul fan and so found this quite alarming when going down a red I thought I knew, only to find it was very bumpy and way out of my comfort zone.

The good thing about this area though is that there are off piste bits that link the runs and so it is possible to cross over if you get stuck. Watch out for gullys though, I saw one chap come a cropper because he didn't see one in time.

The only other thing I found different to other resorts was how the extra altitude affected me. I know it is not much higher than some other places but it took 24 hours for me to get used to it (I know I am an old girl). Going up to a glacier and skiing down is one thing, living up at that altitude takes a bit of getting used to.

We drove up and went self catering, so we had a car full of stuff. Crisp packets and shampoo bottles did the usual thing and looked like hot air balloons and all out walnut whips exploded their walnuts off the top and did mini vesuvius impressions, quite funny really.

Enjoy it though, there is just so much to do but don't expect the place to be pretty, a picturesque village it isn't.

Oh and if you want to treat yourself, there is a 2 star Michelin restaurant at L'Oxalys.

felthorpe wrote:Enjoy it though, there is just so much to do but don't expect the place to be pretty, a picturesque village it isn't.

Thanks! For this, my first trip to Europe for skiing, I'm solely seeking terrain.

I don't suppose the town could look much worse than Killington Vermont where I ski every weekend! (similar to the 3V, Killington is renowned in Vermont for its terrain, but is regarded as one of the less attractive mountains in Vermont because it lacks the typical New England village)