Our customary trip skiing with the Muppets this year was based in the Three Valleys, that largest ski area in the world! We’ve been to the Three Valleys before, back in 2019. But then we were based in the sleepy La Tania. Being a bit sleepy, La Tania was a cheaper option in days-gone-by. Now-a-days just about every accommodation option has got a lot more expensive. We helped manage the rising costs this year by eschewing package ski holidays and opting to booked our own flight to Chambery, Air B&B accommodation, and a hire car to get from the airport to Meribel. Amazingly, considering the fact that the Three Valleys is the largest – and therefore popular – ski area in the world, getting from the airport to resort is either extremely tricky, and impossible by public transport, or very expensive by private transfer. I guess almost everyone simply books package holiday. ๐ So in the end a hire car option was actually a cheap option, especially thanks to Laetitia’s corporate super-duper-discount. ๐
Conditions were good with loads of snow from earlier massive dumps. There was around 80cm of packed snow, and up to 180cm up high. We didn’t have much fresh powder in our week, but we did have almost endless sunshine. ๐
The sunshine in the day (positive temperatures) and the clear skies at night (freezing temperatures) meant the off-piste areas were frozen hard and lumpy. This wasn’t really any fun to ski. So we mostly stuck to the pistes for the week, enjoying fast and fun skiing in the glorious sunshine, and topping up the vitamin D after weeks of rain back in Cumbria. ๐
There was a small amount of fresh snow on our last two days though, and some exciting off-piste was enjoyed from the top of Point de la Masse. Point de la Masse, at the lofty height of 2804m, is now accessed quickly via the brand new eponymous and extremely long single gondola ride gaining over 1000m of altitude from its base in Les Menuires. ๐ฎ