The Three Valleys Escapade.

A group of six of the Finlays staff in Courchevel undertook the Three Valleys Escapade on our day off on the 15th January. We awoke to beautiful blue skies and buckets of fresh snow, a perfect day for it. And so, complete with Mountaintrak GPS systems attached to each of us we headed off.

For those who have not heard of the Escapade it is something which you can take the week to complete; we thought that was not enough of a challenge and decided to do it in a day... There are 14 markers around the Three Valleys and you have to check into all of them (with the electronic system you no longer need a stamp, they can record where you have been using your lift pass). The points you have to go to (as well as involving some of the oldest, slowest chairs in the Alps) take you to all of the furthest reaches of the Three Valleys. The checkpoints are all lifts and to give you an idea, these include St Martin, La Masse (Les Menuires), the top of the Col (the glacier in VT), the top of Orelle, the bottom of Meribel, the La Tania bubble, Tovets in 1550, Prameruel and Chapelets in 1650.

*For anyone who would like to do the Escapade, you can get a special map from any of the lift offices and if you look on the piste maps, most of the checkpoints are marked with little green circles with yellow arrows. Please see below for a full list.*

It was a great day out: exhausting but fun. We set off at 9am on the dot from Tovets in 1550 and finished at 4.45pm, at the bottom of 1650, we had one loo stop and ate lunch as a sandwich on the lifts. One point to note is that this is best undertaken nearer March when the lifts are open later! Thanks to having the GPS systems on, we know that our total distance was 126km and of that 78km was skiing. One of the best runs of the day was the Bouc Blanc down to La Tania, it had been pisted that night and then had an inch of fresh soft snow on top - one of the nicest runs I have done so far this season.

The GPS also clock our top speed and so far the leader on the speed board is Alex (St. Bernard) who topped out at over 117 kph. I was swiftly (literally) behind him with 115kph. Please remember that we are seasonnaires and so have fit legs, this is not a target that you should aim to beat!!!

I can definately reccomend the Escapade and a great feature of completing it is that if you take your lift pass in to the lift pass office they give you a medal and a certificate declaring that you are an "Expert of the Three Valleys".

For more details on the GPS systems we used, go to www.mountaintrak.com

Full list of checkpoints:
1 Bottom of bubble at St Martin 1 (St M)
2 Top of the bubble at La Masse 2 (Les M)
3 Chairlift des Granges (Les M)
4 Top of chairlift du Bouchet (Or)
5 Top of chairlift du Col (VT)
6 Bottom of Plan de L'Eau (VT)
7 Bottom of chairlift du Golf (M)
8 Top of chairlift Dent du Bergin (M)
9 Top of Olympic chairlift (M)
10 Bottom of drag du Roc du Tougne (M)
11 Bottom of Chapelets chairlift (C)
12 Bottom of La Tania bubble (La T)
13 Bottom of Prameruel lift (C)
14 Bottom of Tovets (C)