Mountain Upgrades For This Coming Winter - Part 2

Hi everyone and welcome to another post from your favourite blogging Méribel ski instructor. The previous post was "Part 1' of 'Mountain Upgrades For This Coming Winter', where I spoke about and showed photos of the Rhodos gondola renovation, the Rhodos mountain restaurant renovation, snow making upgrade on the Truite green piste and a few new toilets! Click here for the link if you missed it.

Let's get going with Part 2, and we start with the Chatelet chairlift above Méribel-Mottaret.....

During the huge snowstorms in February last winter, a controlled avalanche release triggered a slide that took out the Chatelet chairlift. By itself, it isn't a particularly busy ski lift, in fact I don't think I've ever seen a queue there before. But it's a really useful lift, especially if you want to stay high up the mountain above Mottaret, avoiding skiing down to the village tp take the Pas du Lac gondola.

This is the second time that this chairlift has been taken out by a controlled avalanche, the other being back in the winter of 2021. I wasn't sure if there was ever a question mark in terms of getting going agai because of this, so I was delighted to come across the work being done on it back in July when I was there.

There are several water reservoirs dotted around the 3 Valleys ski area, in order to provide a decent amount of artificial snow cannon coverage. One of the largest is up at the Col de la Loze between Méribel and Courchevel. Last winter it was discovered there was a problem with it, a leak I believe. When I was cycling around up there this summer, it was nice seeing that work is going ahead. Fingers crossed all will be fine for this winter.

Whilst using the Pas du Lac gondola this summer, I looked across and noticed a fair bit of work has gone ahead on the Niverolle red piste. I quite like skiing this piste, but historically needed to wait until there was enough natural snow cover to give me confidence for a decent ski it. It looks as though snow cannons have been installed, and the piste has been remodelled a little as it joins onto the piste called Marcassin just above the mid-station of the Pas du Lac ski lift. All will become a little clearer at the start of this ski season.

And finally, let's pop over to Courchevel La Tania and see what's going on there. There have been rumours of a replacement for the Tania gondola for several years, and I'm delighted to see that work is know going ahead over there. It's the main lift out from the village, and was certainly feeling a little tired for a few seasons now. This is great news.

Sadly it's not a brand new all singing and dancing replacement like the Chenus gondola in Courchevel 1850 last year. But a renovation is certainly better than nothing. It's a 5 million euro project, with new seated cabins, similar to the new cabins on the Rhodos lift last year. There's some great skiing over above La Tania, so I'm really pleased this is going ahead, especially for those staying in the village. My first three ski seasons teaching in the 3 Valleys was based in La Tania, and I have an enjoyable history with spending time there.

Right, that's it for know, I think that's all I spotted this summer. And I hope you found these last two posts interesting? Isn't it nice seeing the investment continuing at a regular rate each and every summer? Do come back soon for the next article. Right, credo time....... don't forget to Live With Passion. Martin.