Below are details of all the  new lifts in the Three Valleys for the new 2009/10 ski season.

SP3 are  building a brand new 6 person high speed chair lift from Courchevel 1850 over to above Courchevel 1650 and will replace the old slow 2 man chair lift Roc Mugnier and Prameurel which will improve connections between Courchevel 1650 and 1850.

Also in Courchevel, the Cospillot draglift  which is above Pralong chairlift, is being extended which will allow more of the very expensive chalets along this very pretty run down to Courchevel 1550

A new piste is being created from the new Verdon “Fun area” to the top of Jardin Alpin gondola which should cut out the occasional bottleneck at the Biollay gondola.

The slow Golf chairlift in Meribel village is being replaced by a high speed 4 man detachable chairlift.  This will halve the skiing time to the Meribel Altiport where it connects with the 8 man Altiport chair or you can ski straight into Meribel centre.

In Les Menuires a new 6 man chairlift is being built near to Bruyeres.  This replaces the old Rebery and Etele chairs.  This should make for a quicker exit out of the vally and over towards Mottaret via the Beca chair.

In Val Thorens the double drag lift back into resort has been removed and is to be replace with more travellators.

In the Courchevel valley the French ski school, ESF, are using a new sytem to improve children’s safety on chairlifts.  All children receiving tuition with the ESF will be equipped with Magnestick back protection which quite literally, sticks the children to the chairlift using magnets. Not all chairlifts are equipped with with the Magnestick technology yet but the Signal, Dou des Lanches (the lift over from La Tania) and Chatelet are now.

After a glorious and long hot summer, the weather in La Tania has now turned very cold and wintery and the first few snow flakes have fallen down to resort level.  More snow is forecast over the next few days over the peaks and whispers have been heard from the locals that a good winter is predicted this year. Bring it on!

There has been a reduction to the VAT  restaurants charge for food  recently.  The rate has been reduced from 19.6% to 5.5% so this should reduce the price of lunches on the mountain and dinner on the chalet hosts night off which has got to be good news for all skiers and boarders.

If you prefer to save even more money, our chalet hosts are offering credit crunch busting packed lunches this season for a very modest price.  What could be nicer than enjoying a picnic on the piste and knowing that it hasn’t cost you the earth?

According to the American Academy of Sports Medicine, exercise increases immunity to illnesses such as flu by about 20 to 50%.  By completing at least 45 minutes of moderate intensity exercise most days of the week you can hopefully avoid the flu virus.  One reason skiing and exercise in general may help boost immunity is that exercise reduces stress and therefore the amount of cortisol in the body.  This “stress hormone” has been linked to increased bouts of illness.  If you ski and snowboard more, you can be more mentally balanced, leaner and flu free.

Rail travel to the French Alps is becoming increasingly popular especially with the environmental issues but also it is a very relaxing way to travel – if only it was easier to book tickets! At last, the long awaited train tickets to Moutiers for the coming winter season go on sale today, Wednesday 14th October. Moutiers, the nearest station to La Tania is just a 30 minute trip up the hill, so you arrive at your chalet, fresh and raring to go skiing! Rail Europe is now selling tickets covering dates from 13th December 2009 through to 13th January 2010.  Apparently you can only book tickets up to 3 months in advance, but it is now only 2 months to 13th December!  Tickets for the rest of the season will presumably go on sale 3 months in advance.

A new 3 hour Courchevel valley lift pass is to be launched for the Winter 2009-10 season.  The 3 consecutive hours are activated when the skier or boarder goes through the turnstile for the first time. Now people can ski when they want to without being restricted to the half day pass times.  The half day morning pass will be discontinued except for the Three Valleys ski area whilst the afternoon pass from 12.30pm will still be available.  The 3 hour Courchevel valley pass will cost 32 euros and the morning only 3 Valley passes will cost 37.50 euros from 09.30am-12.30pm.

For all other lift pass prices for the 2009-10 Winter seson please see our website.