School Me on Epic Pass Euro Skiing- Les 3 Vallées/ Verbier/ Arlberg

[Liberty Skis]

Near Verbier there are a lot of cool small one or two lift ski areas with amazing off piste. Lift tickets will cost about 30 francs per day and accommodations will be much cheaper than Verbier, some of them make a good base to ski Verbier, and they're usually empty on storm days. Worth checking out if you have the time. Get a self-catering apartment or condo and cook your own meals to save even more. Champex Lac is one of our favorites, Here's a shot of some terrain a short hike above the resort.



There's a story in this issue of Stoke Lab that has some info on some of these places (La Fouly, Champex Lac) http://issuu.com/stokelab/docs/stokelab_issue6

Have fun!

[polenta]

In Verbier the Epic Pass allows you to ski all the ski areas of the 4 Valleys Region: Verbier, Nendaz, Thyon, Veysonnaz.

If I was there for 10 days, I would do a tour of the upper Rhone valley ski areas: fly into Geneva, take a bus to Chamonix. Spend a couple of days there, hire a guide and ski the vallee Blanche.
Take the train to Verbier (via Martigny) spend the 4 or 5 Epic pass days in the area.
Take the train to Zermatt for the last 3 days. Ski down to Cervinia, Italy one day for lunch.
Take the bus or train back to Geneva.

You will have ski in 3 countries at some of the best ski resorts in the Alps with minimal travel.

[Gorilla]

All of the available options are good. You could pick any of them and consistently find good skiing.

I think Verbier/Nendaz is a better option for the kind of straight off the lift/back to the lift skiing you end up doing with a snowboarder. The best stuff I've done in the 3vs either requires touring gear (Gebroulaz) a serious pole or skate out (col De Fruit) or crevasse/ice gear (Gebroulaz again). Not that there aren't fun things to do but I'd be heading there with touring gear and crevasse kit to get the most out of it.

There are some complications with Verbier/Nendaz and snowboarding - principally the traverse out of the backside of Mt Fort and getting out of the back of Mt Gele/Stairway to Heaven but these are (IMV) manageable. Much of the slightly out of the way stuff can be accessed by bootpacking rather than skinning and while there are glacial routes, there is nothing of the scale/danger of the Gebroulaz glacier.

There is no guide book for Verb that I am aware of. For St Anton Andy Thurner's book is the go-to one. For the 3vs Didier Givois les Cles de Trois Vallees is the standard. All need to be used in conjunction with the 1:25 map. Avalanche wise, treat everything as dangerous. In practice, Verbier, for example, throws a lot more explosive than their signage suggests that they do but I wouldn't rely on that.

[maskinut]

Does anyone on this thread work at Les Trois Vallees or on the hill at Brides Les Baines? PM me if you do. I could use your local insight.

[Arno]

Just seen your query about Bozel. Very nice little town. Seems to be where a lot of people live if they work up in Courchevek but can't afford a decent sized family place up there (on account of not being a Russian oligarch). Takes a few minutes to get to the nearest lift at les Praz IIRC which then whisks you up into the 3V system

[cycology1]

Op, what did you end up doing?

Sent from my SCH-I535 using TGR Forums