News

Michael Schumacher in Ski Accident in Meribel

Posted on: December 29th, 2013 by SkiGB

Seven times Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher was involved in a skiing accident in Meribel this Sunday 29th December around 11am. He was skiing with his 14 year old son off piste and hit his head on a rock. Fortunately he was wearing a helmet otherwise the injuries would have been worse.
They were skiing in the La Dent de Burgin ski area.
He was airlifted to the local hospital in Moutiers but was discharged fairly quickly afterwards.
This is the latest incident this week with the recent avalanches and highlights the importance of wearing a helmet when skiing or snowboarding.

* Update 30th December 2013
Since the initial accident and check up at Moutiers hospital Michael has been moved to Grenoble Hospital, which is the main hospital on the area. They have now induced Michael into a coma they have concerns with his brain and is in ‘critical condition’.
Are thought are with him and his family. We will update this post as and when we have more news.
* Update 30th December 2013 11am

Latest news from the doctors in Grenoble Hospital where Michael Schumacher is being treated. They are saying it is too early to say what condition Michael is in until the swelling around his brain has gone down. This is normal practice for brain trauma. They also said that he is still in critical condition and is fighting for his life. Michael is extremely fit for a man in his 20s let alone 40s. We should not under estimate the job the helmet did, without it Michael would not be with us now.
We are not expecting to hear too much now for a day or so until the swelling has gone down. The good news is Michael is in the right place, Grenoble Hospital look after skiers who hurt themselves every day and know what they are doing.

* Update 31st December 2013

Last night the Doctors ran a new scan which showed an improved situation, therefore they offered a new operation to the family which was completed last night. Another scan was taken this morning (31st) which showed a slight improvement. The operation last night reduced the pressure on the brain which allowed them to run another scan without putting Michael in danger. This scan showed that the injury has not got worse but a slight improvement, “The situation is better controlled since yesterday” says the Doctor.

It is never good to speculate what happened and we do not want to do so here, Michael is a very good skier and to split his helmet he would have needed to be travelling quite fast. There is a lot of rocks about as the snowfall hasn’t provided the deepest of bases in places. It would be very easy to catch a rock and propel you into the air therefore increasing speed.
Whatever happened I’m sure we will learn more in the coming days. It has now been 48 hours since the accident which is normally the most important and he has a slight improvement, we now need him to keep improving.

NEWS on the recent Avalanches in Europe…

The Winner of the Best Ski Resort for 2014 is…

Posted on: December 22nd, 2013 by SkiGB

Every year the Ski industry creates a top 10 Ski resort list and the latest one is out for 2014 (I know it is still 2013, I never understood that).

Once again the 3 Valleys is included TWICE into the list which surely means it is the best place to ski, doesn’t it? 🙂

We were thinking of creating some kind of suspense like X Factor or Strictly, but we thought nah forget it, here are the results:

The Best Ski Resort for 2014

10 Solden 4.2% of votes
9 Courchevel 5.9% of votes
8 Ischgl 7.2% of votes
7 SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser-Brixental 7.5% of votes
6 La Plagne 8.6% of votes
5 Saalbach 8.4% of votes
4 Are 10.3% of votes
3 Alpe d’Huez 13.1% of votes
2 Baqueira Beret 13.9% of votes
1 Val Thorens with 16.4% of votes

Well done Courchevel and Val Thorens who keep on picking up awards (Val Thorens Ski Awards this year).

Val Thorens Ski Cross World Cup Freestyle – The Winners

Posted on: December 15th, 2013 by SkiGB

The Ladies:

Today we saw the end of the Val Thorens ski cross where we saw Katrin Mueller beat her countryman and friend Sanna Luedi from Switzerland.

Mueller said “The course wasn’t difficult. Yes, it was really fun, it was huge jumps, and like this but not difficult that it’s impossible. But with all the girls it’s always difficult; it’s not always easy to pass or something like this. So, finals is every time is a roulette and yes it was nice.”, easy or not she certainly showed the way.

Full Results:

1 – Katrin Mueller (Switzerland)

2 – Sanna Luedi (Switzerland)

3 – Ophelie David (France)

4 – Marte Hoeie Gjefsen (Norway)

The Men:

Austrian skier Andreas Matt managed to keep the rest of the pack behind him to take the win, but only just as it was a photo finish. Matt said “I feel very good. It was hard, I must fight a little bit but I’m very happy that I could win this race.”

Full Results:

1 – Andreas Matt (Austria)

2 – Victor Oehling Norberg (Sweden)

3 – Jean-Frederic Chapuis (France)

4 – Franz Promok (Austria)

Matt thought the course was hard but Mueller thought it was easy, I guess the ladies are more hard core.

The Ski Cross is part of the Freestyle competition which includes several disciplines, these are:

Ski Cross

Moguls

Aerials

Halfpipe

Slopestyle

Freestyle skiing is still quite new as a championship only starting in 1950’s, but already it is one of the most exciting spectator sports on the snow.

Ski Cross became an Olympic sport in Vancouver 2010 however not all the disciplines joined at the same time, here is the run down:

Moguls – Albertville 1992

Aerials – Lillehammer 1994

Halfpipe – To be added in 2014

Slopestyle – To be added in 2014

Val Thorens opens today – 23rd November 2013

Posted on: November 23rd, 2013 by SkiGB

Being one of the highest ski resorts in Europe (actually the highest) Val Thorens has its traditional job of being one of the first ski resorts to open in the season. This year Val Thorens will open… wait a minute it’s opening TODAY!!

It’s time to dust off the skis and snowboards and come on out to the snow. Val Thorens have been very busy over the summer with some big changes to the resort, oh and they picked up a nice little award too!

But first things first, what lifts and slopes will be open from today:

As like most (if not all) ski resorts Val Thorens likes to look after their snow, therefore not all of the pistes will be open from the start of the season. Some of the pistes will also not be 100% ready for skiers so there is no point in opening them up too early for people to trash their skis or board. But never fear there is always a silver lining!

19 pistes will be open from today with 12 lifts which covers approx a third of the ski area.

Now that silver lining I spoke about, reduced lift pass!

Yep less slopes equals less money, the prices will be the following (Full details on Val Thorens lift passes can be found here):

From 23 November to 13 December :

– Day rate € 37.60

Weekend rate of 23-24 November (Winter Tour Ski strength ) and 30 November-1 December (Rock On Snowboard Tour ) :

– 2 days Price € 58.90

The lifts will be open from 9 am to 16:45 .

Val Thorens has seen some great new snow fall over the last couple of days which will be great for the base. Currently there is 60cm – 90cm at 2300m – 3200m. If you would like to be kept up to date with the snow fall in Val Thorens we have a new ‘Snow Report’ system coming live very soon. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or follow our Blog, you can also add your email address into our form on our Contact page and we will let you know when it is live. We have some great new things to keep you amused whilst waiting to come out here coming soon too!

As I mentioned above Val Thorens have been busy and made some more improvements to the resort, more on Val Thorens 2013 improvements here.

New in Val Thorens for 2013 and 2014 Ski Season

Posted on: November 23rd, 2013 by SkiGB

Every year Val Thorens makes improvements to the resort, whether it is a new and improved lift or a new Hotel and sports facilities. This year (2013) Val Thorens has once again been very busy. This is what is new for Val Thorens this ski season and what did they with the 20million euros they spent!:

Ski Lifts

Val Thorens gets lots of skiers from other valleys from resorts like Meribel and Courchevel and one of their bug bares is returning home. There were basically only two ways out of Val Thorens (3 if you include skiing down to Les Menuires), you would take either the Plein Sud lift or the 3 Vallees 1 and pick either the 3 Vallees 2 or Bouquetin. These would get you high enough to ski over to the next valley and home.

However things have changed, the 3 Valleys 1 lift has been replaced AND renamed to TSC Les Pionniers. This lift is a Hybrid (it’s hybrid everything these days!) 6 seater which is detachable and is strengthen to work better at high winds (which Val Thorens can have on occasion). Whilst replacing the lift they have also moved it a little which allows better access to the Folie Douce. You will still need to get the Bouquetin which is now called the Funitel 3 Vallees or the chair lift which was called the 3 Vallees 2 but now called TSD 3 Vallees. Are you following this? 🙂 Don’t worry we have the most up to date Piste Map if you want to see for yourself.

Not only has the TSD 3 Vallees changed it’s name but it has changed from a rickety old lift to a modern detachable 4 seater (recycled from one of the other replaced lifts), which one of the lifts will now be the quickest up the mountain, can’t wait to find out!

The Chair lift 2 Lacs has also been replaced with a 4 seater detachable chair lift, this will help beginners ski this area easier and increase the speed of getting skiers up the mountain.

And finally for the lift section they haven’t forgotten Orelle. This area of the 3 Valleys (or is that 4?) could do with a little attention. We think there is some great skiing over there and now they have replaced one of the lifts. The Peyron Chair lift has been replaced with a 6 seater detachable lift. This was well over due and if you have skied this area before you know how slow those lifts could be!

Of course this lift is the start of your climb to the highest point in the 3 (slash 4) Valleys which is at the top of the Bouchet chair lift at 3230m.

Hotels

For many years there has been talk of the Club Med Hotel to have an extension. This is a very popular hotel and a big asset to Val Thorens. However it was decided not to extend the hotel but to replace it. This will be much bigger than the current one and sits a little higher next to the Altineige building. Over the summer they have continued working on the Hotel. Sadly it will not be open for this season.

Zip Wire

Yep you read correctly, Val Thorens now has a zip wire! Val Thorens already has one of the best Toboggans in the Alps (and is a must to try) you can now ‘Zip’ down from the top of Bouchet at 3230m to the top of the Funitel de Thorens which drops you 250m. This is the highest zip wire in Europe! If this is your thing it’s a must as you will get one of the best views ever from a zip wire.

If you would like to know more click on to our Val Thorens Zip Wire page.

Awards

Recently there has been a couple of awards ceremonies in the Ski industry and we are very happy to announce that Val Thorens have picked up a few.

You now can call Val Thorens Frances Best Ski Resort by the Worlds Ski Awards AND the Worlds Best Ski Resort!

Also Val Thorens has been awarded The Most Improved European Ski Resort by the World Snow Awards.

Congratulations to all involved and as you can by their recent investment they are aiming to get them again next year!

Important information with Ski Insurance

Posted on: October 17th, 2013 by SkiGB

Each Ski season in Val Thorens and the 3 Valleys we sadly see people hurting themselves on the slopes. This is part of our sport which will never change, it is a dangerous sport and accidents happen. It doesn’t matter how good you are or think you are every so often you will fall over.

Having ski insurance is very important for many reasons:

Being cared for on the mountains by Pisters or emergency units is VERY expensive.
If you don’t have insurance you would need to pay the emergency unit right away (in some ski resorts they will not help you until you pay!).
Peace of mind.
Remember Ski insurance isn’t the same as Travel insurance, however some travel insurance policies do cover skiing (please check!).
You NEED to get the insurance from a UK company BEFORE you leave the country.
If for some reason you forget you can buy a daily insurance cover from the lift office in the resort. However this will most likely only cover you to the Hospital.

Last season we met more than 10 people who sadly hurt themselves skiing or snowboarding who didn’t take out ski insurance. Because they didn’t have ski insurance they had to pay the ambulance right away using a credit card, not what you want to do when your not feeling too great. Getting the right ski insurance is key too, more information on this on our Ski Insurance page.

News

Michael Schumacher in Ski Accident in Meribel

The Winner of the Best Ski Resort for 2014 is…

The Best Ski Resort for 2014

Val Thorens Ski Cross World Cup Freestyle – The Winners

Val Thorens opens today – 23rd November 2013

New in Val Thorens for 2013 and 2014 Ski Season

Important information with Ski Insurance

Snow Subjects

Ski Resort Accommodation

General Information

All About SkiGB