| LA TANIA/COURCHEVEL UPDATE |
11 September 2001 |
|
The snow cannons in La Tania,
uncompleted last season,
have now been installed and connected up to the new reservoir
next to the 4-man Lanches chair lift - at the top of the La
Tania Gondola. There are 38 high pressure snow cannons installed all the way down Folyeres to the resort centre. Obviously this will be an incredible snow season, but just in case it's not, this should help reduce the number of trashed skis in La Tania hire shops this year.
Water is drawn from the bottom of the reservoir. The top is frozen and a mechanism to send bubbles up from the bottom to prevent the rest freezing is used. Once winter arrives no more water will fill the reservoir as the top and all surrounding streams will be frozen. Let's hope for plenty of rain before December! The reservoir is just about completed and has been built to the side of the piste so it won't affect the skiing much - it'll look better when there's snow everywhere!New Boarder-X Park?: There's a lot of piste reshaping, landscaping and erosion control work going on near the top of Chenus, right above 1850 - could this be the Boarder-X park that was rumoured last season? New Lifts:There are two new 6-man chairs in Courchevel and four new lifts in VT/Les Menuires including a covered chair and a new Funitel.
A large new unloading area has been landscaped here and the short Super Pralong drag has been removed. There'll probably be a new piste down there towards the Suisses 4-man chair (used to be a favourite spot to get freshies after walking behind the Pisteurs hut - oh well). In 1650 the long Grandes Bosses parallel drag lifts have been replaced by another 6-man high speed chair which runs up to the top of Signal. There are 2 new chair lifts in Val Thorens in the Fourth Valley (with 3 new runs) and a new Funitel (jumbo gondola) replaces the Fonds 2 chairlift right up to the ridge giving another point of access to the Fourth Valley. Les Menuires sees a new high speed covered chair taking you out of the resort centre right up to the ridge above Mottaret at 2850m. New Lifts planned for 2002/2003 Season: So far we've heard that a 4-man chair will replace the Creux and Fruit drags (the really steep ones next to the Aiguilee du Fruit chair) on the way back from 1650. In the Meribel Valley a new 6-man high speed lift is to replace the Plan des Mains chair. This is the slow "magic carpet" chair at the bottom of Mont du Vallon which links you back to Mottaret (also used on the way back from Val Thorens). There are also rumours of a new lift system
out of St Martin de Belleville - more news when we hear some!
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In
Courchevel 1850 the Pralong drag lift has been replaced by
a 6-man high speed chair which arrives next to the top of
the Biollay 4-man chair. 
