3 Valley lift changes

Its all go this summer in the 3 Valleys - work is well under way in Courchevel on the construction of the new Plantrey chair with a fast 6 man chair replacing the fast-ish 4 man which had been in operation for 28 years!

Helicopter ferrying materials for the new lift:



Over in Meribel the top section of Burgin Saulire is being replaced with a new gondola as part of a 2-year plan (2012 will see the replacement of the 1st stage) - the new lift takes a line directly up the Tournier couloir with the top station next to the Saulire cable car station.

Talking of which I recently was sent a couple of archive photos of the Saulire:



You can clearly see the top station & pylon of the old lift coming up from the Meribel side which was subsequently moved down the hill with construction of Burgin-Saulire:



Elsewhere there is a brand new lift going in above Portette in Val Thorens with the top station right on the ridge between the Belleville valley and Orelle. No linking pistes are planned just yet but the lift will open up more runs on the Val T side, and should provide interesting off piste access to the Bouchet valley.