What's On in the Three Valleys This Season

The first resort in the 3 Valleys will open on Saturday when the lifts in Val Thorens start running. This marks the start of the season in the Alps and the beginning of the winter in the Trois Vallees.

Over the next five months in Val Thorens, Courchevel and Meribel there will be competitions, festivals, parties and family activities. So let's have a look a what's coming up in the Three Vallees this winter.

As I mentioned the lifts open this weekend in Val Thorens and as has become customary they will kick off the season with the Ski Force Winter Tour. This is a free ski test – your chance to try this seasons kit with no obligation to buy. Find your perfect Christmas present in plenty time to get your letter to Santa.

Rather unexpectedly Courchevel will also open up this Saturday with free passes and parking. The Verdons Gondola and Sauliere will be open on Saturday morning from 9am until 4pm.

After Val Thoren's ski test on the 23rd there is the Rock on Snowboard Tour in Val Thorens from the 30th November. Rock on Tour is a board test with competitions, demos and parties.

The next big event is the opening of the Three Valleys! Meribel and Courchevel open their lifts and the three resorts are connected from the 7th December. The lower Courchevel resorts of Moriond, Village and Le Praz won't open until 14th but the rest of the resort will be open from the7th of December.

Once the whole Three Valleys are is open there are hundreds of events and activities taking place this season. There's too many to mention now, but here's highlights of what's to come.

First off it's the FIS races in Val Thorens and Courchevel. This starts with the Ski-cross World Cup in Val Thorens on the 12th December, then it's the FIS races in Courchevel on the 16th and 17th of December it's the Ladies Slalom takes to the Emilie Allias Stadium in Courchevel 1850. Then a week later on the 21st and 22nd it's the turn of the Men in Slalom and Giant Slalom.

The other big Ski race event is in Meribel. The Ski World Cup Finals will take place on the newly created Roc de Fer piste. But not until 2015. Never the less Meribel seems to be really, REALLY excited about this already, which seems a little premature especially when there are some quite cool things happening much sooner, namely the arrival of Ibiza Rocks the Snow.

I've been to some of the Rocks events in the summer and they are great with bands like Biffy Clyro, Kasabian, Beady Eye and Jake Bugg playing so hopefully the formula will travel well to the slopes and big names will follow.

There are three weeks of the festival in Meribel : 14th-21st December, 8th-15th February and 29th March - 5th April. Acts already confirmed include Mistjam, Kissy Sell Out and Doorly.

Across the Three Valleys there will obviously be Christmas and New Year Celebrations and there will be open air parties in Courchevel and Val Thorens with a DJ and fire works at midnight. Although 10pm til 2am at at a mile above sea level in January seems like an impossibly cold experience so perhaps just pop out for an hour and catch the fireworks.

If you are into night time in the Alps and fire works in the mountains then there are two more events in Courchevel that you'll love.
The first takes place every Wednesday from the 25th December – Night Skiing on Verdons.
The night skiing takes place through the Verdons Family park every Wednesday from 6pm, though you will need to buy a separate ticket for night skiing, it's not included in your day pass.

For fans of fireworks there is the amazing International Pyrotechnic Art Festival. The Pyrotechnic Art festival is on throughout February and March and takes place at all levels of Courchevel with the following dates: Courchevel Village - 20 February
Courchevel - 27 February
Courchevel Moriond - 6 March
Courchevel Le Praz - 11 March
Final at Courchevel - 13 March

The Fireworks festival is amazing if you can make one of the nights you definitely shouldn't miss it.

The next event that looks pretty cool is over in Val Thorens, the SFR Tour which takes place from the 22nd to 25th January. With X-Games in Tignes being cancelled this will be one of the biggest freestyle events in the Alps this winter and the last one before the Olympics.

For an event you can actually get involved in, as long as you're a girl, there's the Miss 'n' Ride on Courchevel in March 22nd to 23rd. Open to everyone, who's a girl, this is a ladies only freestyle weekend in the Verdons Park organised by girls behind the Miss Wake Camp.

A competition that really is open to everyone is the 3Valleys Enduro on the 7th of April. The competition involves teams of three; skiers, snowboarders, telemarkers even bladers are welcome. The teams set off on a tour of the 3 Valleys resorts and have to take on challenges at various points.

The last event I wanted to look at is in Courchevel over easter. On the 20th April there will be Easter eggs hidden in Courchevel and Moriond and in the Praz, Grangettes, Ariondaz, Jardin Alpin and Verdons bubbles. So you can have an egg hunt on the hill, how cool is that?

There are so many events on from the Andros Trophee to Snow Polo, to Ski Mountaineering World Cup Events. The one's I've mentioned just appealed to me but for a list of everything happening this winter check our Events Calendar and if you are organising a party,competition or event let us know and if we can we'll add it to our Events Calendar for Val Thorens.