Skiing in Meribel
The Meribel valley sits in between the Courchevel and Val Thorens valley. These 3 valleys combined make one of the largest ski areas in the world, the Trois Vallees. This huge terrain provides some of the most fantastic skiing in the Alps, with over 600km of home runs, peaks rising to 3300m and 550 snow cannons on standby when the heavens are not obeying. There are gentle runs around the Altiport for beginners, miles of blues and reds in all directions for the intermediates, couloirs for the experts, excellent off-piste for the experienced and two snow parks for the more extreme. The lift system is one of the best in the world and is constantly being updated, gone are the days of long queues or freezing lifts. The 3 Valleys is home to some of the finest and most varied mountain restaurants. You will be hard pushed to explore the whole of this fantastic ski area in just one week, so you'll just have to come back!
SKIING IN MERIBEL KEY STATS
| Height | Slopes from 1200m to 3300m |
| Pistes | 600km |
| Skiing/snowboarding level | Beginners/Intermediate/Advanced |
| Glaciers | 1 |
| Snow Parks | 4 |
| Lifts | 180 modern |
| Cross-country | 55 km (including tracks to La Tania and Courchevel) |
| Snow-making | Yes - 500 |
Meribel Skiing Map
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Three Valley Piste Map
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FAVOURITE SKIING IN MERIBEL
Pistes
- Les Creux (best in morning)
- La Combe de Saulire (best in morning)
- Jerusalem (best late morning/early afternoon)
- Georges Mauduit
- Combe Vallon
- Bartaevelle
Beginners
- Altiport
- Verdons
Off-piste
- Itinerary route to Raffort
- Meribel and Grand couloirs
- Bourgne Glacier
- La Masse to Planchet
- Aiguille de Fruit
THESE AREAS MAKE UP THE THREE VALLEY SKI AREA
MERIBEL
The Meribel valley is a huge ski area in itself. It has everything from rolling greens and blues for beginners and more challenging and lengthy reds for more technical skiers. There are mogul fields to be found under lifts and up at Bartavelle, 2 snow parks to play around in, vast amounts of off-piste just off the piste and further afield and a large number of mountain restaurants.
COURCHEVEL
This vast ski area comprises of Courchevel 1850, 1650, 1550, 1300 La Praz and La Tania. Famous for its wide and cruisy blues this valley is great for intermediate beginners and 'hero skiing'. There are more tricky pistes like the black run Suisse, several couloirs on offer, pistes in the trees to La Tania, and is home to our F&P favourite morning pistes of Le Creux and Combe Saulire. Courchevel has large number of restaurants - great for people spotting but you want to be weary of the price.
VAL THORENS
Being one of the highest resorts in the Alps, you can always be sure to get fantastic snow conditions here. The valley is home to St Martin, Les Menuires and Val Thorens itself. A visit to St Martin down our F&P favourite - the red run Jerusalem is a must, with some delicious and reasonably priced restaurants at the bottom. Les Menuires is the least attractive of the resorts but is home to some great blue and red run skiing - cross over the river at the bottom and head up to La Masse for a couple of red and black runs which are never busy. Val Thorens itself has high altitude skiing, head up the Cine de Caron for amazing views across to the Southern Alps. For those who are really adventurous and want to clock up the ski miles then do take a trip to the 4th Valley, Orelle.
BEGINNERS
The Altiport green run is the place to learn with both a chair and a button lift. From here you can graduate to longer green runs and more challenging blue runs - the best of which is the Lapin run down to Meribel Village.
