Distance of the 3 Vallees Route

If only someone could invent a device to track how far you have been
skiing I wouldn't need to ask this question! Two of us have just
returned from Meribel and on our last day we decided to try and
complete the following route on red & blue runs only, which we just
managed in 6 1/2 hours:-

Meribel Mottaret Courchevel 1650 Mont de la Bray Courchevel 1850
Courchevel 1550 Courchevel Le Praz Courchevel La Tania Meribel
Village Meribel 1450 St. Martin de Belleville Les Menuires Val
Thorens Meribel Mottaret.

We would like to know if anyone can approximate the distance we skiied
that day - It's quite difficult to judge from the piste map and we
have a little bet going as to who's nearer our guesses - I say around
50 miles and he says nearer 75.

Any ideas?

Cheers all and Happy Skiing

Colin

"CMH" wrote in message
m...
Meribel Mottaret Courchevel 1650 Mont de la Bray Courchevel 1850
Courchevel 1550 Courchevel Le Praz Courchevel La Tania Meribel
Village Meribel 1450 St. Martin de Belleville Les Menuires Val
Thorens Meribel Mottaret.

We would like to know if anyone can approximate the distance we skiied
that day - It's quite difficult to judge from the piste map and we
have a little bet going as to who's nearer our guesses - I say around
50 miles and he says nearer 75.

Any ideas?

Cheers all and Happy Skiing

Colin

I have a very accurate map! The distance is exactly 62.5 miles well done
guys!

Eamonn

"helloblondie" wrote in message
...
I have a very accurate map! The distance is exactly 62.5 miles well done
guys!

But, is that taking into account the ups and downs?

If not, one should add 10-40% to the distance depending upon the gradients
of the slopes traversed.

Crosbie Fitch wrote:
"helloblondie" wrote in message
...

I have a very accurate map! The distance is exactly 62.5 miles well done
guys!


But, is that taking into account the ups and downs?

If not, one should add 10-40% to the distance depending upon the gradients
of the slopes traversed.

Nothing like. Add at most 5 or 6%. If you are skiing on normal pistes
with a mix of blue/red/black you are unlikely to exceed a 20 degree
gradient on average over the day. 30 degrees would be an extremely steep
black. It doesn't sound like a lot, but I can't think of a marked piste
in the 3V that exceeds that (including the couloirs in Courchevel).

On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 12:50:50 +0000, Steve Haigh
wrote:

Crosbie Fitch wrote:
"helloblondie" wrote in message
...

I have a very accurate map! The distance is exactly 62.5 miles well done
guys!


But, is that taking into account the ups and downs?

If not, one should add 10-40% to the distance depending upon the gradients
of the slopes traversed.

Nothing like. Add at most 5 or 6%. If you are skiing on normal pistes
with a mix of blue/red/black you are unlikely to exceed a 20 degree
gradient on average over the day. 30 degrees would be an extremely steep
black. It doesn't sound like a lot, but I can't think of a marked piste
in the 3V that exceeds that (including the couloirs in Courchevel).

30deg would give a ration of 1:1.15, i.e. a 15% difference. 20deg
gives just less than 10% diff. And yes, this would be a steep average
for a day.


--
Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.

Ace wrote:
On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 12:50:50 +0000, Steve Haigh
wrote:


Crosbie Fitch wrote:

"helloblondie" wrote in message
...


I have a very accurate map! The distance is exactly 62.5 miles well done
guys!


But, is that taking into account the ups and downs?

If not, one should add 10-40% to the distance depending upon the gradients
of the slopes traversed.


Nothing like. Add at most 5 or 6%. If you are skiing on normal pistes
with a mix of blue/red/black you are unlikely to exceed a 20 degree
gradient on average over the day. 30 degrees would be an extremely steep
black. It doesn't sound like a lot, but I can't think of a marked piste
in the 3V that exceeds that (including the couloirs in Courchevel).


30deg would give a ration of 1:1.15, i.e. a 15% difference. 20deg
gives just less than 10% diff. And yes, this would be a steep average
for a day.


I think we may be talking at cross purposes here - the % I mean when I
say 5 or 6% is the amount to add to the horizontal distance travelled to
get the "true" distance covered - I assumed this is what was meant by
"helloblondie" when suggesting adding 10-40% to the distance.

I.e. if you measure the distance on a map I think you need to add about
5% to the figure to give the actual distance covered to include the
extra due to going up and down. Of course if you did speed the whole day
on super steep runs you may need to add more.

Either way, a 15% or 30 degree slope is steep in any language:-0

On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 13:58:38 +0100, Ace wrote:

On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 12:50:50 +0000, Steve Haigh
wrote:

Crosbie Fitch wrote:
"helloblondie" wrote in message
...

I have a very accurate map! The distance is exactly 62.5 miles well done
guys!


But, is that taking into account the ups and downs?

If not, one should add 10-40% to the distance depending upon the gradients
of the slopes traversed.

Nothing like. Add at most 5 or 6%. If you are skiing on normal pistes
with a mix of blue/red/black you are unlikely to exceed a 20 degree
gradient on average over the day. 30 degrees would be an extremely steep
black. It doesn't sound like a lot, but I can't think of a marked piste
in the 3V that exceeds that (including the couloirs in Courchevel).

30deg would give a ration of 1:1.15, i.e. a 15% difference. 20deg
gives just less than 10% diff. And yes, this would be a steep average
for a day.

I find that statement extremely surprising.

Most piste maps don't seem to give run lengths, but from those that do
(such as Soldeu-El Tarter), or where the "longest run" is a red (such
as the Planai, Schladming), it seems that most red runs average round
about 20% gradient (a 1km vertical will be around 5km pistes length).

So if you stuck to red runs all day, you could expect to be averaging
around 20%. But I'm not sure where you get your 10% for 20 degrees
and 15% for 30 degrees from.

I think the original statement of 10-40% had an upper limit somewhat
too high, but I would suggest anything from 10-30% is not impossible.
--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
URA Redneck if your dog can smoke a cigarette.

To reply by email, my address is aDOTjDOTheneyATbtinternetDOTcom

(CMH) wrote in news:a9b069de.0402020846.a33c6b0
@posting.google.com:

If only someone could invent a device to track how far you have been
skiing I wouldn't need to ask this question! Two of us have just


Portes du Soleil are doing such a thing, with a GPS device you can hire
whilst you are there :^)

CMH wrote:
If only someone could invent a device to track how far you have been
skiing I wouldn't need to ask this question!
A GPS device will do this for you. And it can tell you other things like
max speed during the day. Very amusing stuff.

Steve Haigh wrote:
CMH wrote:
If only someone could invent a device to track how far you have been
skiing I wouldn't need to ask this question!
A GPS device will do this for you. And it can tell you other things
like max speed during the day. Very amusing stuff.

Any reccomendations on a particular make for this? I'm a bit of a gadget
freak and fancy a crack at logging the day's fun.

--
James...
www.jameshart.co.uk