You need a whole season skiing to explore every corner of the Trois Vallées, and the ski resort of Méribel is one of the best places to begin. From the Chaudanne lift centre at 1450 and from Méribel Mottaret higher up the valley, lifts rise on either side. To the east, gondolas take you up to 2738m at Saulire for a choice of descents towards the ski resorts of Courchevel and La Tania.
The mountainside back down to the resort is crisscrossed with mainly blues, reds and an assortment of chairlifts. To the west, more gondolas and chairs rise to the long ridge that separates the valleys of Les Allues and Belleville. From the top you can ski towards Les Menuires, St-Martin-de-Belleville and Val Thorens. Alternatively you can explore the dozens of lifts and runs down to the ski resorts of Méribel 1450 and Méribel Mottaret.
Advanced and intermediate skiers and snowboarders head for the more challenging terrain off the Mont de la Chambre, Mont Vallon and the Col du Fruit at the head of the valley.
One of the greatest things about skiing in the 3 Valleys is that anyone who can ski parallel can ski the whole ski area without leaving blue pistes. The seemingly endless range of runs has produced a whole generation of skiers who never go anywhere else.
Skiing in Meribel offers something for everyone. From a skier's point of view, the resort has two sections. The ski resort of Méribel stretches from La Chaudanne at 4,757 feet elevation with a major lift centre to the Altiport, a small area at 5,577 feet on the mountain near the runway. 4km up the valley is Méribel-Mottaret, a smaller village with a larger lift hub and more ski-in/ski out accommodation. These villages are set in the central valley of Les Trois Vallées. There are 53 lifts in the valley, 18 of them that start in the village and link up with another 200 lifts in the world famous ski area, Les Trois Vallées.
One of the key advantages to this area is most in evidence in this section of the Trois Vallées: bottom-to-top cable cars that not only take you to long, undisturbed pistes, but also can get you across the valley very quickly. Advanced and intermediate skiers will love the runs on both sides of Mont Vallon.
Advanced beginners and intermediate skiers will find the run below the final two sections of the Plattieres lift both gentle and extended. Off-piste skiing possibilities for intermediate skiers abound in the area between Roc de Fer, site of the women's Olympic downhill. The pistes stretching beneath Saulire are wonderful with varying pitches that will delight both intermediate and advanced skiers.
Off piste skiing in Méribel is fantastic too. The best off-piste skiing is in sectors between Mont de la Chambre and Les Plattieres as well as from the top of Mont Vallon. Another off-piste gem is free skiing from Roc de Fer along the ridge then dropping down to Le Raffort or Les Allues. The slopes as far as Le Raffort normally have good snow.
Snowboarding in Meribel offers something for all levels of snowboarder. There are two snow parks in this valley. One is in Méribel and the other in Méribel-Mottaret. In Méribel-Mottaret the total area of the snowpark is 15 acres. It is 5,000 feet long and the vertical drop is almost 1,000 feet. There is also a halfpipe, a babypipe, two quarterpipes and tables, spines and a boardercross course, providing an adventurous arena for snowboarding in Meribel.
In Meribel the Arpasson snowpark is 4,000 feet long with a vertical drop of 660 feet. There is a competition halfpipe, another beginner halfpipe and a 3.3 km. boardercross course with whoops, tables and obstacles.
Cross-country skiing in the ski resorts of Méribel, Courchevel and La Tania offers 90km of cross-country tracks. There are 33km in the Méribel Valley, over two free magnificent sites: in the Natural Reserve of cembro pines at Lake Tuéda (Méribel-Mottaret), and in the Altiport protected forest, starting point of the 8 km (5 miles) track to Courchevel. Méribel classifies their tracks as green and blue for beginner skiers; red for more advanced Nordic skiers.
In the ski resort of Méribel, both the 5km Blue Track and the 10km Red Track start at the Restaurant Le Blanchot and leads into the forest. In Méribel-Mottaret, both the 3km Green Track and the 5km Blue Track start near the Plan Ravet Ravet Parking area
