Val Thorens is so high up, it feels like you could touch the sky and stars. The resort’s height, and the fact it’s built into the mountain side with no trees, makes it feel like you could touch the stars.
He unwittingly hit on the age-old comparisons of the village to a moonscape, with both residents and tourists often likening Val Thorens to a white desert in the sky, stretching to infinity.
“We’ll be skiing on white powdery clouds.” “Mum, it looks like heaven,” exclaimed my eight-year-old. As we wove our way up the mountain fresh off the train from Paris on December 16, it was powder as far as the eye could see.Ī day out on the snow is fun for all ages. If it’s going to snow anywhere, it will snow here. Sitting at an altitude of 2300 metres in south-eastern France, close to the Italian and Swiss borders, Val Thorens is the highest ski resort in Europe, with a season that runs from November to May. When we narrowed our criteria to guaranteed snow in mid-December, all those in the know had the same answer: Val Thorens. But where to go? The choice of countries, let alone resorts, was overwhelming. It would make for a memorable first ski experience on the Continent as a family. We were planning an English Christmas with extended family who we hadn’t seen since pre-pandemic, and thought we might as well begin with a week’s skiing somewhere in Europe with our three children. All the big-name European resorts like Val-d’Isère, St Anton and St Moritz have long been on my bucket list.īut like many Australians, I’d never heard of Val Thorens, despite it being rated among the world’s top ski destinations.Ĭlub Med Val Thorens opened in 2015 and is well suited to families.
I made my (best forgotten) ski debut in Austria as an 18-year-old backpacker, and my husband proposed at Zermatt in Switzerland. After the umpteenth perfect (and empty) run I declare to my husband: “I’m never skiing anywhere else.” This could just be the best ski day of my life.Ī stunning day on the slopes overlooking Val Thorens, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.ĭespite it being the opening weekend of Christmas school holidays in France and England, I have slope after undulating slope pretty much to myself. It’s a bluebird day, the air is a crisp minus 9 degrees, the snow fresh and plentiful, and when I step off the chairlift at the Cime Caron summit above Val Thorens, I’m greeted by a panorama of snowy peaks spanning the Italian, Swiss and French alps, including Mont Blanc.
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