play, rest and work in val thorens

Val Thorens is the highest resort in Europe, with the good snow that suggests.

Almost all accommodation is ski-in and out and you can ride for 20 minutes in the morning before you have to take a lift.

It's not the prettiest, but the drive through Les Menuires on the way up makes Milton Keynes look picturesque by comparison.

There's a cosmopolitan feel - French, Scandis, Brits and Dutch make up roughly a fifth each of the punter populations, leaving another fifth for 'others' (include the Russian Mafia and their sixteen year old Kornikova look-alike friends).


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Play
Bars and Clubs
Off-piste
Moguls
Speed
Snowparks
Events

Rest

Away Days
Shopping
Internet Cafés
Eating Out
Mountain Restos
McDo

Work
Shopping
Transfer Day
Après-ski
Living

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Val Thorens
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Bars and Clubs
The Frog and Roastbeef is the British embassy, and also the highest pub in Europe. Chris and Fiona MacGregor have run it for the past six years or so. Shows all the major football matches, serves hearty pub tucker (nice price for workers) and has the most foully abusive apres ski singer in the known world. Dancing on the tables is an every night occurrence.

Two doors down is O'Connell's 'genuine' Irish bar, owned by a Frenchman, run by a Dane, and the staff are usually Swedish. A lot of the blokes in there have pigs with them though, so I guess that counts. It's quieter than the Frog, but can be good for a change.

The Rhum Box, is a little secret, hidden behind El Gringo's Tex Mex. Flavoured rums are the main stay, usually good music is played, popular with the French, but everyone is welcomed.

Tango, is the bar of a Swedish Club Hotel. Ski in Dance Out, the signs says, and you do. Tuesday nights are Boogie nights, a Scandi fandango of sexy Swedes dressed as porn queens.

The Viking, despite its name is not particularly popular with the Scandinavians, usually its more of a Brit and Dutch affair. It's a good bar, though, does dangerously excellent toffee vodka, available by the bottle, and also houses an internet café.

There are only two night clubs, but since you can only ever be in one that seems to be enough. The Underground, is dirty, dingy and brilliant, almost always the seasonnaires' late drinking destination of choice. Beach Mountain, or 'Bitch Market', is pricey, even by French night club standards. It mainly attracts those in their glad rags, and those really into out of date Euro-dance.

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Off-piste
The potential is massive. The Cime de Caron, at 3195m is the start of a lot of routes. From here you can access the much vaunted 4th Valley, either by couloirs or big open slopes. If you go down the opposite face there are innumerable options, taking you down to the Lac du Lou and the Boismint chair at about 1880m.

Another variation is to climb over the ridge directly opposite the Boismint 2 chair, which is a shorter and easier way down to the lake. But a brilliant one to rip when the snow's good.

The Col chair leads to more good stuff. Thirty minutes pole off to the right and you reach the Col de Pierre Lory, which takes you into the fourth valley again. This is on glacier, so the snow stays excellent, but the main route's an easy ski, you could take your mum down it. Traverse round to the left and North facing slopes make it steep and deep. Or climb up another forty minutes to the Butcher's Shoulder (Epaule de Buchet) for something a bit more challenging.

Also from the Col, but heading to the left when you get off, a long hike, or an hour or so on skins, takes you to the Face Oueste, name sake of the Face West back country boys. This is glacier too, and steep enough to avalanche reasonably frequently. Also from this side you can approach the Y couloirs, and the Gebroulaz glacier, a route that takes you all the way down to Meribel Mottaret. One of the Ys you really want a rope for the entry, and both are pretty steep. Gebroulaz is covered in crevasses, so you need a guide, or someone who really knows the route

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Moguls
If you like this kind of thing then the Cascades run is exactly the kind of thing you'll like.

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Speed
Either the black or red run from the Cime de Caron gets pisted every night. Get up to the top early, ask the pisteurs which today's special is, and hoof it for the 1500 vertical metres descent down to the Doron chair in Les Menuires. The Col, the Peclet funitel, Boismint 2 and the Rosael chair also have some nicely groomed pistes on which to fly.

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Snowparks
Pipe and park in the resort centre, serviced by the Deux Lacs chair. There's usually a boarder cross tournament here at the end of the season.

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Events
Boarder week, before Christmas is a highly successful attempt to publicise VT to the boarding fraternity, by whom it is currently underused. Big air, boarderX, and the Bom Funk MCs featured at last year's packed gathering. The Danish freestyle, moguls and big air ski comp is also held in Val Thorens, with several of the stars in residence.

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Away Days
Mostly Annecy or Chambery on the town front. Obviously you can easily ski to anywhere in the three valleys. If you know someone with a car then Espace Killy is only an hour's drive from the foot of the mountain, and you get a day free on your lift pass.


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Shopping
Two big arcades, some stylish boutiques, a very clued up street wear shop, and obviously more ski and board kit than you can throw snow at.

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Internet Cafés
One in the Viking, already mentioned, pricey, but gets much cheaper if you buy time in bulk. Or you can also pay for access at the tourist office, but you can't have a beer while you surf there.


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Eating Out
Frog and Roastbeef for good honest, and reasonable, pub grub. The Tango does surprisingly good a la carte food but you usually have to eat after the guests have finished. John's, new last season, does the best spare ribs in the Alps. There are any number of good French restaurants, of which the Scapin, the Hotel 3 Vallee, and the Glacier are three.

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McDonalds
At least an hour and a quarter's drive to the nearest one, in Albertville, but the Frog can take the edge off your Mac-sickness with a Big MacGregor burger.

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Shopping Day
Albertville for the weekly shop, if you're working a chalet.

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Transfer Day
Lyon, Geneva or Chambery for flights. Moutiers for Euro-star and Snow trains. Being high up makes for long transfer times. But it also means an extra bit of kip on the way down, and more time to sell on the way back.


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Après-ski Options
Magnus the swearing Swede and band, at the Frog and Roastbeef, is definitely the Brit worker's favourite, as much a comedy act as music. Ski Rock had cheapest happy hour, but is under new management this year. The Tango for Scandis and Le Monde if you like being trampled by drunken Dutchmen.

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Living
All accommodation in Val Thorens is well positioned, so try as they might those crafty tour op bosses can't really stitch you up. Except of course with your room mate. Apart from the new Chalet de Neiges, at the top of town, most workers will live out of their chalets, which makes for less pestering.

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CdS
Search
If you’re thinking of doing a season in Val Thorens then why not search through the Club des Saisoniers to see who else has worked there and what advice they may be able to offer.

Join
Anyone who has done a season or has a firm offer from a tour operator may join the Club des Saisonniers.

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[Thanks to Jonathan Trigell for putting this Guide together. He gets Natives hoody for his troubles]