play, rest and work in val thorens
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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
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Bars and Clubs 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really into out of date Euro-dance. Off-piste 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 Moguls Speed Snowparks Events Away
Days Shopping Internet
Cafés Eating
Out McDonalds Shopping
Day Transfer
Day Après-ski
Options Living CdS Join
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Val Thorens
is the highest resort in Europe, with the good snow that suggests.
