The most beautiful ski slopes in Val Thorens, the highest resort in Europe

I tested it for you Val Thorens ski resort. The highest ski resort in Europe at 2300 metres above sea level, Val Thorens is located in the heart of Savoie in the Belleville valley within the ski area of Three Valleys, the largest in the world.

Bathed in sunshine, the altitude of the Val Thorens ski area allows for a extraordinary snowfall and an opening during a very long season from the end of November to the beginning of May.

Let’s take a little tour of this unique resort in the Alps.

How do you get to Val Thorens?

To ski in Val Thorens, you have the choice of sleeping on site and in this case access will be mainly by road going up the entire Belleville valley, in which you will also find the ski resorts of Menuires and Saint-Martin-de-Belleville. It is a very long road of about forty kilometers from Moûtiers. It is also from Moûtiers station that the shuttles leave for Val Thorens which take the same route.

You can also choose to sleep at Orelle, in Maurienne, close to the motorway and the SNCF train station of Saint Michel de Maurienne or that of Modane. You are then at an altitude of 1000 metres, in a fairly steep valley. The Orelle resort is not yet very well developed and you risk missing that "ski holiday" atmosphere that you may be looking for. On the other hand, its easy access and much more affordable prices can make it a wise choice. From Orelle, just take a cable car to find yourself in the ski area of Val Thorens. So you ski in the same place, even if you spend the night in Orelle. It's a suitable option, especially if the budget is tight.

For day skiing, however, I recommend going through Orelle. No mountain roads, no parking problems (if you come early, at opening) and no crowds at the start of the ski day. A winning combination for a day of skiing.

Val Thorens ski resort

Clearly, we cannot say that it is the most beautiful of the Alpine resorts, nor the one with the most beautiful architecture. It is a modern resort, composed mainly of buildings, in a mixture of residences and hotels. The latest constructions, however, use beautiful materials and combine wood and stone to give a chic and refined side to the resort. Despite this uninviting introduction, I assure you that when the resort is covered in a meter and a half of snow, when the roofs are hidden by imposing piles of snow, and when you can no longer distinguish the roads from the ski slopes because everything is so white, Val Thorens then imposes its charm.

It is a high-altitude resort, the highest in the Alps, and it owns it. You don't live at 2300 metres like you do at 1000 metres. You protect yourself from the cold. You can't cover the whole valley with little chalets either, you build buildings.

The rest of the space, and this is the most important, is the ski area.

Unlike many other stations, Val Thorens today offers real high-end. With many luxurious, five-star hotels with exclusive services and even a Michelin-starred restaurant. Val Thorens joins the club of exclusive resorts like Courchevel, Val d'Isère or Megève.

You can access the resort area even if you are not staying on site. I told you about Orelle, but closer and in a snowy atmosphere, there is also Les Menuires, a resort from the 70s, located between 1800 and 2000 meters above sea level. Lower down, but it's starting to get a bit far, you can find the character of traditional villages in Saint Martin de Belleville and all the hamlets nearby.

It's the same valley, but be careful, it's not the same package. Unlike Orelle, whose Vallon d'Orelle ski area is attached to that of Val Thorens, those of Les Menuires and Saint Martin de Belleville do not allow skiing in Val Thorens. You must then buy a pass for the Val Thorens ski area. Three Valleys.

Nightlife in Val Thorens — Evening lights in Val Tho

The Val Thorens ski area.

The Val Thorens ski area is spread over two large areas, the three slopes of the valley in which the resort is located, dominated by the Péclet glacier, and the Rosaël valley further south, above the Maurienne valley.

150 km of trails, spread over 87 slopes served by around thirty ski lifts.

The highest points accessible with these ski lifts are the Péclet glacier (2940m), the Rosaël (3000m), Thorens (3002m) passes, the Caron peak (3200m) and the Trois Vallées summit, in the Rosaël valley at 3230m.

90% of the slopes are at an altitude of over 2000 meters : no snow problems. If you want to be sure of having good snow all season long, you have to come to Val Thorens. In any case, it will be better than elsewhere.

The Val Thorens area is spread out around the same valley. It can therefore seem repetitive if you stay for a week. In this case, I advise you to take a "Trois Vallées" package to go and explore the areas of Les Menuires, Meribel and Courchevel. You will have access to 600 km of slopes, four times more, and here, I can guarantee that you will rarely ski in the same place during your stay. In addition, you will enjoy varied landscapes, skiing in the forest. You just have to be careful of one very sensitive point. In case of bad weather, strong winds or approaching a major disturbance, the lifts and the slopes that allow you to switch from one valley to another may be closed, even during the day. You must therefore be vigilant and follow the instructions on the boards at the bottom of the ski lifts: if you are told to return to your valley, do so. A chairlift will be stopped when winds of 80 km/h approach, and this is common at 2700 meters above sea level.

In this article, we will stay within the perimeter of the Val Thorens ski area.

I love skiing in the morning in the Rosaël valley. Why? Because it is bright, sunny and quiet. Indeed, skiers from other valleys (Courchevel and Méribel) take a while to get there, rarely before mid-late morning.

There are blue runs to get your legs moving, and more sporty red runs. The Mauriennaise is quite steep, while the runs around Bouchet are less sporty. Good skiers appreciate the black one that comes down from Cime Caron. Frankly, you can spend a good part of the day there. There is a restaurant and toilets. It is practical. For the day, coming from Orelle and skiing in the Rosaël valley is an excellent plan if you are with children or in the company of skiers who get tired quickly.

Otherwise, we switch to the Val Thorens, by the Rosaël pass, for example. Perched at 3000 meters, we admire the landscape. The all-white valley in which the Val Thorens resort is nestled is below a magnificent landscape of peaks and ridges among which Mont Blanc sits. The resort itself seems like a polar base lost on the ice floe. Except that the ice floe is vertical here.

The gradients towards the bottom of the slopes are significant enough to make the descent enjoyable. The Niverolles and Eterlou slopes lead back to the resort while the red Falaise slope leads to the Caron sector.

In Val Thorens we ski from November to May — Mont Blanc and Val Thorens

In the middle of the day when almost everyone stops for lunch and the slopes are deserted even in high season, I like to take the slopes around Portette, especially the red Portette, or the red Rhodos, which is often neglected and offers a route with beautiful curves.

I am less of a fan of the slopes in the Peclet and Lac Blanc sectors, which are very busy and therefore quickly damaged. On the reds, small bumps form quickly from mid-morning and limit the fluidity of the skiing. On the other hand, they are sporty and warm the thighs.

Side tilts towards the Three Valleys, the slopes are in the sun, which is nice at the end of the day. Moreover, it is on this side that a bar fills up at the end of the day in an atmosphere of gentle madness…

The short black Goitschel run is very pleasant at the end of the day when the snow has softened. We enjoy the slope and the view before taking the other runs and crossing the ski resort by the return run "Plein Sud".

Experienced skiers will spend a large part of their day on the slopes of the Cime Caron. A thousand meters of vertical drop await them on red and black slopes. It is around the Boismint chairlift that we also find pretty blue runs to do with the family.

On Les Menuires slopes which you reach by sliding along the bottom of the valley are oriented on both sides of the valley, Pointe de la Masse side and Mont de la Chambre side and offer a nice complement to the Val Thorens slopes (but they are only accessible with a Trois Vallées pass).

We ski in the sun at Val Thorens and that's the main thing. On the other hand, when the weather is bad, you quickly find yourself in a situation of whiteout or fog and the pleasure diminishes very quickly (as does the temperature). Here, there are no forests to take refuge in in bad weather. This is perhaps the limit of the very high ski areas.

The other valleys that make up the domain of Three Valleys, like Méribel and Courchevel, have part of their slopes in a wooded environment, which makes skiing in bad weather more pleasant.

Snow guaranteed in Val Thorens — Val Thorens ski area looking south

What else to do besides skiing in Val Thorens?

To stay on the slide, you can go sledding in the most longest toboggan run in FranceThe Cosmojet track is over 6km long and the descent takes over 45 minutes.

In addition, you can combine this experience (and a good saving on both activities) with snowtubing (Moon Xperience), i.e. sliding in a giant buoy.

If you prefer the air, you can fly over the slopes, up to 65 meters high, on a zip line, on a 1.8 km descent. It's fast, it's fun and it's easy. You can access it on skis or on foot via the Moutière chairlift.

Val Thorens also offers more classic activities such as snowmobiling, dog sledding, snow biking (electric mountain bike or fatbike), etc.

In Val Thorens, the winter atmosphere, the festive atmosphere and the quality of the ski area are assets for you to have a great winter sports holiday.

It is a resort suitable for young people and families, for sports enthusiasts and those who only ski part of the day.

On the other hand, we will be less inclined to walk between the buildings, even if the amount of snow and the polar temperatures make us forget the urban aspect of the place.

Have a great holiday in Val Thorens!