Val Thorens is very luck as the ski lift company SETAM is based there. SETAM have pioneered the Funitel system and Val Thorens had the first for them to show off. Being so high Val Thorens can get quite windy and sitting on a chair lift in the wind is no fun at all, especially if it’s -10 degrees and snowing.
Already Val Thorens has 3 Funitels installed and they do a fantastic job. For their 40th anniversary they are not stopping there. This season (2011/12) they are opening their 4th funitel. This will carry skiers and snowboards up from the top of Portette lift into a brand new ski area. This will in turn create more pistes, in fact it will create 2 new pistes!
There will be a red run called ‘Asters’ (an aster is a type of flower) and a blue run called ‘Chocard’ (which is named after the most common type of crow seen in Val Thorens, also known as a ‘choucas’)which should make the decent from the top (3000m) all the way down to the bottom of the resort in one go one hell of a run!
The new lift will 33 people per train which adds up to 1500 per per hour, so no slouch!
We have the brand new pistes maps for the new season:
Val Thorens Piste Map 2011/2012