Skiing and snowboarding is a hobby for many of the students of Antwerp Management School and definitely for 7 students of the Master in Management: Innovation & Entrepreneurship (MIE).
From an idea to reality...
What started as just an idea became reality when Jonathan Albers, Bavo Coeman, Pepijn van der Putten, Jeroen Maes, Sjors Latour, Heleen de Vos and Anthony Verstraete organised their own skitrip to Val Thorens, France.
Our epic skitrip took place from January 1st till January 7th and it started in Kontich, a place just under Antwerp, where we came together and packed the cars. After a long drive of 948 kilometers we arrived in the Alpes. It was too early to check in so we went to the skishop where the equipment got rented and some other necessities bought. When everyone was ready for the slopes we took the skilift to the top of the mountain. Everyone started of calmly but when we were used to it again, the speed increased.
Check-in was at 17:00. We stayed at Résidence Le Chamois d’Or, a large apartment complex right next to the slopes. When everyone was settled in we cooked dinner together and went to bed early. It had been a long and intensive day without much sleep.
Where?
Val Thorens is part of Les 3 Vallées (The 3 Valleys) and it is the largest ski area in the world with over 600km of slopes! Because the area is so large and all the slopes are connected, we could see different parts of the valleys every day. On average, we skied 30km a day, which is quite a lot. Because everything is well connected, we could easily go to Méribel, Courchevel, Les Menuires and some other nice places. The weather was great as well. Almost every day was sunny, with a blue sky. Every day, expect for Thursday. The temperature was -12,5 degrees Celsius with a felt air temperature of -34 degrees Celsius, we couldn’t see anything because of the fog but the quality of the slopes was amazing. There was a layer of fresh snow which makes it amazing to snowboard (people who have snowboard / skied before now what I am talking about).
Every day we woke up early with fresh bread from the local bakery. We took the skilift around 9.30 so we could hit the slopes before it became busier and be at the après ski at 4. The après ski in Val Thorens was great. La Folie Douce is the place to be! It is a nice chalet with great music, where everybody is dancing on the tables. The atmosphere was great, so great that we decided to come back a few more times. Another great place to après ski is ‘Le Monde’. At least for me it was a great bar. It is the Dutch bar of Val Thorens where 9 out of 10 songs are Dutch, the bartenders are Dutch, the DJ is Dutch and the crowd was Dutch (and 6 Belgians).
Apart from the great parties, Val Thorens has also a wide variety of good restaurants. Most of the nights we cooked ourselves but we also went out for pizza and raclette, the local cuisine.
Being in Val Thorens with friends, snowboarding on the most beautiful wide slopes, eating and drinking on the best locations and dancing on the tables of La Folie Douche. It was all amazing. Val Thorens, I hope to see you soon.
ENJOY OUR AFTER MOVIE :)
-Sjors Latour-
