Places · Savoie, France
VAL THORENS
Cime Caron and the Pointe de Thorens: the Freeride World Tour's new stop
The place
At 2,300 m the highest ski village in Europe, at the top of Les 3 Vallées. The Freeride World Tour came in 2025, to the Lac Noir, and has run off the Pointe de Thorens and Cime Caron since: faces of 450 to 550 m at 37 to 43°.
Off-piste Off the marked pistes nothing is prepared or patrolled: glaciers, crevasses and cliffs, your own risk.
- 10lines to start
The lines
Every line here, with how hard it is.
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The Lac Noir Face
■■■■■The face the Freeride World Tour found in January 2025 when Val Thorens' high peaks were bare: a rocky ridge above the Lac Noir on Les Menuires' side, about 490 m of chutes and cliffs at 37°, 43° at most.
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Pointe de Thorens
■■■■■Val Thorens' 2026 Freeride World Tour face: 460 m at 38° off the summit ridge, down an old glacier's north face into the Face Nord bowl.
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Cime Caron North Face
■■■■■The face under the Cime Caron cable car, 550 m from just below the 3,195 m summit to the bowl at its foot.
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Combe de Caron
■■■■■Straight down the Cime Caron's north side beside the cable car: 550 m of groomed black from 3,050 m, the steepest piste off Val Thorens' signature peak.
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The Vallon du Lou
■■■■■The Belleville valley's long off-piste classic: from 3,000 m under the Cime Caron, a whole wild valley and 1,300 m down past the Lac du Lou's refuge to the Plan de l'Eau chair.
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Lac du Lou from La Masse
■■■■■Nearly a thousand metres of sunny off-piste straight off the Pointe de la Masse gondola, down the bowls to the Lac du Lou's refuge and out to the Plan de l'Eau.
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Pointe du Bouchet North Face
■■■■■Off the 3 Vallées' highest chairlift at 3,200 m: the Pointe du Bouchet's north face, cold snow and a growing series of rock bands as it loses its permanent snow, about 570 m down to the Plan Bouchet runs.
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Saints-Pères Couloir
■■■■■The pencil-thin couloir you see from the Moraine gondola: on skins over the Chavière glacier to a notch between two rocky horns, often a 30 m abseil in, about 50° for 100 m, and 840 m down to the pistes.
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Aiguille de Péclet West Face
■■■■■Val Thorens' 3,561 m peak, an hour and a half on skins from the lifts: 830 m of glacier face with sizeable crevasses and roll-offs, straight back into the Péclet bowl.
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Couloir Parent
■■■■■Above the village: a 200 m couloir at 45 to 50° off the Pointe du Borgne, reached in an hour on skins from the Plein Sud chair.
