Cime de Caron

Bar 7 is the perfect bridge between skiing and evening cocktails.

It has that cool retro 1970s aesthetic, comfy outdoor deck chairs, live saxophone sessions, and panoramic views of the central snow front as the sun drops behind the Cime de Caron.

[laughs] But Liam, we have to talk about the legendary 5:15 PM spectacle, the Folie Douce mass exodus.

Oh, it is the greatest spectator sport in the Alps.

The big one, the summit that defines the resort.

We need to talk about the 3,200-meter pinnacle of Cime de Caron.

And the brand-new architectural landmark that has just opened on the rooftop of Europe.

Oh, the top of the mountain is a completely different world.

The Cime de Caron sits at 3,200 meters, and riding that legendary cable car up to the peak is an essential rite of passage for every visiting skier.

The cable car has been completely revamped with brand-new ultra-modern panoramic cabins that carry 150 passengers straight up the sheer rock face.

And when you step out of the cabin at the summit today, you are walking into something that has completely rewritten the rule book of high-altitude facilities, the brand-new Caron 3200 building.

But let's be honest with each other, Liam.

While oysters and steak frites on a sunny terrace are lovely, when the sun drops behind the Cime de Caron and the temperature plunges to minus 12, there is only one thing any sensible human wants to eat.

Melted cheese.

Gallons of rich, hot, bubbling savoyard cheese.

He knew how brutal the weather could get, and he was completely obsessed with pushing the boundaries of what was mechanically possible.

And in the late 1970s, he set his sights on the biggest prize in the entire valley, the Cime de Caron.

The Cime de Caron sits at nearly 3,200 meters, and back then, most alpine engineers considered it an unclimbable fortress for a commercial ski lift.

It is a jagged, hostile pyramid of solid rock and ice, completely exposed to the elements.

But Josserand was determined to run a lift straight to the summit, not just to open up new terrain, but to give Val Thorens the most spectacular viewpoint in the entire Alps.

The construction between 1981 and 1982 was a proper engineering epic.

They had to pour heavy concrete foundations onto sheer cliff tops, haul massive steel cables across yawning ravines, and work in freezing alpine gales where a single mistake meant falling hundreds of meters into the rocks.

And when they finally opened the Téléphérique de la Cime de Caron in the autumn of 1982, it completely stunned the global ski industry.