History

In 1970, Joseph FONTANET, chairman of the local council and Mayor of Saint Martin de Belleville created a joint local association linking the Savoie region and its neighbouring towns.

The aim behind this association was to research and develop the implementation of Pierre Schnebelen’s large scale construction project to create a large tourist complex on both sides of the Péclet Polset massif. The complex was to incorporate two resorts : Val Thorens on the Belleville side and Val Chavière on the south (situated in the Planay valley within the Vanoise National Park, Modane).

There were two main objectives for this development project. The first was to ensure an easy linkage between the Tarentaise and Maurienne valleys through a large network of pistes and ski lifts and in turn provide a boost to Modane’s tourist economy which was at the time already in recession. The second was to create a vast summer ski area on the glaciers surrounding the Péclet summit (3560m), as had been seen to work in Austria.

The Val Chavière project soon faced difficulties due to the strict regulations of the Vanoise National Park whereby all urbanisation is prohibited. After numerous protests and conflictual government decisions, the Val Chavière project was unfortunately abandoned.

The Val Thorens project on the other hand, planned for outside of the National Park area, was accepted and the construction began at a fast pace. Within one year, the 8km stretch of road between les Menuires and Val Thorens was completed.

In order to complete the extensive construction project successfully, the Savoie region and community of Saint Martin de Belleville entrusted the planning of Val Thorens to SODEVAB and a promotional group led by the Hénin bank in 1971.

The first network of ski lifts in Val Thorens was opened 18 December 1971.
The SETAM (Tarentaise-Maurienne ski lift management company) was created in 1972 to manage the Val Thorens ski domain and the first apartment buildings were constructed in an area of resort named “le hameau de Péclet”.

In 1979, a second area of resort known as “Caron” was established.

Over the years following its opening, Val Thorens acquired a notorious reputation internationally with the opening of the Caron cable car in 1982 which was, at the time, the largest cable car in the world.

The construction of the Caron cable car marked the establishment of Val Thorens among the top European ski resorts. During the 1990s, the SETAM decided to install a “high tech” ski lift system offering more comfort, less waiting time and better integration into the surrounding area to clients. At the top of their development criteria list was the replacement of the older and less functional lifts within resort.

Within 10 years of its original installation and an investment averaging approximately 10 million Euros per year, Val Thorens had set a new standard with the most modern ski lift network in the whole of Europe (12 new generation chairlifts (four of which for 6 people), a cable car capable of holding 150 people and numerous innovative ideas such as double boarding gates for certain chairlifts or the two funitel lifts Péclet and Grand Fond which were the only lifts of this type in the world).

Whilst developing quickly in technological terms, Val Thorens also made some considerable modifications to its architectural approach during the 1980s. The modern building style of the 1970s was replaced with an architecture more typical of a mountain village. Despite several repercussions from those which were called the “concrete years”, Val Thorens returned to a more traditional Savoyard style by rebuilding various facades, covering residence walls in wood and traditional stone and installing more attractive sloping roofs.

To complement this change in style, the resort church was built in 1993 inside a new area of resort built up only of chalets.