Secure your Unplugged Ski week booking with a deposit, full payments are due 12 weeks before the Unplugged Adventure begins.

Unplugged Adventure payments (please be aware this policy is effective as of the start of 2023):

• Booking requests are secured with a $300 deposit and will receive a link to finalize your booking to pay the full Unplugged Adventure fee
• The final full payment is due 12 weeks prior to the Unplugged Adventure starting. (Note: this means you’ll have from the time of booking until 12 weeks out to submit the full Unplugged Adventure payment)
• If your full payment is not received 12 weeks before the Unplugged Adventure start date, your spot will be given to the next person on the waitlist
• Bookings made less than 12 weeks before the Unplugged Adventure start date will pay the full Unplugged Adventure price at booking

Unplugged Adventure cancellations (please be aware this policy is effective as of the start of 2023):

Once the full Unplugged Adventure payment is paid, the following cancellation policy applies:

• You have a 48-hour grace period to cancel a trip booking and not forfeit your deposit. If a booking is cancelled within 48 hours, the deposit will be released for a future trip.
  
• Cancelling 10+ weeks before arrival: 100% refund of the trip payment. Your deposit is forfeited if you didn’t cancel within the 48-hour grace period. Otherwise, the deposit is released for a future booking.
• Cancelling 8-10 weeks before arrival: 50% refund of the trip payment. Your deposit is forfeited if you didn’t cancel within the 48-hour grace period. Otherwise, the deposit is released for a future booking.
• Cancelling less than 8 weeks before arrival: No refund and the deposit is forfeited if you didn’t cancel within the 48-hour grace period. Otherwise, the deposit is released for a future booking.

Closest airport:

• Chambery Airport: 122 km
• Geneva Airport: 150 km
• Grenoble Airport: 187 km
• Lyon Airport: 199 km

More arrival information available on the official resort website. 

In the Chapter's Slack channel before arrival, members often coordinate transportation to our homes together. You'll receive the address and other relevant information closer to the start of the ski week post completed payment.

See our COVID guidelines and procedures here.

Whether you're an experienced rider or new to the slopes, consider travel insurance that includes added protection for adventure activities. Things like:

• Trip protection against weather-related incidents that cause trip cancellations or delays
• Gear protection to protect yourself against theft, lost or damaged equipment
• Emergency medical insurance and emergency evacuation to cover any accidents on the slopes

Unplugged adventures are about reuniting with old friends. It's a week-long intentional break from the day-to-day to disconnect from work and reconnect with the Tribe.

It's a chance for us to keep in touch with old friends a few times a year and stay plugged into the community, even when we're no longer fully nomadic and able to join month-long Chapters.

That's why, for these adventure weeks, we're looking for members who have joined Chapters before and intimately understand what being a Triber is all about.

We're a group that loves to ski and snowboard, members have self organized their own ski weeks with fellow Tribers, so we want to help take it a step further. There's magic to renting out an entire chalet for cozy community hangs and bonding over a shared passion with people with whom we already feel close. 

Chapters have a focus on productivity with the expectation that everyone will log on to work Monday-Friday. Unplugged is a time to... well, unplug. 

Set up an out of office message and take off days from work, these week-long adventures are a holiday as a Tribe. We won't be working during the week, instead all of our focus will be on the adventure and the intention of getting even closer by sharing an epic experience. 

Since this is a chance to unplug from our daily work schedules, we aren't specifically sourcing accommodations for their wifi reliability and speeds. We also won't have the backup MiFi devices on the ground or other supportive tech gear.

During Unplugged adventures, our accommodations might have wifi but it's not a given!

Val Thorens (France) is the highest altitude resort in Europe and the highest point in the 3 Vallées ski area, the largest ski area in the world with over 600 kilometres of runs.

Situated in a vast natural cirque overlooked by 6 glaciers, the Val Thorens ski area offers a multitude of itineraries so you can ski in the sunshine all day long.

Beginners

Val Thorens has always had quite a good offer for beginners simply because its high altitude means that all season long it’s very convenient for first-timers to get on the nursery slopes without the hassle that can be the case at older, lower altitude resorts.

However, the resort moved its services for beginners up another notch a few years ago when it spent 1.5 million Euros on what it describes as a 40 hectare ‘cocoon’ for beginners complete with the latest state-of-the-art roof-covered conveyor lifts, providing very easy uplift on the slopes with the luxury of weather protection if it’s snowing. The conveyors also make the Cascades chairlift more accessible, getting first timers to their first green and blue slopes more easily.

Intermediate

The numbers speak for themselves really – more than 200 blue and red runs from your slopeside ski accommodation. Some 600km of piste. 180 lifts to get you back up the slopes. More than 1,900m of vertical between the top and the bottom of the ski lifts in the 3 Valleys. Runs up to 12km long. There’s simply no bigger lift-served area on earth and no-one better suited to enjoy it all than a regular recreational skier like you and I.

You will want to explore the full region of course and the high speed lift network and piste layout is so good you can cross from one side of this vast area to another in a few hours in each direction, but you are likely to get distracted by the dozens and dozens of great runs along the way.

Advanced

The local slopes around Val Thorens are predominantly easy and intermediate standard terrain, although there are eight black runs, the toughest arguably the 3km long Caron run down from the Cime de Caron lift. Of course, travel a little further afield and the choice quadruples with more than 32 blacks in the wider Trois Vallees.
There is also the option to head off piste with a guide or in a special ski school class. The resort is famous for its powder once you get off the beaten piste – the quality of the snow typically better and longer lasting than in most resorts because of the altitude, the glacier and the often north facing slopes. There are runs for all ability levels from complete beginners to the seriously obsessed, with the Lac du Lou run one of the best known, involving a 1400m vertical descent.

Other popular areas include the glacial zones of La Vanoise, one of the most beautiful off piste tours in the 3 Vallees, or the huge Maurienne flank on the backside of Val Thorens. Day-long excursions and multi-day tours are available on demand from the resort’s High Mountain Guides (+33 (0)6 89 29 23 36).

Snowboard/ Freestyle-Skiing

A major resort for boarders, Val Thorens has recently added a new snow park on the Plateau sector which is easy to reach using several different ski lifts. The park has five zones (beginners, intermediates, experts, an 800m long boardercross and a ‘Jump Air’), altogether covering 70 hectares and filled with a huge range of modules including bumps, whoops, rails, boxes, a table top, wall ride and a big air jump where riders land on a huge inflated mattress after getting airborne.

For beginners, the snowpark contains six jumps and six rails providing an easy learning area for all. The intermediate snowpark has bigger features including three rails, three boxes and six jumps while the expert’s snowpark, used for training by some of Europe’s best riders, has six big rails and a wall ride as well as some huge kickers. The boardercross course is 800m long, a fun area with raised bumps, whoops and jumps.

A ski pass is not included in the trip price because everyone will likely have a different agenda in the French Alps. Some will take the first lift up the mountain and be the last ones down, while others indulge in the many other winter activities on offer here.

Resort passes cost from €61 pp for a 1-day pass (or €300 for 6 days) and can be purchased ahead of time online.

There are a variety options for equipment hire, either at the resorts or in the village. You can rent gear and warm clothes, find a bunch of local options here to find what works best for you. Intersport is also offering rental gear, check it out here.

Of course! Val Thorens offers a variety of winter activities and a bustling small village to fill your time. Try dog sledding, skijoering, toboggan trails, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or tubing to experience the French Alps without hitting the slopes.