Val Thorens, Europe’s highest major ski resort, is making increasing use of new technology in many areas of is operations, including trying to improve skier slow around the slopes and thus minimise queues, as well as to increase safety.
The 3 Valleys resort’s Skiflux system displays how many people are using which ski runs in real-time via giant screens enabling skiers to see which slopes are less busy in real time. 10 sensors are strategically positioned on the slopes and four giant screens broadcast “skiability” information about ski runs using easy-to-read icons.
To increase safety the resort’s new Gendloc system enables Val Thorens ski patrollers to pinpoint the position of skiers who call for help without knowing where they are. Skiers are located using a signal emitted by their smartphone or by sending a photograph of the surrounding landscape. Help is therefore able to arrive much more quickly thanks to real-time location-matching.
In addition all ski patrollers now carry a GPS locator beacon in their equipment.
“It’s a highly efficient way to send the closest ski patroller to the relevant zone where help is needed. Reactivity and efficiency are the watchwords of this new innovation,” said a Val Thorens spokesperson.
