Europe's highest escape room: could you break out of a cable car at 3,000m?
Being trapped in a cable-car cabin suspended high above a mountain in a ski resort with just one hour to get out sounds more like a scene out of James Bond than a lovely day out.
But that hasn’t stopped Val Thorens in France from opening its latest attraction – Escape Game Caron.
Inspired by the rising popularity of Escape Rooms, the concept that requires players to solve a series of clues in order to escape a themed scenario, Escape Game Caron takes place in the resort’s 150-person Cime Caron cable car, which transports skiers and snowboarders to the Cime Caron summit at 3,200m.
The resort of Val Thorens is Europe’s loftiest ski holiday destination, with the village sitting at 2,300m. The new game takes place at such heady altitude it's the highest escape game in Europe.
It’s also the first game of its kind to take place in a ski lift and in a nod to its scenic setting all the clues to escape are linked to the mountains and the history of the resort.
Before players are locked into their moving prison, they are taken on a guided tour of the Cime Caron lift station, including the engine room, and look back at the resort's heritage with an expert guide. At the time of its construction in 1982 the cable car was the largest in the world.
Once they’ve done their revision players are locked inside one of the cabins and have one hour to solve a number of puzzles in order to escape, these include working out lock combinations and clues to open safes.
The game has been developed by the resort and its SETAM ski lift company and is played once the slopes are shut and the lift is empty of skiers.
Up to five people can be locked one of the two cabins in at once, and players must be over the age of 15.
Once the game is over, whether successful or not the team is released to the safety of the lift station and rides back to the resort village on a snow cat - no clambering on the roof of the cabin or overnight stays required. The prize for escaping? Good old bragging rights.
The new attraction is open for a limited time to mark the end of the 2017/18 ski season. The first session took place on March 27 and the game will be running until May 8, when Val Thorens closes for the winter. Sessions are free, but must be booked in advance at the tourist office.
The new opening in Val Thorens is a great location for an escape game - but where else, in ski resorts around the world, would be a match for it?
Peak 2 Peak, Whistler Blackcomb
Why set the clock to 60 minutes? In the world’s longest unsupported lift in Whistler, Canada, players could have just 11 minutes to escape – that’s how long it takes to cross the 1.88 miles between the resort's Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, so move fast to find those clues.
Mer de Glace glacier, Vallée Blanche, Chamonix
Adventurous skiers and snowboarders flock to the dramatic landscape of the Vallée Blanche in France each year and countless people have descended off piste over its glacier. However, as proved by freeskier Sam Favret in 2016, there’s a lot to be discovered underneath the surface. Trying to escape from the frozen tunnels and caves would certainly be a challenge.
Igloo Village, Avoriaz
The 200m2 igloo village in the heart of Avoriaz’s ski area in France would add a chill to any escape and with its separate rooms and ice tunnels there are plenty of places to hide clues.
Sheldon Chalet, Alaska
Arguably one of the world’s most remote ski chalets, Sheldon Chalet in Alaska would prove to be an extremely isolated escape room. Whether you’d actually want to solve the clues is questionable though - since the chalet is perched above a glacier in the middle of the Denali National Park there’s not much to run to outside.
The world's most remote ski chalets
Skyway Monte Bianco, Courmayeur
If you suffer from motion sickness then maybe give this one a miss, but the rotating cabins of one of the world's most impressive ski lifts, the Skyway Monte Bianco in Italy, which zooms up to near the summit of Europe's highest mountain, Monte Bianco - aka Mont Blanc - would certainly make for a dramatic setting when searching for clues.