The Ski Week Brings the Apres-Party Stateside

Bottle-service hot tub? Bottle-service hot tub.

“Organized fun” is -more often than not – an oxymoron. And when it isn’t, it’s usually for schoolchildren and geriatrics. But following a plan doesn’t sound so bad when it involves champagne bottle sparklers, electronic dance music and sharply pitched slopes. That’s why the Euro-preneurs behind “The Ski Week,” a modern, pay-by-the-week coalescence of the eighties alpine sex comedy, are gambling that young professionals will jump at the chance to get weird while someone else minds the logistics. Smart bet.

“No one else was putting on giant events where an international crowd comes together to ski, and party and build a network of friends,” says Leo Alsved, TSW’s project manager. “We realized there was a gap in the market and we filled it.”

European Travel Ventures, a London-based upscale travel company, founded TSW in 2014 as an offshoot of its highly successful “Yacht Week,” the annual America’s Cup of high-seas hangovers. Like its nautical counterpart, TSW combines the rugged sporting life with millennial club culture. The result is a week-long immersion into Euro-style après debauchery. To ensure that things always take a turn for the intoxicated, ETV carefully curates the crowd to make sure there will be enough “like-minded” revelers – and a carefully maintained ratio.

“All of our events are equal amounts girls and boys -it’s one of our core concepts,” says Alsved. “We have an average age of 28 – many young, educated professionals who work in big cities, mostly in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia.”

This March, TSW – thus far an exclusively European ordeal – makes its American debut at Powder Mountain, Utah (March 16-22), followed by an equally raucous round two at Aspen Snowmass (March 28-April 4). The Europeans will mark the first occasion by hosting a music festival in a giant snow fort on the peak. It will be cold sure, but that’s why there’s a bottle-service hot-tub. And Alsved insists that participants will actually go skiing. 

“You’re always up on the mountain,” he says. “The main party goes from three or four PM until ten or eleven. After that, you have some dinner, and then sleep all night so you can be on the first chair on the morning.” 

Photos by Getty Images