This is already our third “year in review” post on this blog and I have to say, I simply can’t believe that time flew by so fast! I still remember writing last year’s post and somehow it feels like it was yesterday. Yet, a lot has happened in the last 12 months… So let’s take a closer look…
If you’re curious to read our previous posts, you’ll find the 2023 post here and the 2024 one over here.
January to March : second epic winter season
Last year we kept the coliving opened during the Christmas and New Year celebrations, which turned out to be… epic (that’s maybe an understatement). I’m not gonna go into too many details, but just imagine : full house, people booking hotels around and everybody gathering at the coliving to celebrate. Champagne bottles got opened with skis (dumb idea in hindsight but still a fun one), crazy choreographies happened on the outside tables, oven trays got used as sledges to come down the neighbors stairs, and so many laughters (and ibuprofens the next day… for the headaches of course but also for some bruises left by those slightly dumb missions haha)
Anyhow, that’s what I would call starting the year with a BANG. And the rest of the winter season was nothing short of incredible adventures and daily ski outings. We had a pretty stable winter crew and some really nice friendships were born during those months (even some love stories but that’s for another day). 😉
The weeks went by at the speed of light… filled with ski morning in Arolla, touring missions, nordic skiing (even a local competition where most of the colivers enrolled), biathlon, snow shoe hikes and even some water ski competition. 😉
And of course lots of cozy family dinners, game nights, skillshares, croissant hikes and carnival celebrations.
April to September : Alpiness renovations
That’s when thing got serious for us… One day the house was full of life with colivers and laughs and the next day we were sat in a pile of dust with workers removing all our windows and building a huge scaffolding around the house for the months to come… Talk about a contrast haha
We spent the first few most chaotic months mostly the 2 of us in the house (a window-less house at 1500m altitude in April is not exactly the most ideal setting to welcome people haha) but as soon as the biggest mess was done we were joined by an amazing gang of volunteers that helped us get the house ready for opening. Many liters of paint (and sweat), countless hours spent sanding (who said sanding the balcony barriers was a good a idea again?), many DIY projects but also lots of great memories and adventures in the mountains.
I’m not gonna go into too much details about the renovations. If you’re interested, you can take a look at this more specific blog post.
September – October : Autumn gang was back!
Scaffoldings came off exactly three days before the season started, and we were still dealing with last-minute surprises right up until the end. The cherry on top? A leak on the terrace that turned one of the rooms into a kind of tropical shower experience every time it rained (talk about full panic mode, haha). But as it’s often the case, things somehow worked themselves out. A few fixes, a lot of deep breaths, and on September 1st, we were finally ready to welcome the new colivers gang.
September and October then spoiled us with some of the most incredible weather we could have hoped for. For weeks on end, there was simply no need to check the forecast, it was sunny, warm, and stable day after day, the kind of conditions that make you want to be outside from morning until sunset.
Those two months flew by in the blink of an eye. The days quickly found their rhythm and were packed with hikes, alpinism adventures, trail runs, climbing sessions, via ferratas, and plenty of spontaneous outdoor plans. Evenings often turned into shared meals, long discussions, and community events that brought everyone together after full days outside. We were lucky to host a particularly outdoorsy and active crew, and the least we can say is that there was never a dull moment during the week. The house was buzzing with energy, muddy shoes, tired legs, and very happy faces, exactly the kind of atmosphere we love.
November – December : cozy winter start
The last 2 months turned out to be a full “surprise” in terms of occupancy. When we re-opened the house in September we did have a couple bookings for these 2 months, but I would say we were at about 50% occupancy rate. Little did we know, the place would end up beeing 100% booked out thanks to many (very) last minute bookings. I mean… Our record probably would go to Nathan who booked on November 8th at noon and showed up at our door 24 hours later on November 9th. 😉 It was a very nice surprise to see those months which are usually considered “low season” be absolutely full of life and adventures.
I’ll be fully honest, I never fully understood how November was a low season in the mountains… I mean I get it, November is a pretty “shit” month when you live in the city (trust us we’ve lived 4 years in Zurich and 2 years in Vienna – we know), but in the mountains it tends to look more like this:
As I am writing this, the last guests have just left and we’re taking 2 weeks off to spend Christmas with our families and give the house a proper de-clutter and deep clean before re-opening on January 3rd with a full house.
Having the best possible team
Since the very beginning of our project, Ben and I have always been surrounded by a team of 2 volunteers and shortly after opening (less than a year), Austris joined the founders team on a more official base. And I’m not gonna lie, we’ve been a 99% lucky on the people that came to help us. I’ll take off a percent, because of course, not everyone is the PERFECT match, but overall we’ve been more than blessed.
If there’s one thing that became even more obvious to us this year, it’s how incredibly lucky we are when it comes to the people who help bring Alpiness to life.
When Louis and Lucie are around, the house simply thrives. They were already with us at the start of the year, then came back during the renovation phase, and eventually took over from the moment we opened in September until the end of the year. They care deeply about the people, the place, the little details and they show up with a level of commitment that still blows us away.
Somewhere along the way, they stopped feeling like “staff” and very clearly became family. The kind of friends you don’t meet very often in life. We joke (a lot) about their plans to move to Canada, mostly because imagining Alpiness without them feels… wrong. PS: We’re not crying ugly yet because they’ll be back next year from April until end of August and honestly we could not be happier about this!!!
Austris has been part of the adventure since the very beginning, and he’s clearly 1000% part of what Alpiness is today. Always positive, still as passionate obsessed with the mountains, he decided to move more permanently to Evolène and got his very own place (with Robert as a roommate). His energy, his natural sense of community, and his enthusiasm for outdoor life add so much to the spirit of the coliving. Beyond that, he’s a friend we deeply trust and appreciate, and we genuinely hope he’ll keep building the future of Alpiness with us for a long time.
Our little Carmenita (who you might know if you’ve stayed with us since she already spent more than 8 months at Alpiness as a volunteer in the last 2,5 years) has also absolutely blown us away this year. After coming back again and again, she came back last autumn with the idea to see “how life could be here on a more permanent base”. In her 6 weeks stay, she started to create a french café, opened up a whatsapp group for all young people living in the valley and wanting to connect, volunteered at the cinema and most importantly… decided that LH could be her place for a while. (yep, Los Angeles is famous as LA, soon Les Haudères will be widely known as LH hahaha).
Last week, she made the first move and posted one of the nicest messages in the local facebook group to find an apartment or a studio in the valley. Her graphic design business is developping well and we’re of course sad she will most likely not be back as a volunteer but we’re absolutely over the moon to hear that she’s looking to settle here!!!
And of course, none of this would have been possible without all the other people who crossed our path this year. And a special thanks goes to all those incredible people who helped during the renovations : Giulia, Sophia, Tracy, Alberto, Cso, Yanzhu, Alina, Nolwenn, Manu, Jaume… Thank you sooo much! Some of you are already coming back in 2026 and we can’t wait to have you back in the Alpiness family.
Alpiness is what it is because of people. And this year, more than ever, we’re deeply grateful for every one of you.
Our side projects : Trava, Les Cimes Festival & the cinema
2025 was a busy year with the renovations, yet, some other cool projects developped as well!
We kept our veggie garden alive, not as big as usual since the house was closed, but we’ve got one more year experience in growing some veggies in the mountains and also lots of more connection with the local grandmas that are always here to spill some tea (you would not believe how much gossip you hear while gardening haha) or give some precious tips while we get our hands dirty.
Trava, our public coworking space, is also doing well. We clearly did not have enough time to invest in the project to make it grow as much as we wanted, but we’re super happy to see that even without intense efforts, the space is still very much alive and used both by our colivers, locals and some tourists on holidays looking for a nice place to get some work done. Set-up as a completely separate non-profit, we’re very lucky to be supported by the local authorities that let’s us use the former school building free of charge. Financially speaking the space is now sustainable and there are enough people coming for it “to run”. But when we set up the project our ambitions were a bit higher that simply having it “running”. We want it to thrive and be a place where many side-projects can be born! Still lots of work required on that end, but we’re very motivated to make it happen in 2026.
Last summer, Ben and I also decided to volunteer at the Cime Festival. A local event where lots of different countries are invited to come share their traditional dances and music. This festival is truly unique and I highly recommend you check it out (next edition will be in 2027). Beeing a volunteer at the festival is a full time commitment and with Ben we knew this would probably not be something we’d be able to do when the coliving is operating. We thus took 1 week break from the renovations and got to spend one of the most intense weeks of our year. When I say intense, I mostly mean ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. We had the privilege to be chosen to be the local guides for a tribe coming from Papoua New Guinea and we were basically following them around during their whole stay ensuring everything runs smoothly. Sleep was clearly optional during this week, but we could not have cared less because it has, without the slightest hesitation, been one of the highlights from this year.
Last but not least, I (Fabienne) decided to get involved in a completely separate and new project : the revival of our local cinema! When I got approached by Andres a few months ago about joining this new non-profit’s founder team I was immediately thrilled by the project. I probably under-estimated the amount of work it would take to start and run such an ambitious project, but in hinsight I could not be happier I said yes to this crazy adventure. The cinema has now been up and running for a little over 3 months and we now have 3-4 movies a week scheduled. The whole project solely relies on an amazing team of volunteers (more than 20 people are involved at this point) and we take turns at operating the cinema projections, selling the tickets, drinks and making the fresh pop-corn. Beeing part of the comitee also means a few extra hours spent planning the movie schedules, contacting all the distributors, negociating rights, creating monthly programs and printing ads, managing the admin and accounting. I am not gonna lie, the start was hectic and it ended up taking waaaaay more time than I thought I had available, but things are starting to settle and we’re more and more organized. We’re also a bit more confident that this project is viable on the long run.
Over the last 3 months, we had a bit over 50 projectitons and over 600 tickets sold (keep in mind, our municipality only has 1600 inhabitants, which makes it a pretty solid success if you ask me!). Of course, running a cinema on a “professional business” in such a small valley would be absolute financial non-sense, but as a local non profit and every single person involved volunteering with their competences and time, this all of sudden turns into something that is pretty damn magic!
PS : if you’re curious, you can go check the cinema website (made by Ben 😉 )
Our year on a more personal note
This year has, once again, been an intense one for us. The renovations ended up going pretty smoothly but let’s face it, it was also an incredible amount of stress and pressure. On the physical and financial aspect of course, but also mentally. During our first round of renovations we had to learn how to do everything by ourselves, which was of course sometimes very frustrating, but also highly rewarding. This time, we had both the physical work inside the house but also the more admnistrative pressure of handling a huge renovation project involving multiple companies, deadlines but also lots of legal regulations and heritage preservation guidelines. Did we manage to do everything perfectly? haha absolutely not, but overall we’ve done a pretty damn good job I must say.
Our very first “longer holiday” was also very much needed. (for context, Ben and I left for 3 weeks in Portugal mid-September). We were of course a bit sad to leave almost right after opening. Because yes, our initial plan was to leave in August and be back for the opening… but of course renovations were late and holidays had to get postponed. But on the other hand, it was actually also a very good occasion to see that, with the help of the most amazing team, leaving for a few weeks, is absolutely doable for us! I don’t know, but in my head I thought that somehow we’d leave but still be very much be involved in the daily operations… and of course, the first week of holidays we were still “checking-in” almost daily with the team to see how things were going. But after 1 week, we also saw that everything was 1000% under control and that Louis, Lucie, Carmen and Austris were absolutely rocking this and we managed to almost fully disconnect for the remaining 2 weeks.
But funny enough, leaving for these 3 weeks also reminded us how happy we were to have made the choice of coming to live in this beautiful valley and setting up this coliving. Because yes, our holidays were very much needed and we enjoyed every single minute of it, but we were also incredibly happy to come back “home” and be back in the community and our magic valley.
Moving to our new apartment has also been a very appreciated change. It’s funny because, somehow we end up spending almost as much time at the house, but having a physical distance and “going home” somehow helped us get a better balance. We’re still not the best at making sure we keep some “alone time” but we’re actively working on it and our Sunday evenings are now mostly dedicated to some “us time”. This usually means sharing a bottle of wine, playing board games or watching some silly TV shows and sometimes, spending time together also means me journaling on the couch while Ben falls asleep at 8pm on top of the dog. 😉
On a completely different note, we’re absolutely thrilled (and slightly amazed too) that more and more people who came to the coliving are now deciding to settle more permanently in our valley. When we first came up with this project, this was of course part of what you could call our “ideal scenario wishlist” but little did we know it would actually happen so much and so fast!
So far, Marta, Tobias, Lore and Austris have set up an official base. Robert has probably spent 70% of the year in the valley and quite a few people we know are actively thinking about it as their next move… Carmenita, Jorien, Annabelle, Noelle : LH is waiting for you! 😉 Having this extended community feels like a real blessing and we’ve started to notice how local connections are starting to form (and I’m not only saying this because a few ex-colivers started to date locals hahaha). No, what I mean here is that we’re starting to grow our friends’ circle here and keep meeting more and more amazing people with whom we share lots of values and hobbies, which only contributes to make our outdoor adventures and social events even more diverse and interesting.
2026 : What’s next ?
It’s the first time since we moved in that a yearly review does not include future renovation plans! 🙂 Yep, this time we’re officially done with all the major renovations, and I’m not gonna lie: it feels absolutely AMAZING not to have to worry about the next round of construction. Of course, owning a large building like ours will always come with upgrades and fixes, and I’m pretty sure 2026 will bring its share of surprises in that regard. But overall, we’ll finally be able to put our energy into other things.
2026 will also be our first year operating full time, meaning we won’t be closing at all until next Christmas, and that makes us really happy! With that in mind, our main focus for the coming year will be COMMUNITY.
Over the last few years, we’ve invested a lot of time and energy into building what we believe is an absolutely incredible community in the house. Not to brag, but so far this part has been pretty successful. We’re incredibly grateful for all the amazing people who have come together here, and for all the shared adventures, stories, and moments along the way.
Now, one area we want to invest more time and energy in is “breaking the bubble”, connecting more with locals and integrating even better into the valley. The Trava and cinema projects are great examples of how the coliving space and its residents can engage with the local community, but we strongly feel there’s a lot more we can do in that direction.
This feels especially relevant since quite a few colivers have decided to live, or at least spend a good part of the year, in the valley, often with a base outside the house. Because of this, 2026 will likely be a year of experimenting: trying out different kinds of events and activities that involve not only our guests, but also the extended community living nearby and people from the village. Trava is a perfect place to start, but honestly, we have plenty more ideas, including outdoor activities, local projects (like clean-ups, trail maintenance or creation), outdoor gatherings, and sports events.
One of our main challenges will be creating a system that allows a group of motivated people to get involved and build projects together. We have to be realistic: Ben and I don’t have an infinite amount of time, and we won’t be able to organize and carry all these projects on our own. But if we can create some kind of ecosystem, one where we help facilitate connections and support event creation, we hope more and more people will get involved, and that together we can build something really special.
If you have any ideas or suggestions, we’d absolutely love to hear them! A few things are already in the works, but we’ll share more details once they’re a bit further along. 🙂
To wrap things up, we want to wish you all happy holidays and a wonderful start to the new year. Thank you for being part of this journey with us, we’re incredibly excited about what’s ahead and very much looking forward to 2026!
See you in 2026!
