Antoine Colin, 16, is passionate about cable cars and ski lifts and wants to make it his job.
He built his own miniature ski resort, called Les 3 Glaciers, in his parents' garden in the Vosges.
His photos and videos, posted regularly on social networks, are acclaimed and appreciated for the realism and poetry they inspire.
Bearings, bolts, checks, it's his passion.
During lessons, holidays, in the evening, "he only thinks about that: how to innovate, build, ensure maintenance..." At 16, the "ingenious" Antoine Colin has spent all his time for three years climbing, fine-tuning, improving his own ski resort… in his parents' garden, in La Bresse in the Vosges.
A somewhat special, miniature station.
A model whose scale of equipment is 1/32nd, or 32 times smaller than reality.
His obsession?
It's not to hit the ski slopes even “if like all mountain people”, he practices it.
For Antoine Colin, it's the cable cars that get his adrenaline pumping.
“I've always been fascinated by them, their mechanics, their operation,” says the young man.
Moreover, in the future, he does not envisage anything other than becoming a cable car mechanic.
His dream, his ultimate goal, is to work on the Aiguille du Midi in Chamonix.
"It's a comeback that has made me dream since I was little," he says.
Its location at 3,800 m, it's an extraordinary cable car, its machinery, everything fascinates me.
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Ski resorts recommend it
And to get there, he gives himself the means of his passion.
Educated in a bac-pro industrial maintenance, he then wants to go on, diploma in hand, with an electrical engineering BTS in the hope of being able to do it on a work-study basis… at the Aiguille du Midi cable car.
Just a project?
“I have already done an internship there, we have already talked about it together, so I hope that my project will materialize in the years to come.
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A real vocation whose result is worthy of its investment.
On the images he shares on his Facebook page, which has nearly 4,000 subscribers, or on Instagram with its 800 subscribers, his station called Les 3 Glaciers only receives compliments and encouragement.
Photographed or filmed day, night, at sunrise, sunset, in the storm, and even sometimes out of season under snow cannons... And the comments left are not misleading.
“Are all the slopes in the area open today?
"Is the snow good?"
"Not too many people for this holiday?"
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The project packs.
Moreover, it snowballed and it was by seeing his productions on social networks that large companies such as the Mont-Blanc company or the Val Thorens resort provided him with technical advice and equipment.
Like a remote-controlled snow groomer offered by Val Thorens, or even IDM, specializing in ski lifts, which offered him "real" cable for his installations.
600 m2 of slopes and lifts
"We have a large piece of land, a meadow, and that's where I built my resort," says Antoine.
Each ski lift is between 10 and 15 m long.
The whole, between the slopes, the lifts, the model extends over approximately 600 m2.
A real little station, which he built entirely, piece by piece, which he machines himself.
Two cable cars, a chairlift, a funicular, a funitel, a drag lift, a conveyor belt… Les 3 Glaciers, with all its facilities, is enough to make the small ski resorts in the region green with envy.
And work, there is no lack of it.
He consults a checklist inspired by that of the Aiguille du Midi and “carries out checks every morning”.
“I often run them, so there is maintenance: greasing the lines, oiling the pulleys, the cables, changing the bearings, the rubber tires,” explains the young man.
For the moment, the Les 3 Glaciers station is not visible to the general public, except on social networks.
“The field is too small and I don't necessarily want to invite the public to my home, recognizes Antoine Colin.
I just do virtual tours, with images that I post every day.
Sufficient, however, to have another look at the cable cars, without going as far as the Aigulle du Midi...
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Strasbourg
Great East
Lorraine
Social networks
Mountain
Youth
Ski
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