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Alpe d’Huez

Set in the southern French Alps high in the Grande Rousses mountains Alpe d’Heuz is France’s fifth largest ski area.  A top resort for families it links the 4 villages of Vajany, Oz, Villard-Recular and Auris-en-Oisans.  The resort has a sports centre, large outdoor swimming pool and skating rink, which are both free with full area passes.

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Skiing in Alpe d’Huez

Alpe d’Heuz has a good range of slopes, with plenty of easy runs on the outskirts of the resort.  Lift pass offers are available for beginners, such as free lifts and the option of buying a limited access daily ski pass to some gentle green runs for around 10 euros for 11 lifts. Look out for the chairlifts Romans, Fontbelle, and Lac Blanc, which offer access to the easy slopes.

Alpe d’Heuz is more suited for the intermediate skier with 38 blue runs and 68 intermediate. Le Signal d’Homme and Plat des Marmottes runs are some of the region’s best.  A massive advantage to Alpe d’Huez is the option of 2 days skiing in Les Deux Alpes (known as the Grande Alpes ski area), included in the lift pass price. Shuttle buses link the two resorts on Wednesday and Thursday for 6 Euros return.  Also in the lift pass price is one day in the Grande Galaxie ski area resort, which includes the resort of Serre Chevalier amongst others.

For advanced skiing Alpe d’Heuz is home to the longest black run in Europe, La Sarenne.  At 16km, this run begins in a tunnel before the 1.8km vertical drop! Pic Blanc at the top of the skking area (over 3000m) is host to many of the black runs but can be affected by bad weather.  Night skiing is available every Tuesday and Thursday on the Signal mountain with the VISALP lift pass.

 

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