 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi can anyone tell me if AD is good for beginners and if any of the lifts are free? Or would you need a full lift pass from day 1?
Thank you
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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ADH is one of the best places for beginners imo lots of gently green runs with easy lifts (i.e no drag lifts) and the home runs are really gentle too so if they make it off the nursery slope theres not a big step up to something longer.
I'm not sure about free lifts i would have thought so. The other thing that makes ADH good for beginners is theres lots of non skiing suff todo if they are too tired to ski a full day.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Sounds great thank you, I know sometimes there're a couple of freebie beginner lifts. Trying to save the cost of a full pass if possible.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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First off, ADH is indeed a very good resort for beginners: it has loads of lovely easy greens which make up two quite extensive "beginner" areas at resort level (the shaded green bits on the piste map). We've been a couple of times with beginners and each time they've really enjoyed it.
Piste map:
http://live.skiplan.com/moduleweb/2.0/alpedhuez.php#
Regarding free lifts, it's a bit more complicated:
http://www.sataski.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Grille-des-tarifs-hiver-2016-20173.pdf
OK it's in French, but here are some of the options:
- for free you get three lifts: the small Rifnel drag, the Grenouilles carpet, and the small Ecole drag. This is the "Forfait Debutant Gratuit". I can't remember what Grenouilles is like, but Rifnel is a very very gentle gradient, and I think Grenouilles is similar. From the map, Ecole gets you up a bit higher. A complete beginner would probably be OK on these for a day, but certainly no more than that.
- as a bit of an upgrade, there is the Forfait Debutant. This gets you the three lifts above, also the other Ecole and Rifnel drags, the Babars drag, and the "telemixte Rifnel" which I'm not very sure what it is TBH (might be the Rifnel express thing on the map). Bit more variety and interest there, and at 22,50 euros a decent saving on other passes.
- as even more upgrade, there is Premieres Glisses, which allows you on any lift out of the resort except Alpauris and Marmottes 1 chairs. On the face of it, it allows you to take Signal chair up, but this might be worth checking. Much more expensive at 41,50 euros, but still ten euros cheaper than the full lift pass for a day.
A full six day lift pass is 259,50 euros by way of comparison, so if you got say one day Debutant, two days Premieres Glisses and three days full passes that would come to about the same.
Obviously, rates of progressions depend on the individual, I've skied with people who after a week were skiing reds comfortably (and quite fast), and in one case could get down black runs, while I've also skied with people who wouldn't try something harder than a green in their first two weeks of skiing. Presumably you'll be taking lessons, so might also be worth asking the ski school what they recommend/require.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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AD is great, really fab for beginners as lots of green runs that all come down into the resort. There is a lovely outdoor pool, an ice rink and a nice wee cable taxi cab thing that goes around the resort, quite fun!
I think they do a lift pass for different zones but not sure if any are free
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@feefee, AD is a very good resort for beginners, but not really served by free lifts (you could try using the bus from one end to other!). The whole bottom half of the resort is a beginners playgound and almost any beginner would want to explore all of it as quickly as possible so one or two free lifts would be a futrating restriction.
As @mad for chelsea, suggests it may be worth seeing what the ski school offer. Most ski schools offer a lessons and lift pass combination for beginners at reduced price. I think the 6 day package for Alpe d'Huez is 400 euro.
https://www.esf-alpedhuez.com/teens-adults/group-lessons
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Fantastic thank you everyone, well we've booked! I'd like to think I'm fairly experienced 20+weeks, my sister skied 7 years ago and did really well, managing a couple of pretty long blues so I think it sounds perfect for us. 
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Sounds good. ADH has some wonderful runs for more advanced skiers. A lot of blacks, of varying difficulty. For instance, la Fare is pretty straightforward, as is Clocher de Macle (the latter quite steep and you have to really bomb down the final stretch to get up a little mound at the end - great fun). On the other hand, Tunnel is up there with the hardest pistes I've skied, and Foret is tricky too, it has that rather fun bit where it's already quite steep (and usually mogulled) and you see the piste below you disappear as it gets even steeper. Also, IIRC the red Villard is at the hard end of the red spectrum (has a steep pitch), while the blue Signal run was pretty much a red when I last skied there, so your sister should probably stay off that one (at least the first day  ).
Enjoy anyway!
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