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alpe d'huez/ LDA2 Link is it dead

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Driving past Auris on the road back from Serre Chevalier I looked up at the very snowless Auris and wondered whether this link is now dead or going ahead. There was a lot of fuss last year, but I saw a piece on Pistehors that suggested it wasn't going ahead. Looking at it thought it would be good for Auris but not sure thst it was a great link from a skiing perspectives. Any more updates?
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
It gets resurrected most years with the opening date going back accordingly. This time last year I think 2021 was proposed.

I think it would be good for both resorts. They are very different, AdH very widespread but snow suffers in the sun, L2A keeps snow better and has a big glacier and access to La Grave. Quite complimentary imo. Snow still good here at the moment but struggling over there.
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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?
According to the Ale d'Huez website it is but as Claude B mentions the date seems to be delayed each year.

https://www.alpedhuez.com/fr/hiver/facebook-alpe-d-huez/alpe-drhuez-la-station-de-demain.html

Élue deuxième meilleure station d’Europe aux European Best Destinations 2015, devant Kitzbühel (Autriche) et Gstaad (Suisse), l’Alpe d’Huez prend son envol : hébergements, nouvelles liaisons, extension du domaine skiable, remontées mécaniques, aménagement et rénovation du site…

La station de l’Oisans entame d’importants travaux pour monter en gamme et étendre la station. Elle va accroitre son offre de lits chauds d’un tiers et engage son rapprochement avec le domaine des 2 Alpes.

L’UN DES PLUS IMPORTANTS PROJETS DE DÉVELOPPEMENT GLOBAL EUROPÉENS

C’est un programme d’investissement à plus de 350 millions d’euros que lance aujourd’hui l’Alpe d’Huez pour faire de l’offre ski de l’Oisans la plus ambitieuse d’Europe en révolutionnant son offre touristique et en ralliant son domaine aux 2 Alpes, puis à terme aux Sybelles. L’ensemble pourrait constituer avant 2025 un circuit de près de 800 kilomètres de pistes et 2 200 mètres de dénivelés.

L’Alpe d’Huez comptera ainsi parmi les plus grands domaines skiables du monde, à l’instar des 3 Vallées !

Le plan de développement a été inscrit dans le Plan Local d’Urbanisme (PLU), approuvé en novembre et appliqué en janvier 2016, après dix ans de concertation. Les dix communes concernées par le regroupement avec les 2 Alpes et les six stations du domaine de Saint Sorlin d’Arves affichent une réelle volonté de liaison avec un domaine étendu pour chaque territoire.

Also
En parallèle du réaménagement de la station, le domaine skiable est totalement repensé. Dans le cahier des charges de la nouvelle Délégation de Service Public, le futur délégataire devra investir 100 millions d’euros pour moderniser et optimiser l’offre, dont 60% devra être investi entre le 1er juillet 2016, date d’attribution du marché, et 2021.

« L’ambition à double détente de ce programme est d’accroitre le débit pour un plus grand nombre de pistes en réduisant l’impact visuel des remontées, 180 pylônes de remontées mécaniques ont déjà été retirées sur les 5 dernières années », explique Jean-Yves Noyrey, Maire d’Huez - Alpe d’Huez.

Une enveloppe de 70 millions d’euros est consacrée aux aménagements et réaménagements du domaine skiable et des remontées mécaniques :

2016 : installation d’un télémixte au Signal (débit : 3300 personnes à l’heure)
2017-2018 : TCSP et luge 4 saisons
2018 : retour skieur, neige de culture et changement du télécentre
2019 : création du télémixte du Loup
2020 : remplacement du télésiège du Chalvet
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
dan100 wrote:
Driving past Auris on the road back from Serre Chevalier I looked up at the very snowless Auris and wondered whether this link is now dead or going ahead. There was a lot of fuss last year, but I saw a piece on Pistehors that suggested it wasn't going ahead. Looking at it thought it would be good for Auris but not sure thst it was a great link from a skiing perspectives. Any more updates?


I think the PisteHors story dates from at least a decade ago

http://pistehors.com/news/ski/comments/0615-alpe-huez-deux-alpes-cable-car-link/

Property developers like talking up the prospects of the link though

http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=104941
http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=117664

The main difference today in 2017 is:-

We've come off the back of 2/3 bad seasons. Is there financing for this investment? Banks took one look at Chamrousse's plans this winter and laughed in the resorts face. They don't see investing in anything under 2000 meters now as sane. Does the link offer any ROI? As Charlie Hebdo (Je Suis Charlie) puts it "pissing against the inevitable winds of global warming."

The political climate in the region is different. The boss of the ESF (Gilles Chabert) is the #2 politically and his colleague sits on the board of the Compagnie des Alpes (LDA). Will he give support and financing for the link? That could make a big difference. However local tax payers, 95% of them don't ski, have little stomach for paying for ski resorts and Chabert is already mired in a corruption scandal. Mr Ripou as he is known locally. Another positive point for the link is that ADH are the only bidder to take over running of la Grave (the bidding process may yet be reopened) and have plans for the underdeveloped part of the glacier, does this link fit into those plans?

I'm still thinking of the 2025 horizon at the earliest to get all the permissions but last winter Alpe d'Huez did a huge amount of work without planning permissions in the Signal area (for which they were successfully prosecuted) so they don't seem to care too much about legals. They need to be careful they are not ordered to knock it down if they try that on though. French courts are getting a bit tougher with people flouting the law.


Last edited by You need to Login to know who's really who. on Tue 18-04-17 22:16; edited 1 time in total
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
What are the bed numbers in each station ?

ISTM that L2A has more useful high skiing but less space to build more beds than ADH.
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rjs wrote:
What are the bed numbers in each station ?

ISTM that L2A has more useful high skiing but less space to build more beds than ADH.


32500 in ADH
27000 in LDA

The problem with all the French resorts is people who've bought flats then leave them empty all winter. I think ADH has 5000 "cold beds" so has to keep building so it has enough capacity. It is always frustrating out of season to see still good conditions but to not be able to find accommodation for a night or two even though resorts are empty.

At ADH I already feel I spend enough time on lifts without skiing without schlepping over to les 2 Alpes. It takes at least half an hour to reach the Sarenne area when there are no queues. Still a Brit guy I know claims he'd "skied out Alpe d'Huez by Tuesday" this winter and was chomping at the bit for a cable car link to pastures new so I'm probably not the target punter.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
davidof wrote:
rjs wrote:
What are the bed numbers in each station ?


32500 in ADH
27000 in LDA


The problem with all the French resorts is people who've bought flats then leave them empty all winter. I think ADH has 5000 "cold beds" so has to keep building so it has enough capacity. It is always frustrating out of season to see still good conditions but to not be able to find accommodation for a night or two even though resorts are empty.


I have no reason to doubt your figures but I am genuinely surprised as I spend a lot of time in ADH and occasionally visit LDA, the town in LDA always seems so much bigger than ADH, seems more shops etc. Maybe they just spend more in LDA Laughing

I am not sure I buy the cold beds theory. From my observations in ADH there are very few, if any, empty during the peak weeks of New Year and February holidays. Prices are about 700euros for a 25m2 shoebox that sleeps six absolute max (very friendly Laughing ) for those periods. Outside of then you can rent almost anything for much, much less, (asking price would be 300euros and you could probably beat a private renter down to less than that). and the tour operators also weigh in with their bargain December and January offers which means the effective rate drops so much that it is not worth the hassle and risk of renting out. Certainly if you put your place with a local agent they will rent out out those 5 or 6 weeks and not much more, whether that means they actually turn bookings away, don't answer the phone (possible rolling eyes ) or nobody asks I do not know. I suspect it is because the demand is not there, and what little demand there is gets swept up by the tour operators at break even, or less, rates.
It is true though that, outside of those busy periods, many owners only use their places at weekends, many of them being local Grenoble, Lyon etc. But they will have bought a season pass so have contributed in a different, if heavily discounted way.
Giving substantial discounts on the lift pass prices in January would seem to me to be a logical step and redress the balance a bit, but then I suspect tour operators already get that privilege, even if it is not made public.

But yes, there are 3 major developments in the pipeline for ADH which will create hundreds, possibly into the thousands I am not sure of the figures, of new beds over the next few years. There are also big investments planned for the lifts and like you said, planning does not seem to be an obstacle in ADH Laughing

As for the link to LDA, well I am quite happy to tootle round in the car or get the bus, sorting out the marmottes lift would be a better exercise. Replacing the old bubbles, that pedestrians and skiers could all get on to without it missing a beat with a "fast" chair that needs to be slowed down for every non skier ascending to the folly doos and every skier that's in been there too long and wants a ride down, all seems like a dose of non thinking to me.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
I'm a big fan of the Vanoise Express. We stay in Les Coches and like to flip between the two resorts. If this link worked in a similar way it would be a big draw for me. However, I'm not totally convinced it will. How easy will it be to make the connection. Will it deliver you quickly in two both ski areas. The like the skiing above Les Coches. Not sure about the skiing over in Auris.
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my thought looking at how green auris was (and way above the ski accommodation) whether bringing people in to Auris at all made any sense.
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Ski the Net with snowHeads
@dan100, @Layne, I think the truth is you are not really bringing people to / from Auris really, you are bringing them to/from Alpe d'Huez and Les Deux Alpes. Whilst it is a nice little ski area when it has enough snow, (I think I have only skied La Fuma (the black down to Maronne) about 6 times in 14 years rolling eyes ), most people will continue to ADH and then, drawn by the inevitable magnet of Tunnel / Sarenne will clog up the marmottes lift even more.
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I was just thinking in terms of people being able to ski back. I agree adh has issues with speedy lift access to the glacier. I think it's unlikely I would choose les deux alpes but if went back to adh then I would inevitably be tempted to have a couple of days in les deux alpes. That said it seems a lot of money and difficult to see that there would be a return.
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
dan100 wrote:
That said it seems a lot of money and difficult to see that there would be a return.


That just about sums it up.
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Maybe not dead but it is an uphill struggle

http://pistehors.com/N7AR8WwByuHDGsGAHHHX/public-inquiry-slams-half-baked-oisans-cable-car-link
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Thanks for the English summary

Not sure how you can have "urban transport" up here. However the Venosc gondola is used a lot by workers coming up from the valley. Guess this would too but probably less so.

There is already a great deal of development taking place up here with more planned. Guess it pre-empts any link being built (or not).

There are 2 huge lift developments taking place here this summer. The new Pierre Grosse telecabine up to the glacier and a new (moved from elsewhere) 8 man chair on the Crete. Others are planned too in the next year or 2. Not sure there'll be any money left after that lot.

Personally I still think it would be a good thing. The 2 are quite different and i think would be complimentary. Alpe d'Huez is much more widespread than here with more skiing lower down but suffers as it is mostly south facing. We are more compact but mostly high and north facing with better snow conditions and a large glacier still (albeit suffering in summer and Autumn).

It takes me 25 minutes to drive to Auris right on the edge of Alpe d'Huez or 45 minutes to Bergers (where a lot of the parking is being developed). I'd far rather go by ski/lift.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Just a thought as well. I suspect it would lead to the liaison to La Grave reopening. Certainly a good thing imo.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Assuming you get it in the season LP then for residents like yourself it would be a win.

The "urban transport" idea I guess means people would stop at Freney and uplift from there, although that would really want a piste back to Freney of some sort.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
The more I read it about the more I can't understand why they are spending so much time and money on it.
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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?
Layne wrote:
The more I read it about the more I can't understand why they are spending so much time and money on it.


Local politicians like the idea, I guess spending money is power and there are probably kick backs and favours to be had for anyone in the loop.

I can understand Claude's perspective but I don't see the point of linking none integrated ski areas. There was a project to link Courchevel with la Plagne once (Catérail project).
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