Alpe d’Huez was the logical destination coming back from Monaco for the last 3 nights of our trip. I thought this drive might be easier than the one from Briancon but it was not. At least this one was during the day so we could enjoy the scenery. As with Serre Chevalier we found an attractive half board option on site at the Pic Blanc hotel. Dinners as we’ve come to expect in France were excellent, and the breakfast and spa facilities were even better than Grand Aigle last week.
It has been a long time since James first touted the half board hotels in the Alps, which advice I first heeded at the Sandhof in Lech in 2013. It is shocking in retrospect how mediocre the food was at the Chamonix hotel where I stayed on the 2004 NASJA trip. At the time I thought, “Well, it’s hotel food with a captive audience.” Happily that’s the exception more than the rule in the Alps. It seems now that Liz and I are doing half board more often than James, 7 nights on this trip and 11 nights last spring.
As for the skiing, nearly everyone seems to rate Alpe d’Huez over its neighbor Les Deux Alpes including ChrisC just last week. Fraser also has written a very favorable review. I had some skepticism due to the sunny exposure and almost 3 weeks since the last snow.
The weather forecasts from OpenSnow and Fraser over the weekend were another complication. A weak front was predicted to cross the Swiss Alps and stall out in the western Mediterranean. This might bring some snow to the Retour d’Est areas but only wind or cloud farther west. Temperatures were predicted to plunge well below normal from Feb. 6-10, not an inviting scenario for places with no new snow for nearly 3 weeks.
It was evident from opening bell that the forecast for Monday was wrong. The Retour d’Est areas had no more than an inch of new snow with another inch predicted during the day. Here’s our view from the bottom of Marmottes as we started our day.
It wasn’t that cold either. I was comfortable in my lightest mid layer and had my hat off for much of the day. It might have reached 30F, similar to last Tuesday/Wednesday at Puy St. Vincent and Serre Chevalier.
Since the Pic Blanc tram was closed, the 3 Marmottes lifts were the only way up to the high terrain over 10,000 feet. All 3 lifts had 10 minute lines and we did not start skiing until 11:15AM. The highest Marmotte lift has two 33 passenger gondolas in tandem. Only later in this picture did I notice under the cable a couloir that might interest ChrisC.
We took a warmup lap on the Herpie chair.
Now we were ready for the 4,500 vertical Sarenne run. Just below the Herpie lift I had my only ungroomed skiing of the day in a natural gully with similar conditions as those at Serre Chevalier and Montgenevre.
Lower down on Sarenne:
The exit is through a long shaded valley. We exited back into the main area via the Chalvet lift. We could have continued slightly lower into the Auris de Oisans sector, view over there from top of Chalvet.
Chalvet faces directly south and its lone piste was burned off. We never made it to Auris de Oisans, though it is also accessible via the Alpauris transport lift.
View from Chalvet to our Alpe d’Huez 1860 base:
We needed to use the Refnel lift to cross the base area and reach the DMC gondola, which rises in two stages to Lac Blanc 2700. We took an upper gondola lap on Chamois with this view to the south.
We then skied Rousses to the upper Alpette tram. Rousses passes through this gap with an ice formation.
From the top of that tram we get our closest view of Pic Blanc.
I was surprised the Pic Blanc tram was closed because the weather couldn’t have been better on Monday. A zoomed view of Pic Blanc:
You can see moguls in the above pic. The Tunnel run which ChrisC skied a week ago emerges below the top cliff band.
We skied Bartavelles past Alpette 2050 and Liz spotted a large “Ouvert” sign saying the long La Fare run was open. She said that implies that sometimes it’s not so we should do it. La Fare leads to the lowest lift served point at 3,700 feet in Vaujany, and so was a 5,500 vertical run from the upper Alpette tram. The snow was hard packed and often shaded but had very few skiers so the grooming had not been scraped down.
We rode the lower Alpette tram and skied to another satellite base, Oz en Oisans. This run was mellower and mostly in sun with ice on the side.
There were more people here, perhaps attracted by this band warming up about 3PM.
We rode the two stage Poutran gondola to head back toward our base. The Alpette Tram and Poutran gondolas are the boundaries of the Oz-Vaujany sector, for which you can buy a separate cheaper lift ticket. This is analogous to Nendaz/Veysonnaz adjoining Verbier. View from top of Poutran:
The Poutran gondola ascends from the valley at right.
We skied down to DMC 1800, which is Alpe d’Huez’ densest lodging sector served by two 8-pack chairs. We ascended Signal and skied to Villarais. The return to our base passed through the Marcel kids’ park.
I was pleasantly surprised by the piste skiing. The layout seemed to disperse traffic well, and I’m sure it helped that the weather was warmer than forecast. The sunny exposure did mean that I saw almost no appetizing off piste options. Chris C said he did some freeriding from the Alpette tram. I hope he took some pics because I could only see cliff bands up there.
We skied 24,300 vertical. Here’s the alpenglow view from our balcony after skiing.
We did not ski Auris en Oisans or from the two lower Marmottes lifts. I figured we would do that on our departure day Wednesday. But the cold weather arrived Tuesday and we found out later than the Pic Blanc tram was closed for the week waiting for a repair part. So Liz made the same pitch as last spring at Solden that our final day would be better served exploring a new area. On the way out we were reminded that Alpe d’Huez is perhaps most famous for its grueling hill climb in the Tour de France.
It has been a long time since James first touted the half board hotels in the Alps, which advice I first heeded at the Sandhof in Lech in 2013. It is shocking in retrospect how mediocre the food was at the Chamonix hotel where I stayed on the 2004 NASJA trip. At the time I thought, “Well, it’s hotel food with a captive audience.” Happily that’s the exception more than the rule in the Alps. It seems now that Liz and I are doing half board more often than James, 7 nights on this trip and 11 nights last spring.
As for the skiing, nearly everyone seems to rate Alpe d’Huez over its neighbor Les Deux Alpes including ChrisC just last week. Fraser also has written a very favorable review. I had some skepticism due to the sunny exposure and almost 3 weeks since the last snow.
The weather forecasts from OpenSnow and Fraser over the weekend were another complication. A weak front was predicted to cross the Swiss Alps and stall out in the western Mediterranean. This might bring some snow to the Retour d’Est areas but only wind or cloud farther west. Temperatures were predicted to plunge well below normal from Feb. 6-10, not an inviting scenario for places with no new snow for nearly 3 weeks.
It was evident from opening bell that the forecast for Monday was wrong. The Retour d’Est areas had no more than an inch of new snow with another inch predicted during the day. Here’s our view from the bottom of Marmottes as we started our day.
It wasn’t that cold either. I was comfortable in my lightest mid layer and had my hat off for much of the day. It might have reached 30F, similar to last Tuesday/Wednesday at Puy St. Vincent and Serre Chevalier.
Since the Pic Blanc tram was closed, the 3 Marmottes lifts were the only way up to the high terrain over 10,000 feet. All 3 lifts had 10 minute lines and we did not start skiing until 11:15AM. The highest Marmotte lift has two 33 passenger gondolas in tandem. Only later in this picture did I notice under the cable a couloir that might interest ChrisC.
We took a warmup lap on the Herpie chair.
Now we were ready for the 4,500 vertical Sarenne run. Just below the Herpie lift I had my only ungroomed skiing of the day in a natural gully with similar conditions as those at Serre Chevalier and Montgenevre.
Lower down on Sarenne:
The exit is through a long shaded valley. We exited back into the main area via the Chalvet lift. We could have continued slightly lower into the Auris de Oisans sector, view over there from top of Chalvet.
Chalvet faces directly south and its lone piste was burned off. We never made it to Auris de Oisans, though it is also accessible via the Alpauris transport lift.
View from Chalvet to our Alpe d’Huez 1860 base:
We needed to use the Refnel lift to cross the base area and reach the DMC gondola, which rises in two stages to Lac Blanc 2700. We took an upper gondola lap on Chamois with this view to the south.
We then skied Rousses to the upper Alpette tram. Rousses passes through this gap with an ice formation.
From the top of that tram we get our closest view of Pic Blanc.
I was surprised the Pic Blanc tram was closed because the weather couldn’t have been better on Monday. A zoomed view of Pic Blanc:
You can see moguls in the above pic. The Tunnel run which ChrisC skied a week ago emerges below the top cliff band.
We skied Bartavelles past Alpette 2050 and Liz spotted a large “Ouvert” sign saying the long La Fare run was open. She said that implies that sometimes it’s not so we should do it. La Fare leads to the lowest lift served point at 3,700 feet in Vaujany, and so was a 5,500 vertical run from the upper Alpette tram. The snow was hard packed and often shaded but had very few skiers so the grooming had not been scraped down.
We rode the lower Alpette tram and skied to another satellite base, Oz en Oisans. This run was mellower and mostly in sun with ice on the side.
There were more people here, perhaps attracted by this band warming up about 3PM.
We rode the two stage Poutran gondola to head back toward our base. The Alpette Tram and Poutran gondolas are the boundaries of the Oz-Vaujany sector, for which you can buy a separate cheaper lift ticket. This is analogous to Nendaz/Veysonnaz adjoining Verbier. View from top of Poutran:
The Poutran gondola ascends from the valley at right.
We skied down to DMC 1800, which is Alpe d’Huez’ densest lodging sector served by two 8-pack chairs. We ascended Signal and skied to Villarais. The return to our base passed through the Marcel kids’ park.
I was pleasantly surprised by the piste skiing. The layout seemed to disperse traffic well, and I’m sure it helped that the weather was warmer than forecast. The sunny exposure did mean that I saw almost no appetizing off piste options. Chris C said he did some freeriding from the Alpette tram. I hope he took some pics because I could only see cliff bands up there.
We skied 24,300 vertical. Here’s the alpenglow view from our balcony after skiing.
We did not ski Auris en Oisans or from the two lower Marmottes lifts. I figured we would do that on our departure day Wednesday. But the cold weather arrived Tuesday and we found out later than the Pic Blanc tram was closed for the week waiting for a repair part. So Liz made the same pitch as last spring at Solden that our final day would be better served exploring a new area. On the way out we were reminded that Alpe d’Huez is perhaps most famous for its grueling hill climb in the Tour de France.
