La Grave is around 2 hour's drive time from Grenoble, Chambery or Lyon airports. Grenoble train station is about 90 minutes away and has fast rail services from Paris, London and other European cities. Private transfers and public bus services...
La Grave
La Grave makes all other ski resorts seem tame. Across most of its ski area there are no gates, piste markers, patrols or avalanche-protection: just steep north-facing slopes with a vertical drop of over 2,000m (about 7,000 feet) and enough ‘ski sauvage’ to challenge even the most experienced off-piste skiers and freeriders.
Many ski resorts claim to offer something for everyone, but not La Grave. If the words “off-piste”, “backcountry skiing”, “freeride”, “piste hors”, and “ski touring” mean nothing to you, or fill you with dread, then don’t come here. There are few lifts and even fewer pistes; the nightlife is rudimentary; and the village has no famous hotels or restaurants. And yet each winter thousands of the most knowledgeable skiers on the planet choose to holiday here and take the antiquated, small-capacity, pulse-gondola that slowly rises up in three stages from the village until it reaches an elevation of 3,200m. About fifteen minutes’ walk from the top station, is La Grave’s only other lift, a basic drag that ascends even higher, to approximately 3,600m, giving access to the Glacier de la Girose. If you’re lucky, a piste-basher will ferry you between the two lifts, but don’t count on it.
There are very few clues on the piste map as to why people make the effort. It shows just one unremarkable blue piste and two ungroomed itineraries that are neither patrolled nor avalanche-protected. The real draw, however, is what is not on the map: the long off-piste descents with verticals of up to 2000m, often with tricky or extreme sections like the famous Trifide couloirs, that plunge down the north-facing mountainside. In the other direction, there are even longer runs ‘off the back’ towards Saint-Christophe-en-Oisans, from where a taxi can take you to Venosc which has a gondola connecting it to Les Deux Alpes. (Les 2 Alpes and La Grave are not lift-linked, but with some pushing and walking or a tow from a piste-basher, you can ski between them at the top of their ski areas.)
And that really is it, skiing-wise. If you cross over from La Grave to Les 2 Alpes, there are proper pistes and lifts, but it’s a long journey and you have to pay extra, so if you do this regularly, you would be much better off staying in Les 2 Alpes. There is also a small, beginners-focused ski area on the other side of La Grave at Le Chazelet but this is of little interest to La Grave’s freeriders and ski tourers. Much more useful is Serre-Chevalier, just 30 minutes’ away by car, which has some of the best tree skiing in Europe, and provides welcome relief when visibility is poor.
The village of La Grave is unlikely to adorn a chocolate box and has a busy road running through it, but it has some lovely old buildings including an ancient Romanesque church and stunning views of La Meije mountain. There is some simple accommodation, and a few cosy bars and basic restaurants, usually filled with like-minded freeride enthusiasts. There are also lots of mountain guides, and you are strongly advised to use their services if you want to leave the resort in one piece.
Helpful Links
- Accommodation in La Grave. Hotels, Chalets, Self-Catering Apartments, Where to stay… Read more >>>
- How to get to La Grave. Nearest Airports and Railway Stations, Airport Transfers, Hire Cars… Read more >>>
- Ski Schools & Guides in La Grave. Ski & Snowboard Schools, Mountain Guides, Private Instructors… Read more >>>
- Discounted Ski & Snowboard Rental in La Grave.
- SKISET has an outlet in Les Grave and gives significant ski hire discounts if you book in advance using this link.
La Grave Pros & Cons
+ Superb off-piste skiing and freeriding with a guide
+ Welcoming traditional mountain village
+ The larger resort of Les Deux Alpes is usually reachable on skis
+ Relatively short drive to tree skiing in Serre Chevalier
– For off-piste/freeride skiers only
– Through road can be busy and noisy
– The main gondola lift is old, small and slow
– Infrequent buses to other resorts.
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La Grave offers a good mix of hotels, lodges and furnished rentals, but it is a small ski village and choice can be limited, especially at peak times, so make a reservation as early as you can. Below are some...
Mountain guides who can help freeriders, ski tourers and off-piste skiers navigate La Grave's often treacherous slopes can be hired through the Bureau des Guides in the village or the ESF office in nearby Le Chazelet, which is where normal...
La Grave Ski Area In the shadow of La Meije, the last major Alpine paek to be conquered by climbers, La Grave's vast snowfields, high glaciers, giant seracs, difficult moraine fields, and menacing couloirs can bring true exhilaration - and...
La Grave Ski Lifts & Lift Passes La Grave's lift system is limited to a two-stage gondola and a couple of T-bars. The La Grave - la Meije lift pass entitles the holder to either free or discounted skiing at...
La Grave Beginners La Grave is not a good place to learn to ski, but there are nursery slopes and ski schools in nearby La Chazelet and Col du Lautaret. It is extremely rare for a ski area to have...
La Grave Intermediate Skiing Intermediates, with an instructor or guide, are limited to the two main runs in La Grave, plus the skiing in Les Deux Alpes. Intermediates, with an instructor or guide, should be able to cope with the...
La Grave Advanced & Off-Piste Skiing La Grave is famous for its couloirs, including the three Trifide couloirs. There are many long ski routes down to the valley road that leads up to La Grave, and also 'off the back'...
La Grave Snowboarding La Grave welcomes snowboarders but doesn't have special facilities for boarders or freestylers - it's just not that not kind of resort. Instead they are welcome to tackle the same off-piste slopes that skiers descend on. Skiers...
La Grave Mountain Restaurants Although La Grave doesn't really have pistes, it does have three piste-side restaurants. Perhaps surprisingly in such a gung-ho, minimalist area, there are as many as three mountain restaurants. The most popular is the refuge on...
La Grave Village La Grave is too rugged to be pretty. It's really just a small mountain climbing town, with a sprinkling of hotels and about 600 local inhabitants. The road passing through it is annoyingly busy at times. For...
La Grave Apres-Ski, Restaurants & Bars This place is for skiing, not eating out: there aren't many restaurant options in La Grave. In keeping with its ski focus, the dining options in La Grave are limited. Most people prefer to...