Alpe d’Huez Ski Area

The heart of Alpe d’Huez fits many people’s idea of the perfect mix of pistes. The runs just above the main village are wide open greens and gentle blues, the next section of lifts take you up to a pleasing network of reds and more challenging blues and the only runs down from the top of the glacier are steep and often bumpy blacks. Less confident intermediates who want to get a sense of travel and explore a wider area should therefore leave the highest lifts to more accomplished skiers and move across the mountain to the ski areas above the other lift-linked villages in the Alpe d’Huez Grand Domain such as Auris-en-Oisans, Villard Reculas, Oz-en-Oisans and Vaujany-Villette. Except for Vaujany all can be approached on blue or red runs.

Sarenne and Auris

Alpe d’Huez can also boast the longest piste in the Alps. The black Sarenne runs for 16 km down from the top of the Pic Blanc Glacier (3330m) to the valley that separates the ski area of Auris from the central area and is a beautiful run in every sense. The top half is steep and bumpy (though there is also a path allowing more intermediates skiers to get down) and the bottom is a gentle path that flanks the river and offers sublime views down the gorge. To access this neighbouring ski area from the town there is a vertigo-inspiring down and then up chairlift which takes you to the bottom of the largely north-facing reds on the Auris side which, though short in vertical, make an excellent half-days skiing from the peak of Signal de l’Homme (2176m). If you want to get a bit of land on this side of the valley you can choose blue, red, black or even the very steep track under the Maronne chair which used to be a famously precarious drag lift.

Signal and Oz

On the other side of town lurk the competition pistes of Signal (2115m), an area of which is floodlit three evenings a week. From the top of here you can also drop down the back to the old village of Villard Reculas (1480m) on either a black, red or blue. Off-piste skiers can also drop down into the next valley to the village of Oz, which has some excellent off-piste and most of the tree-lined skiing so it is always a good bet in bad weather. It is normally accessed from the first stage station of the Rousses bubble. The second stage of the same lift gets you high enough to work you way down and over to all the skiing under the Dome des Petites Rousses (2800m), stretching all the way over to the Vaujany valley, home to some very picturesque and cruisy north-west facing reds and blues. A good indication of the breadth of skiing across the area is that you can follow a piste from the top of the Pic Blanc Glacier (3330m) right the way across to La Villette or Enversin, shedding 2210 vertical metres as you do so. It goes without saying that there are plenty of off-piste routes that offer a similar vertical drop.

Photo: Copyright © Alpe d’Huez Tourisme | Laurent Salino