Alpe d'Huez, France

skibum from UNITED KINGDOM writes:

Just back from 2 days skiing in Alpe d'Huez.
1 Jan the conditions were very bad ,the snow was very thin brown patches everywhere. The snow started that night and the next day the place was transformed into winter land. 40 cm snow cover overnight and it was still snowing all day. Started thinking of how to get back down to Grenoble.
Wed 3rd of Jan the weather was sunny and just perfect. You could ski almost everywhere except the top into glacier - nothing was opened above 2800m.
Anyway, with so much snow we didn't miss that. After few queue problems on the main gondolas on the normal chairs there was max. 2-3 minutes wait.
Very pleased with the place. Read some feedbacks on this site and was expecting much less. Stayed next to the open air pool and 5 min to the main ski area. It looks that if you stay in the lower part of the resort there are more walks involved to the main chairs.
The higher towards Rond du ski place are better. Only didn't like the fact that the whole resort allows cars everywhere and that spoils the place. Alot of apres for the kids-sports center, tramplolines, ice rink, swimming.
Very pleased that the prices were cheaper than average for french resorts. The runs to Vadjany and anywhere lower than 1500 meters were icy patchy and only for hire skis. All in all, booked another one this time staying for 10 days at half term this February. It is very rare for my family to book twice in a season to the same resort. The only anoying thing with the resort I found was that the lift passes are still not electronic - only photos hanging around like a Xmas trees decorations. Suprised a resort of that caliber has not to invested in the credit card ones. To be desired:- the webcam is only one and for the 5th resort in France that is just not acceptable. If you are going on a self catering holiday and drive to Alpe d'Huez dont bother with buying food supplies from the towns down below. Not worth it. In the resort there are plenty of supermarkets and very reasonable prices. Just remember that they all close at 8pm or at least that was the case this time. In February, I am looking forward to the night skiing and hoping for even more snow.
Ah and one more thing. There are some very old and slow chairs here and there which have to be replaced soon. Bur no worries if you stick to the fast ones you will be ok and have alot of mileage each day.

2007-01-06