Skiing & Snowboarding in Alpe d’Huez

Alpe d’Huez Ski & Snowboard Guide

Alpe d’Huez is where French freestyle skier Thomas Krief cut his teeth. And, testament to the quality of his home training ground, he took bronze at the 2013 FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships.

Alpe d’Huez Skiing and Snowboarding

The Espace Alpe d’Huez (formerly the Alpe d’Huez Grand Domaine) links 5 villages and a total of 250 km of pisted runs. The terrain lends itself well to improving your skiing over the course of your holiday. There’s a roughly equal split of beginner, intermediate and advanced runs and the higher you climb, the steeper and more technical the terrain becomes. The resort sits in the shadows of the imposing Pic Blanc, though the 3,330 m summit is not visible from the village. As a result, the sheer scale of the resort comes as a surprise as you work your way up to the top of the lift system. Conveniently for beginners, the green and blue runs are concentrated near the village where the gradient is shallower, whereas the reds and blacks are mainly higher up.

Sarenne and Le Tunnel

The best skiers will appreciate the black slopes taking the cable car to the Pic Blanc or Marmottes 3. Don’t miss the 16 km Sarenne piste, billed by Alpe d’Huez as Europe’s longest black run. Sarenne offers something for everyone. The length itself offers an endurance trial while more advanced skiers can opt to hit up the mogul field. Many people consider Sarenne more of a red than a black, so intermediate skiers can get a good challenge here too. The views from the top are spectacular.

Le Tunnel is a much steeper, more direct black run from the top of the resort. It takes its name from a real tunnel, about 200 m long, dug through the mountain in 1964. When you emerge, you’re faced with one of the most challenging black runs in the Alps. Not for the faint hearted.

Alpe d’Huez for Beginners and Intermediates

Beginners will be delighted to find some of the best nursery slopes in the Alps. There are 34 green runs across the Espace Alpe d’Huez. The beginner areas at Grandes Rousses 1800 and Les Bergers also sit right at the snowline.

Intermediates will enjoy striking out across the Domaine covering huge distances in a day. You could have lunch in a different resort every day of the week. For the best of the red runs, head across to Oz-en-Oisans and Vaujany, and when the snow is good low down, don’t miss the run down to Villard-Reculas.

Off-Piste Skiing

Alpe d’Huez isn’t as renowned for its off-piste skiing as Chamonix, Sainte Foy or La Grave, but the steep, high terrain and huge vertical drop means there’s plenty for powder hounds to relish. Don’t miss the epic Grand Sablat from the Pic Blanc, the steep and technical Les Cheminées de Mâcle or La combe du Loup, an Alpe d’Huez classic. It goes without saying that you need experience off-piste and full avalanche kit when tackling these runs. To stay safe, the best thing to do is employ a qualified off-piste guide.

Alpe d’Huez Snowpark

For freestyle skiers and snowboarders, Alpe d’Huez has 5 snowparks and 2 boardercross courses. They’re graded from XS to XL, so there’s a park for every level. The expert Snowpark des Jeux covers more than 20 hectares. Its 900 m line has tables from 12 to 25 m. In addition, its boxes and rails provide enough to keep even experts entertained for a full day.

Getting from Grenoble to Alpe d’Huez

Grenoble is your gateway. It has the nearest train station, and Grenoble-Isère airport is 100 km from the resort. By bus, take Cars Région Isère line T75 to Bourg d’Oisans, then the T76 up to the resort. In winter, the Transaltitude express also runs twice a day from Grenoble and takes about 1 h 45. Finally, if you’re driving, the last stretch is the famous climb of 21 hairpin bends.