Les Deux Alpes stretches along a spectacular French valley. From its mountain village origins the area has developed into a large popular ski resort.
The whole ski resort lies alongside the main pistes so, you are never far from one of the many lifts. The lift infrastructure extends up both side of the valley and finishes in the village. Beyond these, high altitude skiing and magnificent scenery can be enjoyed from the top of the glacier. With the Grande Galaxie pass also offering a day’s skiing in neighbouring ski resorts.
Two things should be remembered about La Grave, apart from the couple of drag lifts at the top it is an off-piste ski domain and a lot of the skiing is on glaciated terrain. Now you may have skied glaciers over the hill at Les Deux Alpes or elsewhere and think, “so what?”. Well those ski areas were secured by the pisteurs. Crevasses are filled and dangers are marked with signposts and fences. So long as you stick to the pistes you are pretty much safe.
At La Grave, along with the avalanche risk you have the complications of a high mountain environment: variable snow conditions, crevasses, rimayes, stone, ice and sérac falls. The snow conditions can vary from day to day and season to season. A 40 degree slope with ice is very different from one with powder. The locations of crevasses can change and the glacier can move making slopes steeper or exits impossible without a rope. Unless you are very familiar with this kind of environment we recommend hiring a guide who will also be able to find the best conditions.
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