Will be pretty nice not to have jump on a coach for an hour to get in between the two resorts. 

The proposed link between the resorts of Les Deux Alpes and Alpe d’Huez will be opened in 2012, a source at Deux Alpes Loisirs (DAL) confirmed today. The link will go from Mont de Lans in the Deux Alpes area to Auris in the Alpe d’Huez area via the village of Freney.

It is thought that work on the telecabine will start later this year and be completed for the Winter season 2012/13. It also emerged that DAL, which controls the mountain and the lift system of Les Deux Alpes, will be put up for sale shortly. Speculation is rife that Alpe d’Huez will buy Les Deux Alpes, but it does seem more likely that an independent company will take over.

Both pieces of news have received a positive response in Les Deux Alpes. Currently a season lift pass allows just 10 days on the mountain in Alpe d’Huez and a six-day tourist pass, just one. The combined ski area would encompass 469km of piste and we are yet to hear whether the two resorts will also be linked by pistes via Freney.

Article on Alpe d’Huez resort news website

I don’t know if you saw this story from 2006 where we talked about the Freney gondola.

http://pistehors.com/news/ski/comments/0615-alpe-huez-deux-alpes-cable-car-link/

There is already a joint lift-pass with a direct shuttle bus twice a week but it is thought that any new lift will take a route from the center of Auris via Freney. At 4400 meters this is still possibly a lift too far.

It is an old project and I wait to see it built. The link from Freney to Mont de Lans is only 1km and makes sense as an access point to the LDA domain for day trippers from Grenoble and Lyon.  The Mayor of le Freney, Christian Pichoud, was re-elected on a platform of pushing the ADH/LDA link. However given the lack of snow in Freney a gondola type lift would make most sense and these are notoriously expensive to run. I just can’t see an link wiht Auris being commercially viable. LDA would also have to upgrade the Mont de Lans sector, they’ve done some work here but the chairlift stops working for lunch (not uncommon for outlier lifts) so it will need a change in politics.

Sticking to the Pistehors brief of backcountry skiing then this doesn’t have much impact. The slopes where the lifts will run are of little interest so, as you say, it will benefit those wanting to make the trip over. That said, there is enough skiing in either domain really.

ADH have a number of schemes they bring out of the drawer from time to time. There is the Ferrand valley project of 10 lifts and the link with St Sorlin requiring a tunnel under the Pic de l’Etendart. Wait and see if anything really comes of it.

It seems that it takes one good winter for all these old projects to be dusted down. Val d’Isere and Bonneval are pushing their link-up, something that has been on the cards since the 1980s and was already rejected in 1994 by the govt. They claim it is a project “anti-crise” for the Savoie. The big issue is that it cuts right through the Vanoise national park, a park that is already affected by the infrastructure and helicopter flights in the area. This will really create a “battle royale” as the Haute-Maurienne is one of the last near wilderness areas of the Savoie department.

Thierry Hugues at the DAL (Deux Alpes Loisir) has said that “there are no projects on course for next season; we are working on some projects for the future but nothing defnite for the moment, this year we are just spending 2.7 million Euros on maintenance of the lift system”.

Similar message at l’Alpe d’Huez. According to the SATA (Société d’aménagement touristique de l’Alpe d’Huez et des Grandes Rousses) they are investing in a new high speed chair, built by Poma, with a plexiglass protective cover. It is a first in the South Isere. It will replace the first stage of the Marmottes gondola lift at a cost of 8 million euros. The new lift has a capacity of 3,3000 p/h compared to 2,000 for the old lift. Piste around the lift are being remodelled at a cost of 400,000 euros, including a new beginners green run. No work on a lift to Freney.