Keeping it Wild in La Grave

La Grave is a unique place, unlike any other ski resort in France. It may be connected to Les Deux Alpes, but once you cross the link it is immediately obvious you are in a different and more serious environment. You leave behind the gentle, sunny slopes of the Lauze T-bar for the steep, north-facing Girose Glacier, dominated by the overpowering granite faces of the Meije and Rateau.

This is a place where you ski at your own risk, make your own decisions, and take the responsibility for the consequences. A two stage gondola built in 1976 takes you from the village at 1450m to the edge of the glacier at 3200m. Above this there is a single button lift to get up to 3600m. Two short pistes on the glacier make up the entire controlled ski area of La Grave. Outside those, including everything below 3200m, lies uncontrolled, unmarked back country skiing. If you injure yourself here, there will be no ski patrol to pick you up – a helicopter from Briançon mountain rescue is your nearest source of help.

Most first time visitors to La Grave will follow the two classic itineraries, known as the Vallons de la Meije and the Vallons de Chancel. These are similar in scope to the Valley Blanche, in that they are long and serious but no steeper than a typical black or red run. Like the Valley Blanche, there are plenty of potential difficulties to be avoided, especially if you stray from the standard routes, so skiing with a guide is strongly recommended.

Because of the niche appeal of a resort like this, and the low uplift capacity of 400 people per hour, La Grave is never going to make vast amounts of money in its current form. Some would install modern lifts and bring it into the 21st century. Many others love the unspoilt charms and independent attitude that makes the area so special, and want to keep the skiing as it is.

Like other French ski resorts, the operator of the lifts has a lease or concession from the local commune which gives them the right to run the lift system on the mountain for a certain amount of time. For the last thirty years the concession has been run by Denis Creissels, a ski lift engineer who originally designed the La Grave gondola in the 1970's and who took it over for a symbolic 1 French Franc when it ran into difficulties in 1987. Prior to this takeover, and after running for only eight years, the lift had been closed for eighteen months. Some say that the owners at the time blamed the lift design for their problems, and Monsieur Creissels took on the operation to prove a point about his design.

The concession is up for renewal this year and the La Grave commune is inviting tenders. Denis Creissels, now in his eighties and still heavily involved in running the lifts, is not planning to renew for a further thirty years. The last couple of years have been difficult for the town – poor winter conditions and the closure of the main access road have impacted on visitor numbers. Both these factors have led to rumours circulating about the future of the ski lift, and whether this coming winter would be its last. A bigger worry for some people is that the concession will be taken over by one of the large ski area operators, such as those that already run Les Deux Alpes and Alpe D’Huez. Adding a local ski area with over 2000m of north facing slopes to their portfolio has to be an attractive proposition, but many feel that these companies would destroy what makes La Grave so special by upgrading the lifts, creating pistes and adding safety controls.

To offer an alternative to these possibilities, Joost Van Zundeert – a Belgian businessman living in La Grave, has put together a crowdfunded bid to run the lift concession. He has already raised several million Euros through major investors (at around 100,000 Euros each) and is aiming to gather the remaining funds needed for initial staffing costs through the Indiegogo campaign. This campaign is as much to demonstrate that people feel strongly about preserving La Grave as it is about raising money. The fact is that even with their targets exceeded, the Commune of La Grave can still decide to offer the concession to the big operators, so showing that thousands of people are willing to donate their money to the project will send a big message to the La Grave Town Hall when they make their decision.

The crowdfunder closed yesterday on 61 625 € with an original target of 45 000 €. This is the final slice in raising the 5 million Euros which is the anticipated total cost of the project.

Read more from Ian on his website.