Les Deux Alpes (ski area)
Les Deux Alpes is a French winter sports center in the Isère department .
The village is located in the Dauphiné Alps at an altitude of 1650 m in front of the almost four thousand meter high La Meije mountain . Les Deux Alpes has one of the largest glaciers in Europe. The glacier ski area is also open in summer.
Les Deux Alpes emerged as the second French winter sports resort after Chamonix and developed mainly in the 1950s.
The winter sports resort has 102 ski slopes (levels of difficulty light blue to black) with a total length of 220 km, three cross-country trails with a length of 25 km. The area is accessed by 51 different lifts . Some of them lead up to an altitude of 3,600 m. There are different slopes for freeskiing and snowboarding . The Les 2 Alpes snow park is one of the largest in the Alps with a superpipe, a large slopestyle park and a ski cross / boarder cross route. The German university championships in freeskiing and snowboarding as part of the Unichamp have been held in this snow park since 2009. On top of the glacier there is a connection to the freeride area La Grave .
In summer, the mountain bike downhill race "Mountain of Hell" for professionals and amateurs over 15 starts with several hundred participants on the glacier over a distance of around 25 km, including through villages, into the valley. During the race on July 3, 2019, hundreds of participants fell in front of the first bottleneck on the glacier, but hardly anyone was seriously injured. The winner was Kilian Bron (F). The 21st race planned for June 27, 2020 was canceled due to the corona pandemic .
The “Grande Galaxie” ski pass is also valid for one day in L'Alpe d'Huez , Serre Chevalier and Sestriere / Italy.
The name of the station indicates that it was created in the area of the high mountain pastures ('deux Alpes', Eng. Two pastures) of the lower-lying places Vénosc and Mont-de-Lans . The municipality of Les Deux Alpes , formed from both places, is named after the winter sports area.
The place has become known as one of the most demanding mountain arrivals in recent Tour de France history . The ascent is about 9 km long, with an average gradient of about 8%. The maximum gradient is 12.5%.
The townscape of Les Deux Alpes is still characterized by the " building sins " of the 1960s and 1970s. In recent years there has been a structural trend towards chalets and larger holiday apartments.
There are around 20 bars and pubs, a few discos and 40 restaurants.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ MOUNTAIN OF HELL www.les2alpes.com, accessed on July 5, 2019
- ↑ Mass crash on glacier descent: Hundreds of bikers crash over each other in the 'Mountain of Hell' race sport.oe24.at, July 4, 2019, accessed August 1, 2020.
Coordinates: 45 ° 0 ' N , 6 ° 7' E