La Grave
Ski Resort

Many ski resorts claim to offer something for everyone, but not La Grave. If the words “off-piste”, “backcountry skiing”, “freeride”, “piste hors”, and “ski touring” mean nothing to you, or fill you with dread, then don’t come here. There are few lifts and even fewer pistes; the nightlife is rudimentary; and the village has no famous hotels or restaurants. And yet each winter thousands of the most knowledgeable skiers on the planet choose to holiday here and take the antiquated, small-capacity, pulse-gondola that slowly rises in three stages from the village until it reaches an elevation of 3,200m. About fifteen minutes’ walk from the top station, is La Grave’s only other lift, a basic drag that ascends even higher, to approximately 3,600m, giving access to the Glacier de la Girose.

There are very few clues on the piste map as to why people make the effort. It shows just one unremarkable blue piste and two ungroomed itineraries that are neither patrolled nor avalanche-protected. The real draw, however, is what is not on the map: the long off-piste descents with verticals of up to 2000m, often with tricky or extreme sections like the famous Trifide couloirs, that plunge down the north-facing mountainside. In the other direction, there are even longer runs ‘off the back’ towards Saint-Christophe-en-Oisans, from where a taxi can take you to Venosc which has a gondola connecting it to Les Deux Alpes. (Les 2 Alpes and La Grave are not lift-linked, but with some pushing and walking you can ski between them at the top of their ski areas.)

And that is it, skiing-wise. If you cross over from La Grave to Les 2 Alpes, there are proper pistes and lifts, but it’s a long journey and you have to pay extra, so if you do this regularly, you would be much better off staying in Les 2 Alpes. There is also a small, beginners-focused ski area on the other side of La Grave at Le Chazelet but this is of little interest to La Grave’s free-riders and ski tourers. Much more useful is Serre-Chevalier, just 30 minutes away by car, which has some of the best tree skiing in Europe, and provides welcome relief when visibility is poor.

The village of La Grave is unlikely to adorn a chocolate box and has a busy road running through it, but it has some lovely old buildings including an ancient Romanesque church and stunning views of La Meije mountain. There is some simple accommodation, and a few cosy bars and basic restaurants, usually filled with like-minded freeride enthusiasts. There are also lots of mountain guides, and you are strongly advised to use their services if you want to leave the resort in one piece.

La Grave Strengths & Weaknesses

+ Superb off-piste skiing and freeriding with a guide
+ Welcoming traditional mountain village
+ The larger resort of Les Deux Alpes is usually reachable on skis
+ Relatively short drive to tree skiing in Serre Chevalier

– For off-piste/freeride skiers only
– Through road can be busy and noisy
– The main gondola lift is old, small and slow
– Infrequent buses to other resorts.