L'Alpe d'Huez () is a ski resort in Southeastern France at . It is a mountain pasture in the central French Western Alps, in the commune of Huez, which is part of the Isère department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
It is part of the Grandes Rousses massif, over the Oisans, and is from Grenoble. The Alpe d'Huez resort is accessible from Grenoble by the , which runs along the Romanche Valley passing through the communes of Livet-et-Gavet and Le Bourg-d'Oisans as well as Haut-Oisans via the Col de Sarenne.
Alpe d'Huez is known internationally as an iconic cycling venue, as it is used regularly in the Tour de France cycle race, including twice on the same day in 2013. In 2019, it became the site of the first Tomorrowland Winter festival.
History The site of the Alpe has been permanently occupied since the Middle Ages. East of L'Alpe veti, a medieval agglomeration had grown from the end of the 11th to the 14th century under the name of Brandes. It was composed of a castle, a parish church with a cemetery, a village with about 80 homes, surface and underground mine workings, as well as several industrial districts. Its occupants operated a silver mine on behalf of the Dauphin. It is currently the only medieval coron known and preserved in its entirety, making it a unique site in Europe and classified as historical monuments by a decree of 6 August 1995.
Excavated and studied continuously since 1977 by a team of the CNRS, this site is registered as an historic monument. The medieval mining operation stretched from Gua (the Valley) to the Lac Blanc [White Lake] (Massif des Rousses). The massif was also the subject of mining operations, including copper, from the Bronze Age.
It is also at Alpe d'Huez where botanist Gaston Bonnier began his study of flora of France in 1871.
The station was developed from the 1920s. This is where the first platter lift for skiers was opened in 1936 with perches by , creator of the Poma company.
Climate
On average, Alpe d'Huez experiences 159.9 days per year with a minimum temperature below , 22.7 days per year with a minimum temperature below , and 42.4 days per year with a maximum temperature below . The record high temperature was on 18 July 2023, while the record low temperature was on 5 February 2012.
Economy Each year, the Alpe d'Huez Film Festival is held in January.
Alpe d'Huez also has an altiport, the Alpe d'Huez Airport, built for the 10th Winter Olympics held at Grenoble in 1968. It was named for on 15 April 2000, in memory of the famous mountain pilot. The altiport hosts helicopters including those of civil security, and the Dauphiné flying club. A gourmet restaurant is located on the edge of the platform.
Local culture and heritage
Sites and monuments
The church
Alpe d'Huez has a modern and original church, the appearance of which recalls a silhouette of the Virgin Mary. Under the leadership of Father Jaap Reuten, head of the parish from 1964 to 1992, it was designed by the architect Jean Marol in the 1960s (completed in 1970), and decorated with colour-rich stained-glass windows by the artist Arcabas.
This church houses a pipe organ which is unique in the world. The organ takes the form of a hand drawn up towards the sky, designed by composer Jean Guillou and the German organ builder Detlef Kleuker. Each year, concerts are held around this instrument on Thursday night, winter and summer, as well as organ, pan flute and choral courses during the summer.
Cultural heritage The (or Musée d'Huez et de Oisans), of the Musée de France.
Winter sports Alpe d'Huez is primarily used for downhill/alpine skiing.
Skiing at Alpe d'Huez
Alpe d'Huez is one of Europe's premier skiing venues. The site of the Pomagalski's first surface lift in the mid thirties, the resort gained popularity when it hosted the bobsleigh events of the 1968 Winter Olympics. At that time the resort was seen as a competitor to Courchevel as France's most upmarket purpose built resort but the development of Les Trois Vallées, Val d'Isère, Tignes, La Plagne and Les Arcs saw Alpe D'Huez fall from favour in the 1970s and early 1980s.
With of piste and 84 ski lifts, the resort is now one of the world's largest. Extensive snowmaking facilities helped combat the ski area's largely south-facing orientation and helped Alpe d'Huez appeal to beginner skiers, with very easy slopes. The expansion of the skiing above the linked resorts of Vaujany, Oz-en-Oisans, Villard Reculas and Auris boosted the quantity and quality of intermediate grade slopes but the resort is mostly known for freeskiing, drawing many steep skiing enthusiasts to its high altitude terrain.
Aside from the Tunnel and Sarenne black runs, many off-piste opportunities exist both from the summit of the Pic Blanc and the Dome des Petites Rousses. These include the 50-degree Cheminees du Mascle couloirs, the open powder field of Le Grand Sablat, the Couloir Fleur and the Perrins bowl. Up to of vertical descent are available with heli drops back to the resort's altiport. The proximity to the exclusively off-piste resort of La Grave as well as tree skiing at Serre Chevalier and the glacier and terrain parks of Les Deux Alpes have made Alpe d'Huez a popular base for skiers looking to explore the Oisans region.
1968 Winter Olympics Alpe d'Huez hosted the bobsleigh events at the 1968 Winter Olympics based at Grenoble away.1968 Winter Olympics official report. pp. 104–105. – accessed 27 February 2008. The track, built in spring 1966 for FRF 5.5 million, hosted the World Championships in 1967. The cooling could not keep the ice solid in bright daylight – not least because the track faced south. The four-man event was cancelled because of thawing ice, and modifications were made that spring to prepare for the Games. The refrigeration system was strengthened in turns 6, 9, 12, and 13; turn 12 was covered with stone and earthwork to prevent concrete coming up, turn 12 was cooled with liquid nitrogen, and shades were built on turns 6, 9, 12, and 13 to minimise direct sunlight. Thawing remained a problem and Olympic bobsleigh events had to be scheduled before sunrise. The track closed in 1972 due to high operating costs; the structure remains as demolition was not economical.
{| class=wikitable style="text-align:center" |+ Physical statistics ! Sport ! Length ! Turns ! Vertical drop ! Average grade (%) |- |Bobsleigh | |13 | |9.33 |} No turn names were given for the track.
Cycle racing
Details The climb to the summit starts at Le Bourg d'Oisans in the Romanche valley. The climb goes via the D211 from where the distance to the summit (at ) is , with an average gradient of 8.1%, with 21 hairpin bends and a maximum gradient of 13%. Despite its notoriety, Alpe d'Huez is only the 56th hardest bike climb in France.
Tour de France L'Alpe d'Huez is climbed regularly in the Tour de France. It was first included in the race in 1952 and has been a stage finish regularly since 1976. The race was brought to the mountain by Élie Wermelinger, the chief commissaire or referee. He drove his Panhard Dyna car between snow banks that lined the road in March 1952, invited by a consortium of businesses who had opened hotels at the summit.Chany, Pierre (1988), La Fabuleuse Histoire du Tour de France, Nathan, France Their leader was Georges Rajon, who ran the Hotel Christina.Procycling, UK, August 2002 The ski station there opened in 1936. Wermelinger reported to the organiser, Jacques Goddet, and the Tour signed a contract with the businessmen to include the Alpe. It cost them the modern equivalent of €3,250.
That first Alpe d'Huez stage was won in 1952 by Fausto Coppi.Vélo, France, June 2004 Coppi attacked from the summit to rid himself of the French rider Jean Robic.L'Équipe Magazine, 17 July 2004 This was the year that motorcycle television crews first came to the Tour. It was also the Tour's first mountain-top finish.L'Équipe Magazine, 20 July 2002 The veteran reporter, Jacques Augendre, said:
"The Tourmalet, the Galibier and the Izoard were the mythical mountains of the race. These three cols were supplanted by the Alpe d'Huez. Why? Because it's the col of modernity. Coppi's victory in 1952 was the symbol of a golden age of cycling, that of champions [such as] Coppi, Bartali, Kubler, Koblet, Bobet. But only Coppi and Armstrong and Carlos Sastre have been able to take the maillot jaune on the Alpe and to keep it to Paris. That's not by chance. From the first edition, shown on live television, the Alpe d'Huez definitively transformed the way the Grande Boucle ran. No other stage has had such drama. With its 21 bends, its gradient and the number of spectators, it is a climb in the style of Hollywood."
Augendre omitted Laurent Fignon, who, along with Coppi and Armstrong, took yellow on the Alpe without winning the stage in 1983, 1984, and 1989. He held it into Paris in 1983 and 1984 but in 1989 he lost it on the final stage to Paris, a time trial, to Greg LeMond to finish second by 8", the closest finish in men's tour history.
After Coppi's win, the Alpe was dropped until 1976,Cycling Weekly, UK, November 2001 when it was reintroduced at Rajon's instigation. The hairpin bends are named after the winners of stages. All hairpins had been named by the 22nd climb in 2001 so naming restarted at the bottom with Lance Armstrong's name added to Coppi's.
Stage 18 of the 2013 Tour de France included a double ascent of the climb, reaching on the first passage, and continuing to the traditional finish on the second.
Only two riders have won the Alpe stage while wearing the yellow jersey. During the 2018 Tour de France, Geraint Thomas won Stage 12 which finished on Alpe d'Huez and was the second of two back-to-back Alpine stage wins in 2018. In the 2026 Tour de France, Tadej Pogačar won Stage 19 in the yellow jersey.
French journalist and L'Équipe sportswriter Jean-Paul Vespini wrote a book about Alpe d'Huez and its role in the Tour de France: The Tour Is Won on the Alpe: Alpe d'Huez and the Classic Battles of the Tour de France.
Spectators The Alpe has chaotic crowds of spectators. In 1999, Giuseppe Guerini won despite being knocked off by a spectator who stepped into his path to take a photograph. The 2004 individual time trial became chaotic when fans pushed riders toward the top. Attendance figures on the mountain have to be treated with caution. A million spectators were claimed for 1997. Eric Muller, the mayor of Alpe d'Huez, however, said there were 350,000 in 2001, four years later despite acceptance that the number rises every year. "We expect more than 400,000 for the centenary race in 2003", he said.Journal du Dimanche, France, 13 July 2003 The author Tim Moore wrote:
As a variant on a sporting theme, Alpe d'Huez annoys the purists but enthrals the broader public, like 20/20 cricket or beach volleyball. Last year, a full-blown tent-stamping riot had required heavy police intervention. During this year's clean-up operation, down in a ravine with the bottle shards and dented emulsion tins, a body turned up. He'd fallen off the mountain and no one had noticed. When the Tour goes up Alpe d'Huez, it's a squalid, manic and sometimes lethal shambles, and that's just the way they like it. It's the Glastonbury Festival for cycling fans.Procycling, UK, September 2004
Alpe d'Huez has been nicknamed the "Dutch Mountain", since Dutchmen won eight of the first 14 finishes in le Tour De France. British author Geoffrey Nicholson wrote: