Serre Chevalier () is a major

ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area – a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In North ...

in Southeastern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, near the Italian border, located in the Hautes-Alpes

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (; or , ; commonly shortened to PACA; en, Provence-Alps-French Riviera, italic=yes; also branded as Région Sud) is one of the eighteen administrative regions of France, the far southeastern on the mainland. Its pref ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

. Situated to the northeast of

Écrins National Park Écrins National Park (french: parc national des Écrins, ; oc, parc Nacional dels Escrinhs) is a French national park located in the southeastern part of France in the Dauphiné Alps south of Grenoble and north of Gap, shared between the dep ...

in the French Alps, the resort encompasses a large skiing area, with of slopes and favourable weather, boasting 300 days of sunshine a year. In Serre Chevalier, of the slopes are covered by snow cannons to supplement natural

snow Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

fall. The resort is owned by Compagnie des Alpes. Serre Chevalier consists of the city of Briançon, the villages of Chantemerle in

Saint-Chaffrey Saint-Chaffrey (; oc, Sant Chafrei) is a commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. In 2018, it had a population of 1,567. An alpine commune, Saint-Chaffrey is located in the Valley o ...

and Villeneuve in

La Salle-les-Alpes La Salle-les-Alpes (; Occitan: ''La Sala los Aups'' or simply ''La Sala'') is a commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. In 2018, it had a population of 959. Geography The commune of ...

, as well as

Le Monêtier-les-Bains Le Monêtier-les-Bains (; oc, Lo Monastièr) is a commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in southeastern France. Geography Le Monêtier-les-Bains is the highest village of the French ski resort of Serre Chevalier at 1,500m. It is situated in t ...

. World Cup champion ski racer Luc Alphand was born and lives in the valley below the resort.

Ski area

The maximum

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

for skiing is at Telesiege Yret at

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

, and the minimum is , a total vertical drop of . One of the outstanding features of Serre Chevalier is the wooded nature of the slopes. The timber line is at , yielding about of vertical drop of tree-lined slopes. The slopes are managed by Compagnie des Alpes. There are 61 lifts: 1

cable car Cable car most commonly refers to the following cable transportation systems: * Aerial lift, such as aerial tramways and gondola lifts, in which the vehicle is suspended in the air from a cable ** Aerial tramway ** Chairlift ** Gondola lift *** Bi ...

, 5

gondola lift A gondola lift is a means of cable transport and type of aerial lift which is supported and propelled by cables from above. It consists of a loop of steel wire rope that is strung between two stations, sometimes over intermediate supp ...

s, 20

chairlift An elevated passenger ropeway, or chairlift, is a type of aerial lift, which consists of a continuously circulating steel wire rope loop strung between two end terminals and usually over intermediate towers, carrying a series of chairs. They ...

s in total, 10 high-speed detachable chairlifts, 10 fixed-grip chairlifts, 28

surface lift A surface lift is a type of cable transport for snow sports in which skiers and snowboarders remain on the ground as they are pulled uphill. While they were once prevalent, they have been overtaken in popularity by higher-capacity and higher-co ...

s, 3 ski tows, as well as 4 magic carpet lifts.

Summer

In the summer Serre Chevalier is enjoyed for hiking, cycling, mountain biking, climbing, rock climbing, sledding, kayaking, paragliding and sightseeing. Four lifts are open to take hikers and mountain bikers up the mountain. There are 10 trails between 2500 and 1350m. Serre Chevalier organised the MTB French championships in 2008, the MTB Trial French championships in 2009 and the BMX European games in 2010. The location was also used in the

2011 Tour de France The 2011 Tour de France was the 98th edition of the race. It started on 2 July at the Passage du Gois and ended on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 24 July. The cyclists competed in 21 stages over 23 days, covering a distance of . The route en ...

when Stage 18 finished at the summit of the nearby

Col du Galibier The Col du Galibier (el. ) is a mountain pass in the southern region of the French Dauphiné Alps near Grenoble. It is the eighth highest paved road in the Alps, and recurrently the highest point of the Tour de France. It connects Saint-M ...

. Luxembourg climbing specialist Andy Schleck won the stage with a long solo breakaway from the finish and finished the Tour second overall, losing to Australian cyclist

Cadel Evans Cadel Lee Evans (; born 14 February 1977) is an Australian former professional racing cyclist, who competed professionally in both mountain biking and road bicycle racing. A four-time Olympian, Evans is one of three non-Europeans – along wi ...

References

External links

*{{wikivoyage-inline, Serre-Chevalier
Serre Chevalier Official website
Ski areas and resorts in France