Snowboarding in Les Deux Alpes
As said by Torah Bright, snowboarding is a special kind of “medicine for the soul,” combining the beauty of nature, the thrill of competition, and the opportunity for self-expression. There is no single way to snowboard. After many months secluded to avoid haters, I’ve decided to take a break and visits a famous Ski Resort based in an area rich of heritage somewhat actual….
Some History about these beautiful lands
The Dauphiné de Viennois (after the name of Vienne, a subdivision of the Holy Roman Empire) was under control of the Counts of Albon (Dauphins) after its attachment in 1349 to the kingdom of France. This region included Venosc, Mons the Lans, and Les Deux Alpes. In more recent times, this area was situated in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France, part of the feudal County of Savoy ruled by the House of Savoy between the 11th to 14th centuries.
From that times, the ducal Savoy has lost some parts of what is now western Italy and southwestern Switzerland due to the Plombières Agreement of 1858. The treaty was signed in Turin in preparation for the unification of Italy by the House of Savoy. After that, Annoy became the capital of the new department of Haute-Savoie. However, during World War I the annexation treaty was broken by ending the military neutrality of the parts of the country of Savoy that had originally been agreed to at the Congress of Vienna (Savoy and Nice).
In World War II, during the Battle of the Alps, the Nazi invasion was stopped near Grenoble at Voreppe although between 11 November 1942 and September 1943 the Zone Libre (Savoie and Haute-Savoie) were invaded by the Italians in Operation Attila. The Vercors Plateau was used as a refuge to carry out sabotage and partisan operations against the Germans; notwithstanding the allies supported the maquis (rural guerrilla bands of French Resistance fighters) with parachute drops of weapons and by supplying teams of advisors and trainers, 10,000 German soldiers invaded the massif and killed more than 600 of the maquisards and 200 civilians.
The Ski Resort
In 1877, the climb of La Meije by Pierre Gaspard from Saint-Christophe-en-Oisans and the construction of the road to Bérarde determined the birth of the touristic era of these lands and the progressive abandonment of rural and mining activities around the 1970s.
From the Balme hotel in 1879 (today Chalet Mounier) to the construction of the first ski lifts in 1939 by Jules Carrel, a young ski instructor from La Bérarde. Some years after the end of the World War II many hotels were opened, Venosc and Mont-de-Lans were linked with cable cars, and the largest skiable glacier in Europe (France’s second oldest ski resort) with the longest open full on-piste vertical available in the world was born.
Today, more than 53 restaurants, of which 10 on the slopes, 3 museums, 1 theatre, 1 cinema, 40 hotels, 26 chalets, 1 camper parking, and 1 camping (in Venosc) contribute to welcome tourist from all the countries of the world.
Les Deux Alpes offers approximately 220 km of tracks and 2,300m of vertical drop; it also includes the most extensive and revered snowparks in Europe with new features added each season. Ice climbers and snowshoers will have fun, too…
A funicular railway tunnelled under the ice transports skiers and tourists to 3,450m where amazing views of the French, Italian, and Swiss Alps are easily catched (Mont Blanc, Alpe d’Huez, and the Plateau de Vercors).
References
Les Deux Alpes. https://www.les2alpes.com/winter/discover/a-village-atmosphere/
Lipgens, Walter (1982). A History of European Integration: 1945-1947 Volume 1. Clarendon Press.