Where to Ski And Snowboard - Three new lifts for Courchevel

Three new lifts for Courchevel

10th July 2019, by Abi Butcher

The new Alpinium building in Le Praz will be the departure point for a new 10-man gondola

The French ski resort of Courchevel in the Three Valleys is installing three new lifts for the coming winter — and building a brand new modern lift building in Le Praz.

In Courchevel Le Praz, a new 10-seater gondola will be installed to connect the resort to the main hub, Courchevel 1850 — carrying more than double the number of passengers as the previous lift, in a faster time of under six minutes. A new departure station is being built within the brand new Alpinium multi-service building, with the gondola arriving just beneath Courchevel 1850’s Croisette — which has also been re-designed to provide easier and more practical links for pedestrians and those using the toboggan run.

The Alpinium building, which will open this winter in Le Praz, will modernise the resort with a host of new services. There will be parking for 500 cars, a 350msq multimedia library, a sports ground (that will serve as the finish line for the 2023 World Ski Championships) as well as a children’s area, ski pass sales desk, tourist reception area, a new ESF office (for the first time in Le Praz), toilets and ski lockers.

Elsewhere in Courchevel 1850, a new four-seater chair lift will link the new four-star Hôtel L’Écrin Blanc which opens in 2019, opposite the Aquamotion centre. In addition there will be a new 1km blue piste that will go past the hotel.

Courchevel is also offering what it calls a “Freeride Lab” at Les Creux Noirs – where the two red runs and a black run will be left ungroomed but avalanche patrolled throughout the winter. They will be served by a new draglift.

To read Where to Ski & Snowboard’s independent review of Courchevel, click here.