20 minutes drive from La Grave is the resort of Serre Chevalier, which offers a wider range of accommodations and nightlife. The resort is also outstanding and is worth a visit if conditions are bad or if you are with people who aren’t quite as experienced as you. The road between the two villages is fairly flat, but can be closed after a heavy snowfall, which is something to watch out for if you’re thinking of staying in Monetier and making the trip to La Grave.

Where is it this flat in La Grave?

         The lift system at La Grave consists of two pulsing gondolas, one which takes you to the mid station, and another which takes you to the top station at 3200 meters, which is also home to the only mountainside restaurant on the whole mountain. The total trip takes about 30 minutes which seems like an awful long time, but you’ll be glad of the rest let me tell you. Once at 3220 meters you have the option of taking 2 draglifts along the flatter section at the top of the mountain, which extends to 3550 meters. This flat section of the mountain is home to the only two groomed runs on the mountain, the rest of it completely ungroomed virgin snow. Getting excited yet? Over the backside of the mountain is an access to the ski resort of Les Deux Alps, which can be slightly confusing when you suddenly see people appearing from the middle of nowhere. The mountain is so big and has so many different routes I won’t describe them all (nor could I), suffice to say that you won’t be disappointed. As you can see from the “piste” map at the bottom of this page, there are 2 basic lines down the mountain, taking you down either side of the lift, however both of these contain almost unlimited route options.

Swallowmania in full effect

         Several companies offer tours of La Grave including Doug Combes steep skiing course and a number of companies running chalet trips out of the nearby villages. I was in La Grave for the first Swallowmania meeting, 150 people turning out to test a wide variety of swallowtailed snowboards and meet the people who made them. A full description of the meeting and all the boards can be found on Nils site as well as on numerous other sites scattered around the web. Nils spent all day testing practically every swallowtailed board there was. The only board I rode apart from mine was an enormous 220cm beast. Not the most responsive board in the world, but a great laugh, I felt like a longboard surfer. The lure of the half meter of fresh snow was far too much for me and I was like a kid in a candy store all day. We were there relatively early in the season and 2001/2002 wasn’t the best snow year so our options were limited as far as routes went. I still got to warp speed it down some pretty huge steep faces though. I’m going back the first chance I get. We stopped at the Edelweiss hotel, which is right in the middle of the village and has a decent restaurant and bar. I’d definitely stay there again, but there are a few other fairly similar hotels in the village.

Finally got to ride with swallowtailed aficionado Nils

          If you choose to visit La Grave in April, you could always take part in the annual Derby la Meije. “The starting gate is located at 3564 meters in altitude, and the finish line at 1416 meters. There is no obligatory gate along the itinerary, which is left to the competitors' initiative. In certain years the best racers took only 6 minutes to descend the 2150-meter drop, with only 6 turns from start to finish, making the rest of the descent straight downhill!”

         Out of all the places I’ve visited in my 8 year snowboarding career, none of them have had the impact of La Grave. It’s a place every powder hound should visit again and again.

I also got to ride with Charles, making this a kind of snowboarding webmaster convention

For a La Grave "piste" map, click on one of these links.

For a small map, click here.

 For a larger map in .pdf format, click here (requires Acrobat Reader).

Bazu in full effect