Serre Chevalier-Briançon/​Chantemerle/​Villeneuve-la-Salle/​Le Monêtier-les-Bains

The ski resort Serre Chevalier – Briançon/Chantemerle/Villeneuve-la-Salle/Le Monêtier-les-Bains is located in the Vallée de la Guisane (France, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Hautes-Alpes, Briançon). For skiing and snowboarding, there are 250 km of slopes available. 57 lifts transport the guests. The winter sports area is situated between the elevations of 1,200 and 2,800 m.

The Serre Chevalier resort is located right in the middle of magnificent nature in the “Les Ecrins” National Park with the 4102 m high “Dôme des Ecrins” and wonderful centuries old larch and pine trees. Whether your searching for a high alpine skiing experience with a view of the glacier or cool cross-country skiing through the larch forests – both are on offer. Plenty of variety is offered with mogul slopes and wide runs, the “Altitude” Snowpark spread over 3 hectares with a length of 700 m divided into 3 difficulty levels ranging from beginner to expert as well as a boarder and skicross course with steep curves. The needs of families are also catered to on the marked slopes.

Source: skiresort.info

Has the climate crisis and the higher temperatures affected snow conditions in Serre Chevalier-Briançon/Chantemerle/Villeneuve-la-Salle/Le Monêtier-les-Bains?
Look at the statistics and graph of historical snow depths for the ski resort.
For the last 5 years, week 6 has been the most insecure with 127 cm snow depth on average in Serre Chevalier-Briançon/Chantemerle/Villeneuve-la-Salle/Le Monêtier-les-Bains.
The measurement is made as an average of the snow depth at the highest and lowest point of the mountain.

This is one of our favourite places. The modern buildings of the main resort areas are off-putting, but get into the original villages and you find the kind of ambience you might look for on a summer holiday – a sort of Provence in the snow, with small family-run hotels and restaurants in old stone buildings. And the slopes are equally distinctive, with the trees reaching appreciably higher altitudes than the Alpine norm. This is a great place to be when it’s snowing, as we have confirmed on two of our most recent visits. Serre Chevalier is made up of a string of villages set on a valley floor, linked by a busy road. The valley runs roughly north-west to south-east, below the north-east-facing slopes of the mountain range that gives the resort its name. From the north-west – coming over the Col du Lautaret from Grenoble – the three main villages are spread over a distance of 8km – Le Monetier (or Serre-Che 1500), Villeneuve (1400) and Chantemerle (1350). Finally, at the extreme south-eastern end of the valley, is Briancon (1200) – not a village but a town (the highest in France). As well as the main villages there are nine smaller villages, some of which give their names to the communes: Villeneuve, for example, is in the commune of little old La Salle les Alpes. Confusing? Sure is. The resort is not at all fashionable, and is only now developing 4-star hotels. But Serre-Che has more hotels here in the modestly priced Logis de France ‘club’ than any other ski resort. This is a family resort, and it gets especially busy in the February/March French school holidays. A six-day area pass covers a day in each of Les Deux-Alpes, Alpe-d’Huez, Puy-St-Vincent, Montgenevre/the Milky Way, and a 25% discount on a La Grave day pass (note that to claim the discount or free day at any of these, you need to take your pass, your receipt for it, plus a ticket listing free resorts that you should be given when buying your pass). All of these outings are possible by bus, but are easier by car. Driving via Grenoble you use the Col du Lautaret, which can be closed.

• Big, varied mountain offering a sense of travel as you ski
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  Lots of good woodland runs

   

• Based on old villages with character

   

• Good-value and atmospheric old hotels, restaurants and chalets

• Busy road through the resorts, and through the heart of Le Monêtier
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  A lot of indiscriminate new building took place in the 1960s and 70s

   

• Still too many drags and slow chairlifts at altitude

   

• Limited nightlife

Source: Ski Club of Great Britain

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