A panorama of Alpe d’Huez in winter. Laurent Salino / Alpe d’Huez Tourisme
A panorama of Alpe d’Huez in winter. Laurent Salino / Alpe d’Huez Tourisme

Pitch-black skiing on the Sarenne run in Alpe d’Huez, France



For many skiers, starting at the top of their favourite piste and not stopping until they reach the bottom is a badge of honour. But there's one run in the French Alps I defy anyone to ski hard non-stop – the infamous Sarenne in Alpe d'Huez.

It’s not that the Sarenne is especially steep or challenging, although it does tout itself as a black run; it’s just long – very long. Starting at the lofty 3,330-metre summit of Pic Blanc (where you really need to take time out to enjoy some of the finest mountain panoramas in the Alps before you hit the piste), the Sarenne winds down the eponymous glacier in its upper reaches, before swooping onto steep slopes above the Gorges de Sarenne, after which it eases off with a gentle schuss along the bottom of the gorge to finally peter out at the base of the Alpauris chairlift.

By the time you get to the bottom, you’ll have descended 2,200 metres, over a distance of 16 kilometres. Even Bode Miller would struggle to do that without a breather.

When four of us take on the Sarenne in bright spring sunshine, I’ve no idea how long it takes to wend our way down from Pic Blanc – to be honest, I don’t care, for while the bunch of German guys who shoot past us are clearly out to break some personal records, this, for me, is the kind of piste that should be savoured.

It’s worth taking your time to enjoy the excitingly steep but perfectly groomed slopes of the upper reaches, cool breezes lifting off the glacier, before you hit open alpine terrain and maybe take your first real breather. If you do, you may be lucky enough, as we are, to see chamois scampering across the slopes – one of our group, Vicky, is so taken with by these graceful mountain residents that she can’t stop grinning once we set off again.

The Sarenne’s lower slopes do, however, bring into question its claim to be the longest black run in the world. There’s no doubt that the slopes at the top are challenging enough to be on the very dark side, although not beyond any decent intermediate skier – but once you hit the Gorges de Sarenne, the pitch is so gently angled that it would struggle to justify being rated “green”, let alone black; Vicky is on a snowboard and has to be given regular pushes and pulls from the skiers in our party to keep up her speed.

But the fact that you’re not hooning along at high speed gives you the chance to take in the wooded glades and listen to songbirds twittering in the trees and mountain streams gurgling their way downhill; and it’s good to be able to “warm down” your quads after the battering they get on the upper slopes of the Sarenne.

And whether the Sarenne is or isn’t a “real” black is beside the point, because descending it is still one of the French Alps’ great ski experiences. However, like the majority of the slopes in Alpe d’Huez, the Sarenne faces south/south-west, and consequently can suffer from exposure to the sun (the resort is also located towards the southern end of the Alps, which doesn’t help either).

Consequently, this winter it will be sporting 72 new snow cannon, at a cost of €8 million (Dh36.8m), with the aim of opening the run by mid-December every year and keeping it open until the very end of the season (usually late April).

There are also six webcams along the course of the descent, so you can see what real-time snow conditions are like before you take it on; and just in case you can’t get enough of the 2,200-metre “vertical” in the daytime, you can also ski it at night.

The snow cannon have been equipped with LED lights to create what is now called, in flowery French, a “slope of stars”. By taking the last cable car up to Pic Blanc, you can join the resort’s ski instructors and ski patrollers for a night-time descent, after watching the sunset from Pic Blanc’s summit.

Yet the thing that strikes the four keen skiers and boarders in our group as much as the Sarenne is the massive amount of off-piste skiing available in the resort. As my friend and fellow ski writer James Cove says: “I’m amazed at the off-piste potential here – everywhere you look there’s terrain that’s just begging to be skied”.

The “Alpe d’Huez grand domaine ski”, as the entire ski area is known, is actually made up of a number of independent villages, in addition to Alpe d’Huez. Villard Reculas, Oz en Oisans, Auris en Oisans and Vaujany can all be easily accessed on groomed pistes from the centre of Alpe d’Huez; most can be accessed off-piste, too. The smallest settlement, Villard Reculas, is perhaps the prettiest (so much so that Vicky decides “I want to live here” within five minutes of skiing down to it).

It’s a traditional alpine village with magnificent views of the Romanche Valley, from which rises the famous D211 road and the 21 hairpin bends that the Tour de France regularly scales in July. Villard Reculas just happened to be sited close to the slopes when Alpe d’Huez was developed in the 1960s and 70s (although the Poma company installed its first-ever ski lift in Alpes d’Huez in 1936), but the larger village of Auris en Oisans, way over at the other end of the ski area, is where things are really happening in the next few years.

Or to be precise, the 2,175-metre peak of Signal de l’Homme above the village is where it’s all happening. The resort lift company’s commercial director Christian Marie tells me: “Within five years the Signal de l’Homme will have another ski lift on its summit; it will be the start point for an 8.8km long ‘Peak to Peak’ lift that will link with the resort of Les Deux Alpes”. He points to a hazy conglomeration of buildings and ski lifts way off to the south.

The Signal de l’Homme already has a rich history – its name comes from the fact that French Resistance fighters used it as a point from which to signal to their fellow maquisards during the Second World War. This remarkable new development will also be a historic event in the history of French skiing, as linking with Les Deux Alpes will make up one of the biggest linked ski areas on the planet.

But don’t wait until the new lift goes in to visit. Alpe d’Huez is still one of the Alps’ most iconic ski resorts. It’s not the prettiest by any means; if you want traditional “chocolate box” tweeness, you’re in the wrong place.

But, personally, I find something appealing about the rather brutalist 1970s French ski-resort architecture that makes up the heart of the resort. It has almost become a classic of alpine style as it ages, with the concrete and glass structures (essentially built to allow ordinary French families to enjoy a ski holiday) having a very French insouciance about them. “We are what we are,” they say, with a Gallic shrug.

That said, Alpe d’Huez’s newer hotels, such as the four-star Chamois d’Or, in which we stay, have been built in more traditional style, resulting in a slightly bizarre mix of old modernist and modern traditional styles – it must all be very confusing if you’re an architecture buff.

If you’re simply here to ski, though – and why else would you visit? – once you’re up on the mountains, the resort architecture is the last thing you’ll be looking at. Majestic mountain panoramas draw your eye as you ride the lifts and ski the slopes, twisted and contorted by aeons of geological forces, and Alpe d’Huez and its neighbouring villages are lost in all this scenic drama.

It’s nice to know that the mountains always win.

weekend@thenational.ae

Follow us @TravelNational

Follow us on Facebook for discussions, entertainment, reviews, wellness and news.

The specs
 
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20myZoi%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202021%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Syed%20Ali%2C%20Christian%20Buchholz%2C%20Shanawaz%20Rouf%2C%20Arsalan%20Siddiqui%2C%20Nabid%20Hassan%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2037%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Initial%20undisclosed%20funding%20from%20SC%20Ventures%3B%20second%20round%20of%20funding%20totalling%20%2414%20million%20from%20a%20consortium%20of%20SBI%2C%20a%20Japanese%20VC%20firm%2C%20and%20SC%20Venture%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Real estate tokenisation project

Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.

Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.

Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
A MINECRAFT MOVIE

Director: Jared Hess

Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa

Rating: 3/5

MATCH INFO

Europa League final

Who: Marseille v Atletico Madrid
Where: Parc OL, Lyon, France
When: Wednesday, 10.45pm kick off (UAE)
TV: BeIN Sports

The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
Straightforward ways to reduce sugar in your family's diet
  • Ban fruit juice and sodas
  • Eat a hearty breakfast that contains fats and wholegrains, such as peanut butter on multigrain toast or full-fat plain yoghurt with whole fruit and nuts, to avoid the need for a 10am snack
  • Give young children plain yoghurt with whole fruits mashed into it
  • Reduce the number of cakes, biscuits and sweets. Reserve them for a treat
  • Don’t eat dessert every day 
  • Make your own smoothies. Always use the whole fruit to maintain the benefit of its fibre content and don’t add any sweeteners
  • Always go for natural whole foods over processed, packaged foods. Ask yourself would your grandmother have eaten it?
  • Read food labels if you really do feel the need to buy processed food
  • Eat everything in moderation
England v South Africa schedule
  • First Test: Starts Thursday, Lord's, 2pm (UAE)
  • Second Test: July 14-18, Trent Bridge, Nottingham, 2pm
  • Third Test: The Oval, London, July 27-31, 2pm
  • Fourth Test: Old Trafford, Manchester, August 4-8
What can you do?

Document everything immediately; including dates, times, locations and witnesses

Seek professional advice from a legal expert

You can report an incident to HR or an immediate supervisor

You can use the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation’s dedicated hotline

In criminal cases, you can contact the police for additional support

The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

Dengue%20fever%20symptoms
%3Cp%3EHigh%20fever%20(40%C2%B0C%2F104%C2%B0F)%3Cbr%3ESevere%20headache%3Cbr%3EPain%20behind%20the%20eyes%3Cbr%3EMuscle%20and%20joint%20pains%3Cbr%3ENausea%3Cbr%3EVomiting%3Cbr%3ESwollen%20glands%3Cbr%3ERash%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Diriyah%20project%20at%20a%20glance
%3Cp%3E-%20Diriyah%E2%80%99s%201.9km%20King%20Salman%20Boulevard%2C%20a%20Parisian%20Champs-Elysees-inspired%20avenue%2C%20is%20scheduled%20for%20completion%20in%202028%0D%3Cbr%3E-%20The%20Royal%20Diriyah%20Opera%20House%20is%20expected%20to%20be%20completed%20in%20four%20years%0D%3Cbr%3E-%20Diriyah%E2%80%99s%20first%20of%2042%20hotels%2C%20the%20Bab%20Samhan%20hotel%2C%20will%20open%20in%20the%20first%20quarter%20of%202024%0D%3Cbr%3E-%20On%20completion%20in%202030%2C%20the%20Diriyah%20project%20is%20forecast%20to%20accommodate%20more%20than%20100%2C000%20people%0D%3Cbr%3E-%20The%20%2463.2%20billion%20Diriyah%20project%20will%20contribute%20%247.2%20billion%20to%20the%20kingdom%E2%80%99s%20GDP%0D%3Cbr%3E-%20It%20will%20create%20more%20than%20178%2C000%20jobs%20and%20aims%20to%20attract%20more%20than%2050%20million%20visits%20a%20year%0D%3Cbr%3E-%20About%202%2C000%20people%20work%20for%20the%20Diriyah%20Company%2C%20with%20more%20than%2086%20per%20cent%20being%20Saudi%20citizens%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The White Lotus: Season three

Creator: Mike White

Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell

Rating: 4.5/5