A new six-seat chairlift being installed in the French Grand Massif region will be the longest of its kind in Europe and access an all new bowl, extending the ski region, already one of the world’s largest, still further.
The new 6-seater detachable Coulouvrier chairlift will ascend 920 vertical metres over its 2850m (nearly two miles long) in around nine minutes, with an uplift capacity of 3,000 people per hour.
The new lift will provide access to the region’s new terrain addition, the Coulouvrier Bowl, an area covering some 42 hectares of pistes located between the villages of Morillon and Samoëns.
Four new ski runs are planned for the areas, including two blues scheduled to open this winter and two reds to follow for the 2018/2019 winter season.
So far it has not been announced if the region will announce an increase to its previous published size of 265km.
In addition a snow-making network with 70 snow cannons is being created in the area.
Other off-season projects to improve the Grand Massif include extensive landscaping of the Tête de Saix summit to optimise intersections and improve safety for skiers crossing over between the resorts of Flaine, Les Carroz, Morillon and Samoëns with the transformation meaning skiers will enjoy a 360º view of the whole of the surrounding panorama.
There’s also an 110,000 M3 reservoir being created, integrated into the natural environment in the Veret sector. This will provide the resort which has previously had problems sourcing water for snowmaking with a tenfold increase in its snow-making capacity, this resource will be of particular use for enhancing the natural snow coverage on the pistes leading back to the resort.
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