© Tomorrowland
What's on in Alpe d'Huez winter 2018/19
The action-packed season gets underway soon
The snow has started falling across the Alps and the ski season is fast approaching, with the lifts opening in Alpe d’Huez on Saturday, December 1st 2018.
Without a doubt, the main event of the forthcoming season is the massive Tomorrowland Winter Festival in March but there’s plenty of other events to put into your diary.
Opening weekend - December 1st-2nd
The lifts open at 09:00 on Saturday, December 1st, featuring the new €14 million lift system linking the old town area, by the tourist office, up to L’Eclose and across to the Les Bergers lift and commercial centre. This will make access from the old town up to the Marmottes lift extra simple. Gone are the old chairs to be replaced by a new 10-person gondola lift with an impressive uplift capacity of 2,400 people per hour. The first weekend of the season also sees the arrival of Ski Force, a great opportunity to test the very best new equipment. Based around the Les Bergers Commercial Centre, exhibitors will include Atomic, Blizzard, Dynastar, Faction, Fischer, Head, Nordica, Rossignol and Salomon. Come and try the latest ski innovations for free for a couple of days, all you need is an ID and your ski boots and poles.
Alpe d'Huez Ski Marathon - January 6th
Not for the faint-hearted, this event sees competitors, which will include yours truly, race for 30km across the stunning cross-country ski trails in Alpe d'Huez. It’s a freestyle event so whether you ski tour, classic or skate this event is for you. A proper ultra test up at high altitude.
International Comedy Festival - January 15th-20th
Getting bigger and bigger each year, this event sees a real bit of red-carpet, Hollywood-style glamour come to resort. Based at the leisure centre but with screenings all over town, the stars of international comedy come to Alpe d'Huez. Becoming more international every year, with plenty of English language films as well, it really is a glitzy few days here. French TV and radio host broadcasts from the slopes by day and the leisure centre by night and fleets of limos whisk the stars of the silver screen around town, with after-show parties very much the order of the day (or night!). All the screenings are free and the event brings a huge number of non-skiers to resort for its duration.
Tomorrowland Winter Festival - March 13th-15th
It has been years in the making, with hours of protracted negotiations, but it's finally happening in March 2019 when Belgium’s legendary music festival makes its winter debut in Alpe d’Huez. The entire resort will be taken over by the festival and turned into Tomorrowland Winter. Artists including Afrojack, NERVO, Joris Voorn and headliner Armin Van Buuren will bring this techno, Ibiza-style festival to life with this year's theme, 'The Hymn of the Frozen Lotus', at the fore. The traditional summer Tomorrowland events are on a scale with Glastonbury back in the UK and it's sure to be the stuff of legend that week in resort.
Sarenne Snowbike - April 27th
As the resort closes, there’s one final action-packed event which really isn’t for the faint-hearted. Sarenne Snowbike sees competitors begin from the traditional Megavalanche start point at the top of Pic Blanc before hurtling downhill all the way to the village of Huez. Starting in the snow and finishing on the grassy slopes around Huez, this is a truly breathtaking downhill no-holds-barred mountain bike event.
More inspiration...
These are just the top five events taking place in Alpe d'Huez this season but there's a lot more going on. Take a look at our events calendar and start booking your ski holiday.
