Snoman
ski holidays
The inhabitants of Alpe d’Huez are among the most welcoming of any French ski resort. We met a charming young Frenchman who, although lightly toasted, managed to explain in English that he needed to take lots of pictures of our Airstream. I think he was in charge of a shop or cafe but it was hard to tell which one – his father, he told us, was owner of the “big” hotel. We were in the big car park/square at the very top of the resort so, if this chap rings any bells with you, do steer his gaze at this blog post and say hello for us.
While it’s undoubtedly very famous for ski holidays Alpe d’Huez is probably best known as one of the classic climbs on the legendary Tour de France bicycle race.This epic climb has been a TDF stage finish every year for several decades, since it was first made famous by (now legendary) rider Fausto Coppi. Coppi attacked around half way up and soon his only rival had nothing left to give. He and the Alpe became instantly famous because this was the first year that the Tour de France had motorcycle camera men, to cover this spectacular mountain battle.Since this incredible race in 1952, only Coppi and Lance Armstrong have been able to win the maillot jeune (yellow jersey) on Alpe d’Huez and then keep it all the way to the finish in Paris!
If you’re a weekend warrior like me and you’d like to have a go at something you’ve seen your heroes do, then pedalling up the Alpe is likely to be on your list of “want to do” things – its such a famous climb that the draw of Alpe dHuez is not restricted to cyclists…
I doubt this super-fit X-country skier is the first to climb Alp d Huez on roller skis, but has anyone gone up in one of these before ?!?
first 1966 Airstream to climb Alpe d’Huez ? – someone call Norris McWerter
Despite the Airstream weighing over 2 tons, the climb up was actually very easy, if slow, and certainly worth the effort for the views… so I’m pleased with myself for completing the first ascent of Alpe d’Huez in a 1966 Airstream Overlander.
It was only on the way down that we had a reality check, re what we were asking some VERY OLD machinery to do, on this torturous piece of mountain road.
With our four wheel drive car in 2nd gear, I rarely had to touch the brakes all the way down – there’s an aweful lot of resistance in a 4×4 drive train plus a 3 litre 6 cyclinder diesel engine – but…
… what I hadn’t thought too much about, was the fact that the Airstream brakes were ON and holding back that 2.5 ton trailer ALL THE TIME !
wheels on fire… rolling down the road…
After approx 5km of the 12km descent, we saw huge clouds of smoke billowing from the Airstream wheels!
We pulled over and gave them a LONG time to cool – then completed the descent of Alpe d’Huez in 2km intervals – it was a pretty scary wake up and will ensure we’ll given these roads (and the poor old sno-mobile) a lot more respect hence forth.
Fevered brow… knees a tremble… sweaty palms… time for a lie down…. see you next time in Les Deux Alpes!
Snoman.
snowboard Alpe d’Huez skiing links: Alpe d’Huez weather | alpe d huez webcam |snowboard alpe d huez
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NEXT: Les Deux Alpes – it is big and it is clever… and everyone seems to know about SNO mobi … strange things are happening in an autumn ghost town ski resort…
(add your Les 2 Alpes business to our ski holidays guide now and I’ll name-check you in the next blog post)
