La Grave Lift Lease. What do you know?

[Buster Highmen]

The lift at La Grave is an older, low capacity pulse gondola. The lift is leased to a company by the town and the lease is running out after this year.

There are a number of interested parties I know of:
0) Denis Creissels, the current lease holder is in his 80s. He designed the La Grave lift (as well as the ADM in Cham) and after some other leassors fumbled, he took it. Creissels has said he will only renew it if he is allowed to build a cable car from Chazelet, a village above La Grave.
1) CDA, a Vail like corporation that owns a bunch of other ski megaresorts in the area, like Les Deuxs Alpes, Tignes and Chamonix. Lots of people are concerned that CDA would ruin La Grave with condos, real estate devlopement and (horror) pistes.
2) Joost Vanzundert, an individual that is leading a crowdfunding effort https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/s...ve-environment .

I don't really know much about Creissels objectives. He's old and while he has held the lift for some years now, keeping the integrity of the area, I don't know what his future plans are other than the objective of running a tram over to the smaller storm day area at Chazelet.

The link provided by Joost has a lot of information, but sidesteps Creissels involvement or plans.

Anyway, there's the thread for information and abuse.

Is there anyone out there that has more information about what's going on?

More information here:
http://www.powder.com/stories/end-la...PrTlHGglLKV.97

[Island Bay]

I read this the other day. Not very informative, but it made me want to do more sleuthing (which I haven't had time to do - yet):

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/sk...g-in-la-grave/

[Buster Highmen]

I got a couple of votes of confidence for Joost from some people who are much more intimate with La Grave than I.

[Foggy_Goggles]

Call Enlosandes?

I know nothing but I know how it makes me feel. Go now!

Probably a good place to repost this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p8HEh9HoB4

[Mulletizer]

I know La Grave is special. I've been persuaded that this campaign probably offers the best opportunity to keep the place special. So I've backed it and I've started a thread about it.

[Buke]

Tell me more. I've been searching the french news sites but haven't seen anything yet (except this popped up today: http://www.skieur.com/actu-participe...egogo-la-grave).

I've never been to La Grave but as a student of the french language, an avid skier for 32 of my 36 years of life, and a constant day dreamer, I'd be willing to throw in a little cash for the right outcome. By that, I mean the outcome that the locals want. My impression is that they want to keep La Grave largely like it is, but the only thing that I know about the place is what I've gathered from watching ski flicks, so who knows.

One thing's for certain, after last night, I was wondering if it would be feasible to sell everything I have and buy a little run down "maison en pierre à La Grave".

[Mulletizer]

Tell me more...

Rather than copy/pasting, this is my take: http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...re-of-La-Grave

[dunfree]

Tell me more. I've been searching the french news sites but haven't seen anything yet

theres some discussion in french about the general issues at skipass.com and ledauphine.com

[klar]

they asked us to spread the crowdfunding news over on the german site so I exchanged a couple of emails with the signal de la grave people, Joost in particular.

The crowdfunding is not supposed to pay for the investments into the lift. They have founded a company that is in the running for the lease, this is not the same as the non-profit association doing the crowdfunding. The point of the crowdfunding is to spread the word and show the people deciding who gets the lease that there is significant support among the local population for doing it their way. Funds gained from the crowdfunding will pay for the legal costs associated with going through the application process for the lease, and similar stuff. Any extra money is supposed to go back to the local community in the form of support for small local businesses, trail building or similar. My understanding is that they are looking for a few private investors who would get in on things if they succeed in securing the lease. He stressed that his background is in economics, not professional idealism

here, in case anyone wants to practice their german.

[MtnRA]

Here's an interview our CEO did with the person leading the Crowdfunding campaign

Interview with Signal de La Grave's Joost van Zundert

[MtnRA]

Here's the very latest from Signal de La Grave President Joost van Zundert

[blazes_boylan]

more on the lease: https://mpora.com/skiing/grave-dange...x5uAKhMZook.97

[nickinbc]

From http://pistehors.com/last-man-standi...e-24823495.htm

"According to an article in today's Dauphine Libere newspaper the Compagnie des Alpes has thrown in the towel at la Grave due to the problems between Denis Creissels and the town hall. The CdA, who run the adjoining ski resort of les Deux Alpes, was the favourite to take over the concession to run the ski area for the next 3 decades.

That leaves one remaining candidate: The SATA who run the alpe d'Huez ski area. L'Alpe d'Huez and les Deux Alpes have a 60 million euro project to link the two ski domains sometime in the early 2020s although there hasn't yet been a full viability study for this project. The ski areas are currently seeking funding from the government to carry out this study.

The Companie des Alpes said the conditions for a calm collaboration are not present and the complained that they had not had access to certain technical documents or the lift system itself. They believe they had the best project and had proposed renovating the existing lifts and extending the lift system with a leg linking into les Deux Alps."

[philippeR]

A good article on Skipass, for those who read french or use Translate.
http://www.skipass.com/news/146599-q...-la-grave.html

[blazes_boylan]

https://www.alpedhueznet.com/news/la-grave-gets-a-new-30-year-lease-of-life-707513

Great news for La Grave's future, as it's been announced that SATA, the main lift operator in Alpe d'Huez will be taking over the operation of La Grave's lifts from June this year.

A packed room on Friday night saw a unanimous vote to have SATA take over the operation, although they were the last ones in the running after a crowdfunding bid was rejected and Compagnie des Alpes pulled out of the bid. SATA have laid out plans for the future that include building a third stage cable car to the top of the Dome de la Lauze, keeping on the existing staff, renovation and replacement of some of the existing lifts and an increase in operating times. The proposals will cost in the region of 10 million euros and subsidies are being sought to bring these plans to fruition. It's hoped that the third stage lifts should be in place by 2021. Lift prices should remain roughly the same says SATA, who take over the operation on 15th June 2017.

[plugboots]

Heard from my buds there that this is a good thing for La Grave if they do what they say. They believe them too, as it ain't KSL, (or fill in the blank with whatever American douchebag real estate firm you want).

[summit]

^that's good then

[Buster Highmen]

https://www.alpedhueznet.com/news/la-grave-gets-a-new-30-year-lease-of-life-707513

Great news for La Grave's future, as it's been announced that SATA, the main lift operator in Alpe d'Huez will be taking over the operation of La Grave's lifts from June this year.

A packed room on Friday night saw a unanimous vote to have SATA take over the operation, although they were the last ones in the running after a crowdfunding bid was rejected and Compagnie des Alpes pulled out of the bid. SATA have laid out plans for the future that include building a third stage cable car to the top of the Dome de la Lauze, keeping on the existing staff, renovation and replacement of some of the existing lifts and an increase in operating times. The proposals will cost in the region of 10 million euros and subsidies are being sought to bring these plans to fruition. It's hoped that the third stage lifts should be in place by 2021. Lift prices should remain roughly the same says SATA, who take over the operation on 15th June 2017.[/FONT]

I'm surprise at the poor choice of color scheme.

[blazes_boylan]

some more details on this:
http://www.powder.com/stories/news/l...7%23sf75468618

[Dexter Rutecki]

I'm surprise at the poor choice of color scheme.

It's an old lift--what did you expect?