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Les 2 Alpes Enjoy the Glacier 2016

October half term holidays on the glacier

featured in Events reviews Author Ellie Mahoney, Les 2 Alpes Editor Updated

The glacier in Les 2 Alpes opened this weekend and in the region of 3,000 people arrived in resort to get their first skiing and snowboarding of the season done.

"Enjoy the Glacier" takes places every year at this time, for the half term holidays and as usual it proved hugely popular.

The lift queue for the Jandri moved really quickly first thing, with hundreds of people already there ready and waiting at 08:30 when the lift started running. Within the hour we were on the glacier and ready to get skiing.

The park shapers had done a fantastic job getting the snowpark features, pistes and the half pipes ready for the hordes of people who came over for the weekend. Some of the kickers were huge and although a lot of people warmed up on the smaller features in the beginner park to start with, by the afternoon there were some pretty big tricks getting laid down in the big park.

snowboard test centre

A test centre was set up at 3200m where you could try out the latest snowboards and bindings and a competition took place nearby which was open to anyone to enter, with cash prizes given out for the best tricks.

ski lifts on a glacier

The Tbar lifts were all operating, taking you up to the very top of the glacier at 3600m and the views from the top on Saturday were incredible. Sadly the weather came in on Sunday and low clouds hampered visibility although this didn't deter crowds of people from still heading up.

two ski instructors

Alex from TipTop and Ian from ESS ski schools were ready with lots of tips on how to get up the Tbar on a snowboard (something I was really struggling with first thing). I've snowboarded for a good 11 years now but have always had a fear of drag lifts, having fallen off more than I care to remember and with the funicular closed for the weekend, there was no other option to get to the top of the glacier. Alex's coaching and patient encouragement really won through and by the end of the afternoon I had the confidence to get on the Tbar by myself... If you're in a ski lesson you get priority for the ski lifts too, which is no bad thing when it's as busy as it was at the weekend.

There were a number of other events taking place in the resort centre over the weekend too, including the opening party at Smithy's and the Avalanche club, a skateboard contest, tattoo artists, film screenings and trampolines for the kids (and the big kids!)

The glacier is now open every day until 1st November, with access via the Jandri lift from 08:30 to 15:00. If you can't wait until 3rd December to get your first snowboard or ski fix for the season, then I'd strongly recommend you come over.

There are plenty of bars and restaurants open (The Spot has a great menu if you're looking for something non-Savoyarde) and there's a good selection of accommodation available too.

You can buy ski passes now, not only for glacier skiing but also the main ski season which starts on 3rd December 2016 and continues until the end of April 2017. See you on the slopes!

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Location

Map of the surrounding area