Vaujany

A small village with a very large ski area

Vaujany is a commune in the canton of Oisans-Romanche, in the Isère department of south-eastern France. Wikipedia describes the village as picturesque, with excellent views of the Grand Galbert mountain at the head of the valley, and both traditional charm and scenic views are tagged in our data. What makes it worth a closer look is the mismatch between the village and the skiing attached to it: Vaujany is listed under the Alpe d’Huez Grand Domaine, which in our data runs to 250 km of pistes and 68 lifts.

The skiing

The lifts run from 1,250 m at the base to 3,330 m at the top, a vertical of 2,080 m, which is exceptional by any standard. A 3,330 m top station is far beyond the altitude at which snow reliability becomes a given, so early and late in the December to April season the upper slopes should be in good order even when the 1,250 m base is not; the flip side is that the lowest runs are the most exposed to mild weather. Sixty-eight lifts across 250 km points to a domain of long runs rather than a dense grid, and our data does not split those kilometres by difficulty. No terrain parks are recorded in our figures.

Why choose the village

The trade-off Vaujany offers is straightforward: a quiet, traditional base with access to a big domain, rather than staying in the centre of that domain. That suits families and groups who want the skiing of a major area without the scale of a major resort around them, and who are happy to treat the village as a gateway rather than a hub. Those who want to step out of the door into the thick of things will prefer a base elsewhere in the Grand Domaine; those who want to come home to a picturesque village with a view of the Grand Galbert will not.

Setting

The Grand Galbert at the head of the valley gives the village its backdrop, and the tag for scenic views follows directly from Wikipedia’s description of the place. For a village this small to be attached to a domain this large, the lift link has to do a lot of work, so it is worth checking the current lift map for how Vaujany connects to the main network and how long the ride takes each morning. The reward is a 250 km domain and a 3,330 m top station from a base that feels nothing like a big resort.

Practical

Chambéry (CMF) is the nearest airport in our data, roughly 56 km away as the crow flies. The season runs from December to April, and the village’s official website carries local information.