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Skiing is in its infancy in the thirties when Jacques Mouflier imagines Val d'Isere as the ideal spot for the creation of a ski resort like the Austrian villages.
The first ski lift is built in 1934. Since that time, the Val d'Isere ski lift company has always worked on improving the equipment of the skiing area. 67 years of innovations and technical progress result in the 90 lifts which are used today by a million visitors on the resort's 135 runs.
New this year : the 3 seater Glaciers chairlift has been replaced by a high speed 6 seater with an output of 3000 persons per hour, enabling skiers to reach the summit in 6 minutes instead of the 13 which were necessary before.
Next winter, the new high speed Bellevarde Face cable car will open. This lift represents an investment of 85 million francs. It will have an output of 2600 persons per hour and its main characteristic is that it rests upon only 3 pylons between the resort centre and its arrival at 2700 m altitude.
In terms of sport, Val d'Isere obtained international recognition after World War 2, thanks to its champions : Henri Oreiller (gold medal at the St Moritz Olympic Games in 1948), but more especially the Goitschel sisters and Jean Claude Killy, who, having won a multitude of Olympic medals and World Champion titles, gave Val d'Isere its title "the Skiing Mecca"
With such a reputation, it was only natural that Val d'Isere should host the men's events during the 1992 Albertville Olympic Games.
Redesigned by Bernard Russi, the "Bellevarde Face", which celebrates this year its 10`h anniversary as an Olympic run, has become a myth, a reference for alpine skiing with its start at 2809 m and a view plunging onto a unique 3km course which grants no rest to the downhiller.
But today Val d'Isere is at a turning point concerning the expansion of its international image.
The resort is candidate for the 2007 World Alpine Skiing Championships. The argument in favour of Val d'Isere is the regrouping of all the events in the resort centre. The idea is to create a new women's downhill on the Solaise sector, opposite the men's downhill on the mythical Bellevarde Face. Both the finish areas would thus be situated on a unique central site, making these championships a car free event.
This candidature has generated a general mobilization of the "Avalins" (natives of Val d'Isere), and all France's skiing champions, whose dream is to see their country hosting a competition it hasn't organised for 40 years (the last world championships were held in Chamonix in 1962).
The candidature file was handed in to the International Skiing Federation on August 30`h. With its two rivals, Are (Sweden) and Lillehammer (Norway), Val d'Isere now has 10 months in which to convince the jury. The decision will be made during the FIS congress in Portoroz,
Slovenia, in June 2002. |