French AlpsLes 2 Alpes

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Now officially known as 'Les 2 Alpes', the resort formerly spelt 'Les Deux Alpes' began life shortly after World War 2, when in 1946 the local ski school was formed and three ski instructors employed, with an impressive 45 pupils on the first day. It was in fact based on the old French ski area of La Berarde which sprang up in 1925 after the first road to the area was completed. That was France's second ski area after Chamonix so its had plenty of time to establish its excellent snowfall and sunshine records. Today with around 60 lifts, including an underground funicular, serving 220km (143 miles) of terrain including year round glacier skiing, over one of the world's biggest lift-served vertical drops, and accommodation enough for over 35,000 guests per night, Les 2 Alpes may safely be regarded as one of the guest success stories of the global ski industry. Although now more than 50 years old, it was ten years after it began life that the resort really started to take off. Success followed the opening of the Diable gondola in 1956 and a year later the creation of one of the world's first known ski pass - covering all the lifts in the young resort. By 1970 there were 40 hotels and 46 lifts, including two gondolas and six chairs and by 1980 150km of trails were groomed and lift-served. In 1984 the lifts extended to the current peak of 2568m giving year round access to the glacier ski area with the fast Jandri Express gondola, the world's fastest, up to the glacier opening the following year and one of the world's few underground funiculars, the Dome Express, following in 1989.