The world’s longest black run ! It sounds an intimidating prospect, one that makes you feel excited, if you like a sustained challenge, and rather alarmed if you prefer to avoid the steep stuff and just cruise around on the blues and reds.
The good news, if you’re in the latter camp and have a basic grasp of maths, is that the world’s longest black run is not very intimidating at all, on a good snow day at least, as I found when I skied it last winter. But that doesn’t stop it from being one of the world’s most awesome runs, and happily one that anyone of intermediate ability or above can enjoy.
At 16km long, the Sarenne black piste at Alpe d’Huez in the southern French Alps is one of the most remarkable ski runs in the world. As well as being one of the planet’s longest, it also makes full use of Alpe d’Huez’s remarkable lift-served vertical, descending 2000 vertical metres from its start at the glaciated top of the 3330m-high Pic Blanc.
Now that’s where the maths comes in. If you divide a 16,000-metres-long run by 2000 metres of vertical you get 800m of piste for every 100m of vertical – a 12.5% average gradient. That’s not very black, and taking three successive lifts from Alpe d’Huez up to the start of the run on a glorious sunny day last February with perfect snow conditions, I found Sarenne wasn’t a very black run.
It’s not 12.5% all the way though – the upper section is the steepest – perhaps around red gradient, and it’s this part which gives the run its black status. It’s reported to be rarely groomed and where an icy mogul field can develop. But when I skied it, that upper section was a perfect smooth-cruising red.
Before I set off, however, I took the advice of the local tourist office and stopped to look about. There are views to nearby La Meije, the Écrins National Park and far off, but clearly visible on the skyline, Mont Blanc.
So what’s so good about Sarenne ? Well, I do like cruising around on reds and blues and quite simply this is just the mother of all reds and blues. It goes on, and on, and on, just constant pleasure – often with a new stunning view around the next corner. It’s also worth noting that the run is far from the rest of Alpe d’Huez’s extensive ski area, so you can feel like you are really skiing away from it all.
The final section of the run is a very gentle green-grade track meandering through scenic woodland in the Gorges de Sarenne, the nearly flat parts balancing out the steeper gradients. Quite when to ski it is down to you. First thing in the morning you might beat the crowds heading up, but if you head up an hour or so before lunchtime, you’ll be arriving at the Auberge de la Combe Haute mountain restaurant at the end of the run, a great place for a celebratory meal, and you’ll also find that when you head back out in the afternoon, you’re conveniently located in one of the quietest sectors of Alpe d’Huez’s huge ski domain.
A final option, introduced last season thanks to a big investment in lighting, is the once-a-week chance to ski the Sarenne in the evening with a guide, normally with dinner awaiting you at the bottom as part of the package.
