Les Houches lift pass prices announced
After one of the biggest kerfuffles in recent times, the companies that operate the lifts in Les Houches have FINALLY decided on their lift pricing policy for this coming winter. The very public battle between Societe SEPP (fam. Hottegindre) and LHSG (fam. Balmat) has been raging all summer due to their apparent inability to decide on a fair split of lift pass revenues, based on their individual investment into the ski area.
With the exception of the newly renovated Prarion gondola, societe SEPP own and operate all the lifts in the Les Houches ski domain and have recently announced details of their €15 million investment plan for the area in the next 2 years*. To aid the funding of the project, SEPP had proposed a €1.70 hike in the cost of a day pass to €31.50 that would be valid on all their lifts but not on the LHSG owned Prarion. Their request was over-ruled at a meeting earlier this week where it was decided that one pass will cover all lifts, and the base price would increase by €1 (to €30.80) which would go towards the cost of the ski buses that run every 15 minutes to and from the area. It was also agreed that both companies would honour last year's agreement with the Compagnie du Mont Blanc whereby holders of the Mont Blanc Unlimited ski pass were also entitled to unlimited access to Les Houches.
The meeting also succeeded in establishing the lift pass revenue split between SEPP and LHSG at 73.65% and 26.35% respectively. However, the debate has gone on for so long, it remains to be seen whether many potential visitors have already decided to ski elsewhere this year.
* Details of the SEPP investment plan for Les Houches are as follows:
For 2007; replacing the Prarion drag with a 4-man chair (already dismantled), two new 4-man chairs in place of the Praz Dru (on the Ladies Downhill course) and Ecole drag lifts, a new rope tow on the Col de Voza for tiny tots and the creation of a snowpark on Bellevue. Then for Christmas 2008; replace the Chamois and Cha drags with a new 4-man, build a new gondola from the base of the Crozat chair and install snow making equipment on the blue L'Abbaye piste on the St Gervais side.
