Clock up the kilometres without the queues this winter. The 2025/26 ski season brings a huge wave of lift upgrades across the French Alps — meaning faster journeys, fewer bottlenecks, and more time enjoying the slopes. From Tignes to Les Trois Vallées and Les Arcs, France’s snow-sure resorts are investing heavily in modern infrastructure to enhance comfort, reduce emissions, and improve access across their ski areas.
Below, we round up the most exciting new ski lifts in France this season, what’s changed, and what it means for your next ski holiday.
Updated: 18th November 2025
Skier on chairlift
New Ski Lifts in France: The Top Resorts to Ski this Season
Tignes and Val d’Isere
For the 2025/26 season, Tignes will be upgrading two of its lifts.
The most anticipated improvement is the state-of-the-art Aiguille Percée replacement, transporting skiers to the famous “Eye of the Needle” rock formation. The new six-person chairlift increases capacity to 2,800 people per hour and cuts the journey time by more than half to a breezy three minutes and twenty seconds.
Beginner skiers can rejoice with one less J-bar to tackle! The new Lavachet 1 & 2 will be upgraded to magic carpets, doubling capacity and improving accessibility around the beginner area.
The new lifts at a glance:
- Aiguille Percée: six-person chairlift, approx 3:20 mins, 2,800 people per hour
- Lavachet 1 & 2: two x people movers, 3,000 people per hour combined
The Three Valleys: Courchevel, Meribel, and Val Thorens
Les Trois Vallées boasts the most updates to any single ski area in the Alps for the 2025/26 season.
Replacing the Col and Glacier chairlifts, the new Face Nord 10-person gondola covers 321m in just four minutes and twenty seconds. It will transport up to 2,000 skiers and snowboarders per hour and offers smoother access between Val Thorens and Orelle. This upgrade marks another step in improving overall flow across the ski area.
Offering greater comfort, Rhodos 1 & 2 now operate as 10-person gondolas, shaving a minute off the previous journey while accommodating an additional 400 people per hour.
The 10-person gondolas don’t stop there. The new Chenus lift replaces the older Chenus and Coqs lifts in Courchevel, supporting the resort’s sustainability goals with 336 m² of solar panels and a system that collects meltwater, saving up to 750 m³ of water per year.
The Côte Brune gondola also brings a huge increase in capacity compared to the former four-person chairlift, cutting lift times by two minutes and carrying an additional 800 people per hour.
Finally, you’ll find Lac Bleu, a rope tow designed to reduce the need for skating across the flats, along with three new people movers (Olaf, Balou, and Némo), each able to carry up to 1,800 people per hour.
The new lifts at a glance:
- Face Nord: 10-person gondola, approx 4:20 mins, 2,o00 people per hour
- Rhodos 1 & 2: 10-person gondola, approx 4:40 mins, 2,400 people per hour
- Chenus: 10-person gondola, approx 6:20 mins, 2,400 people per hour
- Côte Brune: 10-person gondola, approx 5:20 mins, 2.800 people per hour
- Lac Blue: row tope, 450 people per hour
- Olaf, Balou & Némo: 3 x people movers, 1,800 people per hour
Paradiski: La Plagne and Les Arcs
Adding to the list of new ski lifts in France is the Roche de Mio 1 & 2, replacing the current Belle Plagne and Roche de Mio lifts in La Plagne. The two new 10-person gondolas will each double current capacity, now carrying up to 3,600 skiers per hour. The Roche de Mio 2 upgrade will make the biggest difference for most visitors, cutting journey times by nearly half.
Over in Les Arcs, two long-serving chairlifts — Replat and Plan des Violettes — will be removed. Their replacement will significantly reduce common bottlenecks, allowing up to 1,780 people per hour to travel uphill. Both of these lifts date back to 1982, making the upgrade a welcome improvement for locals and visitors alike.
The new lifts at a glance:
- Roche de Mio 1: 10-person gondola, approx 5:10 mins, 3,000 people per hour
- Roche de Mio 2: 10-person gondola, approx 6:50 mins, 3,600 people per hour
- Villaroger: 10-person gondola, approx 5:20 mins, 1,780 people per hour
Alpe d’Huez
Isère: Les Deux Alpes and Alpe d’Huez
Heading towards the Southern Alps, Les Deux Alpes introduces one new lift for 2025/26. While only a short J-bar, the new Envers lift will greatly improve the experience for freestyle enthusiasts and snowboarders, removing the need for a short uphill hike after exploring the snow park and allowing for faster laps on Toura.
We couldn’t talk about Les Deux Alpes without mentioning the Jandri Express 1 & 2. Although they opened in 2024, they remain one of the biggest lift upgrades in the resort’s history, cutting travel time by more than half and more than doubling capacity, a huge enhancement for anyone heading up towards the glacier.
Over in Alpe d’Huez, several important upgrades aim to improve comfort and reliability. The Rif Nel gondola replaces the old Rif Nel Express (a combination of a six-person chairlift and 10-person gondola). While not the most dramatic overhaul, the new gondola-only system will perform better in higher winds while offering improved comfort for riders.
The Poutran 1 & 2 lifts are also being modernised as part of the Altitude 3,300 project (2025–2027). These upgraded 10-person gondolas will give access to an altitude of 2,100m for skiers, pedestrians, and mountain bikers — with incredible panoramas along the way.
Finally, the Champ Clotury J-bar has been replaced with a newer version, increasing capacity by 120 people per hour and reducing the travel time to just one minute.
The new lifts at a glance:
- Envers: J-bar, 700 people per hour
- Rif Nel: 10-person gondola, 2,700 people per hour
- Poutran 1: 10-person gondola, approx 4:40 mins, 2,800 people per hour
- Poutran 2: 10-person gondola, approx 3:20 mins, 2,800 people per hour
- Champ Clotury: J-bar, 720 people per hour
New Ski Lifts in France: What it Means for Your Ski Holiday
Ski resorts are continually looking for ways to improve the experience for their visitors. Lift passes are often one of the biggest investments of your trip, and these top snow-sure resorts want to ensure you can see where that investment is going — with fewer queues, added comfort, and better mountain accessibility.
With climate change an increasingly important concern for the long-term future of these areas, it’s essential that upgrades also reduce fossil fuel usage and increase efficiency. Solar panels, improved water management, and energy-saving gondolas are just some of the ways resorts are aiming to meet their low-emission goals.
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A winter lover, Annie first hit the slopes in her early teens before going on to complete her ski instructor qualification and two seasons in St Anton. While she’s now most often spotted on a snowboard, Annie still thrives on the thrill of chasing fresh powder and capping off her day with a little boogie – preferably at the Krazy Kanguruh!
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