La Grave is a truly remarkable place. 1 ski lift services some of the most revered off-piste terrain in the world. There are no conventional ski pistes. Each day there are riders rappelling into couloirs, skinning up onto jagged peaks and throwing themselves down precipitous steeps – truly the stuff of magazine features. Yet the magazine shoots are rare. The souls who head to the slopes under La Meije each day are a world away from the glossy staged shoots. These are hard-core locals and visitors who are drawn to this incredible mountainside just because it is out of the limelight – it is a place where the regulations stipulate you read the signs and accept you are there on your own. In an age of Pisten Bully and piste patrol, La Grave is a throwback to a time when conditions were expected to change and people’s skills determined where and how they rode the mountain.

La Grave is resolutely independent – it does things its way. The lift is maintained not upgraded. The residents see themselves as custodians of a very special place. La Grave is the most precious ski area on our planet and its residents have turned saviours. With the future investment in the lift upkeep uncertain, a group of locals has mobilised and crowd-funded an initiative to secure the future ownership of the lift and maintain La Grave just the way it is. We first experienced La Grave back in 2008 and it has never left us – it is a remarkable place.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/signal-de-la-grave-environment