Saint-Lary, the largest ski area in the French Pyrenees, operated by the Altiservice group, to put into service a new 10-seater gondola lift and a detachable 6-seater chairlift manufactured in France by MND Group.

On Wednesday, December 14, Altiservice opened two new infrastructures to the public in the Saint-Lary Soulan ski area: the 10-seat gondola lift «Espiaube» and the 6-seat chairlift «Tourette», two detachable systems designed, assembled and delivered by MND.

For Yves Rougier, Chairman and CEO of Altiservice, «We are very proud to open these two new cable transportation infrastructures to our customers for the start of the season. This was a major issue for Saint-Lary and we are pleased to have chosen MND as our partner to carry out these large-scale projects.«

Xavier Gallot-Lavallée, Chairman and CEO of MND, was present in Saint-Lary last week and said, «Altiservice, a major player in French ski areas, has chosen performance and comfort for the construction of its strategic lifts. I would like to thank them for this choice and their trust. Our teams were mobilized to ensure that this important structural equipment was operational to welcome skiers as soon as the ski area opened. Meeting the deadlines and offering performing products are at the core of MND Group’s strategy. Indeed, for the past 3 years, MND has made the choice of a complete regrouping of its business lines and of its industrial relocation on a unique site, in order to produce and assemble in France, to optimize the logistic delays, to improve the quality of service via more important centralized stocks and to reduce its industrial footprint«.

The 10-seater Espiaube gondola lift reinforces the area of the same name, a real meeting point between the snowfront as well as the Col du Portet (2215 m altitude) and the summit of La Tourette (2320 m altitude). This new 10-seater gondola, which can transport up to 2,800 people per hour at a speed of 6m/s, will operate in winter and summer. It is equipped with 60 MND ROPEWAYS gondolas for optimal comfort for skiers and pedestrians. The installation incorporates an automatic storage garage for the cabins in the bottom station in a building that also accommodates the passengers. This improves the availability of the lift and reduces maintenance costs. The new 6-seater detachable chairlift «Tourette», equipped exclusively with the latest design seats designed with our partner Bartholet and with a capacity of 2,800 people per hour, makes the customer experience more fluid and improves intra-station connections. The new gondola lift and the detachable 6-seater chairlift of Tourette converge at the peak of Tourette, a strategic point of the ski area which serves all the slopes of Espiaube and Merlans.

The new gondola lift and the detachable 6-seater chairlift of Tourette are part of a global investment plan of Altiservice which continues in 2023 with the construction of the new detachable 6-seater chairlift of Forêt, which was also entrusted to the MND group. It will leave from Espiaube and reach Soum de Matte. The “Forêt” chairlift will improve the return of skiers between the Espiaube snow front and the Pla d’Adet site, where the housing and shops are located. The departure will be located́ in the immediate vicinitý of the Espiaube snow front, neaŕ the arrival of the Soum de Matte ski lift. Its commissioning is scheduled for December 2023.

Key figures

Gondola lift 10 places Espiaube: Length 1862 m / difference in altitude 724 / 2800 p/h / travel time: less than 6 min

6-seater detachable chairlift Tourette: Length 1290 m / difference in altitude 292 m / 2800 p/h / travel time: 4 min