Montgenèvre Replaces an Entire Mountainside’s Lifts, Including the Southern Alps’ First Driverless Gondola

Montgenèvre is rebuilding the lifts on its sunny south-facing side for winter 2026-27. Two new 10-seat gondolas will replace a 1981 six-seat cabin lift and an old double chairlift. One of them is billed as the first gondola in the southern French Alps able to run without an operator at the controls.

Two lifts, one connected station

The first lift, Chalvet, replaces the old cabin lift. It climbs from 1,854 to 2,137 m, carries 1,700 people an hour, and halves the ride time. The second, Fournéous, replaces the Chalvet double chair, rises from 2,137 to 2,572 m (435 m of vertical), and moves 2,015 people an hour in a third of the old ride time. It serves the Combe du Loup run and the black Fournéous piste.

The two stations share one structure. The top of Chalvet sits right beside the bottom of Fournéous, in a building designed to ease skiers’ transfers and manage pedestrians heading to the mountain restaurant and the Monty Express Coaster.

The new lifts sweep away some old equipment. The chair being replaced was a fixed-grip double, and a local report remembers its ten-minute ride in the wind to reach the Chalvet ridge at almost 2,600 m. Another source says the Trois Fournéous drag lift disappears from the new lift map.

The driverless gondola

Fournéous is also getting Doppelmayr’s AURO system, which lets the lift operate on its own without human supervision, though staff will remain on site to welcome and assist skiers. A regional guide calls it the first driverless gondola in the southern Alps.

A gondola built for sleds

Chalvet has its own distinction. The resort says it will carry some cabins dedicated solely to automatic transport of sleds, a project developed with Doppelmayr and industrial-transport specialist Frost. That serves the Monty Express Coaster, a monorail sled run. It is 1,400 m long with 300 m of drop. The track is lit for night descents in winter. The lifts also stay open to non-skiers, a point that matters because the older Chalvet cabin lift drew a sizable pedestrian clientele thanks to the coaster, the summit restaurant and the view.

Timing

Both gondolas are due in service for the 2026 Christmas holidays. One regional roundup gives a more specific date of 12 December 2026, but the wording is ambiguous, so treat it as unconfirmed. One guide lists the resort’s season as running 28 November 2026 to 17 April 2027.

Building on 2023

This is Montgenèvre’s second major gondola project in a few years. The 2023 addition was the Rocher de l’Aigle gondola, the first Doppelmayr lift at the resort. It replaced a four-seat chair on the link to Claviere and the connected Via Lattea area. The Chalvet project follows the same momentum, with Doppelmayr also chosen as manufacturer. The resort also marks an anniversary next year, celebrating 120 years in 2027.

The Italian link

The Italian side of the Via Lattea is moving too. The Via Lattea Olympic municipalities’ mountain union is relocating the Col Saurel chairlift to the Colletto Verde side, creating a direct high-altitude link between Cesana-Claviere and French Montgenèvre. The new four-seater, called Gimont-Colletto Verde, will span 2,060 to 2,560 m, carry 1,600 people an hour, and is expected to open during the 2026-27 season. A Piedmont regional document confirms the project, a repositioning of the Gimont-Col Saurel four-seat detachable chair to create Gimont-Colletto Verde, with Claviere as applicant. Unlike the Chalvet lifts, it has no firm opening date yet.

Montgenèvre, due nuove cabinovie e altre novità per la stagione invernale 2026/2027

What to watch

The coming weeks will show whether the Christmas deadline holds, and how skiers take to a driverless cabin lift at an Alpine resort. Meanwhile, the Gimont-Colletto Verde link could change how skiers cross between the French and Italian sides.