Plateau de Beille
| Plateau de Beille | |
|---|---|
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| Location | Ariège, Midi-Pyrénées, France |
| Coordinates | 42°43′31.2″N 1°41′27.15″E / 42.725333°N 1.6908750°ECoordinates: 42°43′31.2″N 1°41′27.15″E / 42.725333°N 1.6908750°E |
| Top elevation | 2,000 m (6,600 ft) |
| Base elevation | 1,650 m (5,410 ft) |
| Skiable area | 70 km (43 mi) |
| Runs | Black: 2, 21 km (13 mi) Red: 5, 32.3 km (20.1 mi) Blue: 5, 14 km (8.7 mi) Green: 1, 1 km (0.62 mi) |
| Website | www |
Plateau de Beille (Occitan: Plan de Belha) is a ski resort in the Pyrenees. It is situated in the Ariège department, and in the region of the Midi-Pyrénées. The winter sports station lies at a height of 1,790 m (5,870 ft).
For a long time, this plateau was only a place of livestock, especially cattle. It has recently become the site of an important winter sports resort of the Pyrenees, mainly dedicated to the practice of cross-country skiing, with tracks between 1,650 and 2,000 metres (5,410 and 6,560 ft) altitude. The ski station is located between Tarascon-sur-Ariège and Ax-les-Thermes, close to the Spanish border, and above the communes of Les Cabannes, Albiès and Vèbre. Road access to the plateau (the D522) starts from Les Cabannes. Moreover, the Plateau de Beille is a crossing point of the GR 10 hiking trail that crosses the Pyrenees from east to west.
Since 1998, the ascent from Les Cabannes to the plateau has regularly been used as the final ascent of a stage in the Tour de France. On the first four such occasions, the stage winner at Plateau de Beille also emerged as the winner of the general classification of that Tour.
The Plateau de Beille is bounded by two tributaries of the Ariège Valley, these being the Aston to the west, and the Labail stream to the east. The plateau ends at the south by the Col de Finestres at 1,967 metres (6,453 ft) where it passes the GR 10; to the north, the slope falls steeply to the Ariège Valley.
If one considers the whole delimited area, it has benches with an altitude approximately between 1,700–2,000 metres (5,600–6,600 ft), on an area of about 1,450 hectares (3,600 acres).
The substrate of the plateau is essentially composed of gneiss (gneiss of Riète or Aston), i.e. a granite metamorphosed by plutonic lifts. Formed during the Cenozoic, it suffered a first uprising during the formation of the Pyrenees about 40 to 50 million years ago, various levels between 25 million years and 10 million years ago, then a new uprising. In the Quaternary, its perimeter was determined by deep glacial valleys.
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Wikipedia