If you ever have the opportunity to visit Courchevel, go up into the tower and talk to Yves Chapuis there. He has a photo album there that you can have a look at filled with pictures of crashes since the early days that the altiport opened. Basically, most of the crashes happen when people try to go-around, which might explain why they teach you to commit to land once you are on final.
Yves discusses the accidents (with a few of the pictures) in this video:
Due to the steep upslope, the effective runway “length” is a bit longer. When you want to land at Courchevel with a twin, you have to get written permission from the French authorities and in that process, they ask you for the performance calculations for takeoff and landing of the twin you want to fly to Courchevel. I have such permission for the Piper Seneca 2-200T and the Cessna O2. What I noticed in the discussion with the authorities is that they use a factor of 0.6, so if I need 700 meter for takeoff, then due to the steep slope, I would effectively only need 420 meter.
The slope of the runway (middle section) really helps to slow the aircraft down on landing or speed it up on the takeoff run. I regularly stay overnight at L’Hôtel Altibar right at the altiport and when you go for a walk in the evening when the airfield is closed, it takes quite some effort to walk down or up the slope of the runway. It is quite steep even when walking and very effective in slowing down the aircraft, but for that breaking effect, you have to land somewhere on that middle section of course.
There is no visual horizon when you approach Courchevel, only high mountains all around you.
The instructors at Courchevel that I know are not old and rusty instructors. That is not my experience at all.
Apart from the downdrafts, it seems that some extra airspeed is needed to flare on the upslope without getting a tailstrike. Why that is so, I have not figured out. I have been thinking about this over the last few days a bit together with the AoA and why it would work better with a bit of extra speed. Would someone else know?
Once you come regularly to Courchevel, you can also divert from the usual circuit if needs to be. I have been flying to the altiport of Courchevel with a very thin layer of clouds covering the area, so I would do a left-hand base to a shorter final to get into Courchevel and thereby omit the clouds hanging over the normal circuit.
Wouldn’t a PAPI help tremendously finding the correct approach slope and why don‘t they just install one ?
Aeroplus, that’s a very impressive video for several reasons, including that layer of cloud and what feels like a very low margin between your wheels and the front wall of the runway, as seen in the insert. Cannot have been more than a few feet.
@EuroFlyer: I don’t think a PAPI would help at all. However, you have 8 white lines at the beginning of the runway and behind that 2 white lines, which last lines help you with the correct altitude above the threshold to aim for. On final, you aim for the snow bank below the threshold and then when you get close those 2 lines can help you find the sweet spot.
@denopa: yes, at first when you start training it feels like you are going to lose your wheels on landing! If you come in too high it is no good and too low is also not good. I would think that the training for the site license or mountain rating is for a big part getting this right.
Here I approach the altiport in a Seneca 2-200T. You can clearly see that I am still aiming down and at some point I will be level with those 2 white stripes on the runway.
I have collected some more pictures of flying to Courchevel on a Pinterest board in the past. You can find these pictures here.
I think that has to go on my bucket list!
I shot this short video during my training at Courchevel in a 172, this is actually the first landing.
You can hear the instructor talking me through.
What happens if you can’t make it to the hill top on C172, something serious like flip over or rolling back uncontrolled? or just getting stuck with all the shame that goes with 
I might have posted this compiled 360 video before. I went for lunch to St. Tropez as I did not like to ski all day and St. Tropez La Mole is just about a 40 minutes flight from Courchevel. On the way back you can see the landing and look all around you. At 1:43 you see me sitting in the Tower looking in the above-mentioned picture album with all the crashes with Mr Yves Chapuis on the radio. Oh boy! I just love this place :-)
