Emergencies in Serre Chevalier

Good to Know

• Save 112 as your go-to number if you're unsure which service you need — the dispatcher will route you to police, fire, or ambulance automatically.
• If you're skiing or hiking off-piste around Serre Chevalier and have an accident, dial 112 rather than looking for a local number — your call is routed via the Gap coordination centre to mountain rescue.
• If you see a callback from '0 800 112 112' after contacting emergency services, answer it — it's the official French emergency services callback line, not spam.
• No app download is required for French emergency alerts — modern smartphones receive FR-Alert broadcasts automatically via cell towers if alerts are enabled in phone settings.
• 112 works even with a foreign SIM, a locked phone, or no credit, which is useful for visitors.
• Serre Chevalier itself has no hospital — Centre Hospitalier des Escartons in Briançon is the practical option for anything beyond what the resort's on-mountain first-aid posts (secours pistes) can handle.
• For serious ski/mountain trauma, on-slope rescue teams typically stabilize and transport by piste vehicle or helicopter directly to Briançon's hospital, which has an integrated mountain-rescue (secours en montagne) unit for exactly this purpose.
• For the most severe trauma cases needing specialist surgery, patients may be transferred onward from Briançon to larger hospitals in Gap or Grenoble — expect this only for genuinely critical injuries.