U2Camp
Ski resort

Risoul-Vars (Forêt Blanche), France

Hautes-Alpes

The snowy slopes and village of Risoul among the larches, the La Forêt Blanche peaks behind
photo Hungarian skier · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
Pistes 69 km blue 64%, red 28% Lifts 19 19 named on the list Snowfall
598 cmtotal across 6 winter months
Lift pass 55 EUR per person per day www.vars.com, checked 2026-08-14 Places to stay 4 closer than 300 m to a lift Trip plannertest version Closest place to stay 24 m from a lift

Runs by difficulty

  • blue 44.2 km
  • red 19.5 km
  • black 5.1 km

The split comes from OpenStreetMap. A run with no difficulty tag falls into none of the three bars, so they can add up to less than the resort total.

Piste map

Drawn by us from open data, with terrain shading. Interactive: zoom, pan and follow the runs right here.

Base map: OpenFreeMap on data from OpenStreetMap (ODbL), terrain relief: Mapterhorn
This is a geographic map, not the painted panorama a resort publishes: the runs are where they really are, but the mountain is not drawn as a bird’s-eye view.

Lift pass

55 EUR per person per day

A 1-day pass costs 55 EUR.

Resort price list · Price list checked on 2026-08-14.

How much snow is forecast

No snowfall is forecast for the days ahead — computed for 2,718 m above sea level.

0 Su
0 Mo
0 Tu
0 We
0 Th
0 Fr
0 Sa
0 Su

This is a weather-model forecast, not a measurement taken on the mountain: it says how much snow is expected to fall. Forecast: Open-Meteo, CC BY 4.0. Data fetched 15 August, 05:26.

See where most snow is coming

When to go

A ten-winter average, computed from a weather archive for a point at 1,972 m above sea level.

94 Nov
125 Dec
92 Jan
80 Feb
122 Mar
85 Apr

Average snowfall per month, in centimetres.

Daytime and night-time temperature, in degrees Celsius.
Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr
day 2° -2° -3° 0° 1° 5°
night -4° -6° -8° -6° -5° -2°

This is snowfall, not snow depth on the slope: it says how much usually falls in a given month, not how much lies there. The measuring point sits close to the valley floor, so higher up it snows more.

Source: ERA5-Land (ECMWF), Copernicus Climate Data Store. Averaged over 2017–2026.

School holidays and slope crowds

Which weeks of winter 2026/2027 fill these slopes with school-holiday traffic — computed from the official school calendars of the countries that ski here most. A darker week means more markets on holiday at once.

Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr

quiet moderate holiday peak

Holiday dates from official sources: DE, ES, FR, GB, NL. Dates for ES, GB are approximate — they are set locally by region, school or council.

Lifts

Names and types from OpenStreetMap. Unnamed lifts are left out of this list, so it can be shorter than the count at the top of the page.

  • Baby G2 V7 platter lift
  • Bois Noir V12 chairlift
  • Centre magic carpet
  • Chabrières V4 mixed lift
  • Claux V1 magic carpet
  • Crévoux 1 V19 platter lift
  • Crévoux 2 V20 platter lift
  • Escondus V15 chairlift
  • Eyssina V18 platter lift
  • Fontbonne V11 chairlift
  • Mayt V5 chairlift
  • Peyniers V9 chairlift
  • Peyrol V16 chairlift
  • Plans V10 chairlift
  • Sainte-Marie V18 chairlift
  • Sibières V14 chairlift
  • Zakopane magic carpet
  • Écrins V3 magic carpet
  • Écrins V6 platter lift

Places to stay by the lift

Distance is measured in a straight line to the base station of the nearest lift. No booking site publishes that number — it comes from matching accommodation against lift geometry.

  • 4 within 300 m
  • 14 within 1 km
  • 48 places in the valley

The closest one stands 24 m from a lift.

Work out the cost of the triptest version

The planner splits travel, lodging and lift passes by the number of people. Room prices are fetched for the dates you give.

work in progress

Photos

A snowy Risoul piste with skiers, larches and a mountain panorama
photo Hungarian skier · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized

Is Risoul-Vars (Forêt Blanche) worth it?

Risoul and Vars form the joint Forêt Blanche area in the Hautes-Alpes, in the sunny Southern Alps. Vars has a place in history through speed skiing -- world records for the fastest descent on skis, above 250 km/h, have been set on its KL track.

In our measurement from OpenStreetMap it comes to about 69 km of pistes, linking the two towns over the ridge. The runs are mostly easy and intermediate, threaded through larch forest, in the dry, sunny climate of the south.

The slopes lie high, and the southern position brings plenty of sun; snowmaking closes out the season. It usually runs from December to April.

The price we give is a one-day adult ticket for the whole Forêt Blanche area -- €54.50 from the high-season rate list (checked 14 August 2026). Check prices with the operator before you travel. The drive from Poland is, per OpenStreetMap, about 1,441 km from Wrocław, 1,529 from Katowice and 1,605 from Kraków.

Resorts nearby

Straight-line distance, from the OpenStreetMap roster — the road through the valley is usually longer. The second figure is piste length.

  • Risoul France 4 km away · 65 km of piste
  • Crévoux France 7 km away · 16 km of piste
  • Ceillac en Queyras France 12 km away · 15 km of piste
  • Les Orres France 14 km away · 50 km of piste
  • Sainte-Anne la Condamine France 14 km away · 17 km of piste
  • Molines-en-Queyras - Saint-Véran France 22 km away · 30 km of piste
  • Arvieux France 23 km away · 10 km of piste
  • Le Sauze 1400 / Le Super-Sauze 1700 France 26 km away · 52 km of piste

Compare Risoul-Vars (Forêt Blanche) with its neighbours: Risoul-Vars (Forêt Blanche) vs Montgenèvre (Via Lattea) · Risoul-Vars (Forêt Blanche) vs Serre Chevalier · Risoul-Vars (Forêt Blanche) vs Sestriere (Via Lattea) · Risoul-Vars (Forêt Blanche) vs Isola 2000

Every resort on the world map

Where this comes from

Piste and lift geometry and their names: OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL licence.

Terrain shading computed from public elevation data.