Faces north-east
Espace Lumière
185.1 km (OSM) 1,495–2,592 m
29% beginner 31% inter. 8% expert
- Vertical
- 1097 m
- Pistes (mapped)
- 219
- Lifts
- 39
← Ski Ski area · France
La Forêt Blanche
Two Purpose-Built Villages Over One Ridge · Sunny Southern-Alps Snow · The Fastest Speed-Skiing Track on Earth
A genuinely lift-linked domain in the Hautes-Alpes where two high, purpose-built villages face each other across a ridge — livelier Vars on one side, quieter forested Risoul on the other, both on one pass.
- 185 km Piste marketed
- 38 Lifts
- 1,632 m Base
- 2,722 m Summit
- 1,090 m Vertical
- 101 Pistes mapped
🎟 One pass: La Forêt Blanche lift pass covers every lift across the area.
Terrain & aspect
66% beginner 27% inter. 6% expert
- Novice
- Easy
- Intermediate
- Advanced
- Freeride
Slopes mostly face N — 76% on snow-holding, poleward-facing slopes.
Aspect derived from run bearings · OpenSkiStats / © OpenStreetMap (ODbL).
The area
La Forêt Blanche links Vars and Risoul, two neighbouring resorts in the Hautes-Alpes of the southern French Alps, joined by lifts over the ridge that separates their valleys. Both are high, purpose-built stations sitting around 1850 m, so the bases are cold and snow-holding in a way lower Alpine villages aren't. Vars is the busier of the two — a spread of hamlets with the livelier feel and the Chabrières track, the fastest speed-skiing run in the world. Risoul 1850 is the calmer side, a compact ski-in ski-out village backed by larch forest that has long drawn families and a steady British crowd. The marketed figure is around 185 km of piste on the single La Forêt Blanche lift pass, topping out near 2750 m with a vertical of roughly 1100 m. It hangs together because the link is real: you can start your day on one side and spend it on the other without taking the same run twice.
Honest value and southern-Alps sun on high, snow-holding ground. This is not one of the giant name-brand domains, and it doesn't pretend to be — what it offers is two real linked resorts that sit high enough to ski well, a lot of tree-lined and open intermediate terrain, and a southern aspect that gives you brighter days than the northern Alps. Add the connection between a livelier village and a quiet forested one, and you get a domain that suits a mixed group: people who want a bit of life and people who want none of it, all skiing the same lifts.
Bright and open up high, sheltered in the trees lower down. Both resorts start with cold, high village bases and build up to open bowls and ridgelines near 2750 m, then drop back down through larch forest to the doorstep — so you get sunny high skiing and treeline runs for the days the light goes flat. It skis as an intermediate's domain above all, with plenty of gentle cruising, a family-friendly bias on the Risoul side, and a scatter of steeper pitches and off-piste for the people who go looking. The southern aspect means sun, but it also means afternoon slush lower down when spring arrives.
Best known for
Explore the villages
The pass is the same everywhere — the village you base in shapes the holiday more than the valley you ski. 2 base villages, one lift pass.
Vars
1,850 mA bit more life, variety and the speed-skiing heritage
The livelier side of La Forêt Blanche, a spread of hamlets sitting high around 1850 m in the Hautes-Alpes, with the main ski station at Les Claux. It has more variety and a bit more buzz than Risoul, and it's the home of the Chabrières speed-skiing track — the fastest in the world.
Explore the village →Risoul
1,850 mQuiet, forested, ski-in ski-out family stays
A compact, purpose-built village at 1850 m backed by larch forest, on the quiet side of the ridge from Vars. Ski-in ski-out and family-shaped, it has long drawn British visitors and anyone who wants calm evenings and tree-lined runs off the doorstep.
Explore the village →- Vars The livelier side and home of the speed-skiing track — pick it for a bit more variety and buzz
- Risoul Compact, forested and ski-in ski-out — the quieter, family-friendly base, popular with British visitors
Pick your side by temperament, because the skiing is shared. Base in Vars for the livelier feel, more variety of hamlets and the speed-skiing heritage, accepting a busier, more spread-out station. Base in Risoul 1850 for a compact, forested ski-in ski-out village that suits families and anyone who wants quiet — long a favourite with British visitors — at the cost of less going on at night. Both sit high and hold snow; the difference is atmosphere, not access to the pistes.
Skiing, by level
Beginners
Good, and better than you'd expect for the size. Both villages have gentle, well-grouped nursery and green terrain right by the base, high enough to keep snow, and Risoul in particular is set up for people finding their feet, with a calm forested feel that takes the edge off learning.
Intermediates
The core of the area. Long blues and reds run down both sides of the ridge and across the link, so a confident intermediate can spend a week touring Vars and Risoul without repeating much — Risoul's Grande Bleue is a rambling run of over 5 km on its own. This is the level the domain is really built for.
Advanced
Enough to keep you interested rather than the reason to come. There are black runs off the high points on both sides and steeper reds through the trees, and the terrain has more pitch than a pure cruising area, but strong skiers will have covered the marked steeps inside a few days.
Experts & off-piste
The draw for experts is the off-piste and the speed track, not a big black-run count. There's lift-served backcountry off the ridges and through the larches on both sides, best in fresh snow and always worth a guide and avalanche kit given the sunny, wind-affected aspects. And Vars's Chabrières is the fastest speed-skiing track on earth — a specialist discipline, not something you drop into, but a real signature of the place.
Ski both sides in a day
The domain only makes sense skied whole. Start on your own side, ride up to the ridge and drop over into the other resort, work your way around its runs, and come back over the top before the last lifts — Vars's spread of open terrain on one flank, Risoul's forested blues and reds on the other. Keep an eye on the link lifts' closing times so you don't finish the day a valley away from your bed.
Stand at the top of the Chabrières speed track
Vars's Chabrières is the fastest speed-skiing piste in the world, one of only a couple of tracks anywhere sanctioned for the discipline, where competitors reach well over 200 km/h. You won't be racing it, but the wall of it is a sight, and when the World Cup speed weeks come to Vars in March the resort turns over to the spectacle — a genuinely unusual thing to build a day around.
Cruise the Grande Bleue through the larches
Risoul's Grande Bleue is the easy-going signature on the quiet side — a long blue of over 5 km that winds down through the larch forest rather than throwing pitch at you. It's the kind of run families and rusty legs come back to, a relaxed descent that shows off the tree-lined character that makes Risoul feel calmer than the open ground up top.
Snow & how the mountain faces
Better than the modest name suggests, thanks to altitude. Both villages sit around 1850 m and the top of the area reaches roughly 2750 m, so the bases hold cold snow far more reliably than the lower purpose-built or valley resorts elsewhere in the Alps. The catch is aspect: this is the sunny southern Alps, and the south- and west-facing slopes soften and thin faster in warm spells and late season than a shady northern bowl would. Snowmaking backs up the main runs and the link, and the high bases mean you can usually ski to the door well into the season.
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
On the map
The area and its base villages on the live map — pan and zoom to explore. The official piste maps are one tap away beneath it.
Legend
Run difficulty
- Novice
- Easy
- Intermediate
- Advanced / Expert
- Freeride / Extreme
- Unknown
Run types
- Downhill — groomed
- Downhill — ungroomed
- Downhill — gladed
- Nordic (groomed)
- Ski tour
- ☾Lit (night)
- △Not patrolled
- →One-way
- ❄Snowmaking
Lifts
- Operating
- Operating (private)
- Non-operating
- Lift station
Slope-gradient grading
Downhill / ski tour
- Flat<3°
- Easy3–14°
- Intermediate14–22°
- Advanced / Expert22–45°
- Freeride / Extreme>45°
Nordic
- Easy<6°
- Intermediate6–9°
- Advanced>9°
Aspect (sun exposure)
- N — least sun
- E — morning
- S — most sun
- W — afternoon
Legend after OpenSkiMap
How to get there
By air
Marseille (MRS) is the usual gateway from the south, ~approx 2.5 to 3 hours up into the Hautes-Alpes by road. Turin (TRN) over the border and Grenoble (GNB) are alternatives depending on route and season; none is a short transfer, so this is a drive-up rather than a quick hop.
By rail
The nearest mainline station is Montdauphin-Guillestre in the Durance valley, reached by TGV and overnight services from Paris; from there it's a bus or transfer up the mountain road to either village.
Transfer up
Each village sits at the top of its own climbing road off the Durance valley, so you drive up to whichever side you're staying on. Once you're up, the lifts do the moving between Vars and Risoul during the day — a car sits idle unless you want to reach the other village by road, which is a long way round the mountain.
Best time to go
January and February for the coldest, most reliable snow on the high bases and the shaded runs. March brings the southern-Alps sun the area is known for, with the tops still skiing well while the lower, south-facing slopes soften in the afternoon — good for long bright days if you start early. French and UK February half-terms are the busiest and priciest weeks; a non-holiday week in January or early March is the quiet, good-value sweet spot.
- Season opensMid-December, snow-dependent
- Season closesMid-to-late April
- Full lift coverage and link openmid-December to mid-April
- Peak weeksChristmas / New Year and February half-terms
- Speed-skiing World CupMarch, on the Vars Chabrières track
Good to know
Are Vars and Risoul really linked, or is it two separate resorts?
They're genuinely linked by lifts over the ridge that divides their valleys, and one La Forêt Blanche pass covers both — you can ski from one into the other and back in a day. They're only far apart by road, which loops the long way round the mountain, so you move between them on skis, not in the car.
Which side should we base on?
Vars if you want a bit more life and variety of hamlets, plus the speed-skiing heritage; Risoul 1850 if you want a compact, quiet, forested ski-in ski-out village, which is why it's long been a family and British favourite. The skiing is shared, so the choice is about the evenings and the feel, not the pistes.
Is the snow reliable given it's the southern Alps?
Reasonably, because the villages sit high — around 1850 m — and the top of the area reaches roughly 2750 m, so the bases hold snow well. The honest caveat is aspect: it's a sunny domain, and the south- and west-facing runs thin faster in warm spells and late season, though snowmaking backs up the key runs and the link.
Nearby ski areas
Other resorts within reach if you're combining trips or comparing.
~approx 30 km away
~approx 39 km away
Faces north-east
Serre-Chevalier
157 km (OSM) 1,219–2,765 m
60% beginner 29% inter. 10% expert
- Vertical
- 1546 m
- Pistes (mapped)
- 120
- Lifts
- 70
~approx 60 km away
Faces north-west
Les Deux Alpes
107.9 km (OSM) 1,284–3,511 m
77% beginner 15% inter. 7% expert
- Vertical
- 2227 m
- Pistes (mapped)
- 81
- Lifts
- 46
~approx 65 km away
Faces north-west
Galibier-Thabor
131.2 km (OSM) 1,406–2,738 m
61% beginner 31% inter. 8% expert
- Vertical
- 1332 m
- Pistes (mapped)
- 97
- Lifts
- 34
~approx 73 km away
Faces west
Alpe d'Huez Grand Domaine
162.3 km (OSM) 1,124–3,306 m
55% beginner 27% inter. 17% expert
- Vertical
- 2182 m
- Pistes (mapped)
- 132
- Lifts
- 82
~approx 76 km away 
Faces north-west
Faces north-west Espace Haute Maurienne Vanoise
209.8 km (OSM) 1,306–2,948 m
60% beginner 30% inter. 8% expert
- Vertical
- 1643 m
- Pistes (mapped)
- 162
- Lifts
- 79
Getting to La Forêt Blanche
Book an airport transfer up to the resort, or pick up a car at Marseille (MRS) — search and compare without leaving the page.
Ski data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via OpenSkiMap & Skimap.org. Basemap © OpenFreeMap / OpenMapTiles. · Weather data © Open-Meteo.com (CC-BY 4.0), ERA5 reanalysis. Village grouping & editorial: mynext.holiday. Transfers via Kiwitaxi; car hire via Travelpayouts.