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Resort: Vars (linked to Risoul)
Country: France
Domain: Foret Blanche (Risoul/Vars), Southern French Alps
Author: Carettam
Date: Mid-March 2009
Our holiday: One week cheap DIY with 11 skiers in our 20s and 30s, 1 beginner skier, 1 beginner boarder, most others were intermediates, ranging from timid to kamikazee.
Website: www.vars.com
Basics: Flew into Grenoble, then the long DIY transfer via train. Pretty dramatic train journey through the snowy mountains, but long (about 3hrs). Then pre-booked a taxi to take us up to resort. Vars and Risoul are linked resorts, under the Foret Blanche lift pass (quite cheap at 150euro for 6 days) and covers a reasonable size area +150km. Vars is much more 'french', with little English spoken and you might struggle to find english speaking instructors. Risoul is on more english TO's radar, but still predominantly french.
Lift system: A mixed bag. No hands free passes here, just your usual pass which an attendent might check every so often. In Vars, there are some fast quads and six packs, a gondola and then some older chairs, including a few really old 2 mans. There are also a few remaining drags which are long and steep, most can be avoided and you really should avoid them! The Mayt chair which is the way over to Risoul is a long slow one, so wrap up warm. Risoul has slightly better lifts, but there is still a large mix of old and new.
The terrain: A good variety of terrain, although the piste grading could occasionally be a little random, but most reds were of reasonable red difficulty but a few greens spooked our beginners. Vars is set over a couple of mountains, while Risoul is set in a bowl. In Vars, there is a quieter mountain of Peynier, which has a few long blues, reds and blacks and sunny slopes, wooded mainly along the lower half of the pistes. The area served by the sibieres and escondas lifts has some nice cruisy reds and blues, the runs are mostly wide and edged by trees. At Crevoux, there is a snow park, with jumps for all abilities and a boarder cross course. The skiing up at Chabrieres offers dramatic views from the ridge, although the reds here are quite easy. There is the famous KL black run from the top of the ridge, where speed skiing trials are held. The skiing from Mayt was probably the most rewarding, wide interesting blues for the beginners to progress to and the long olympic red, which provided a challenge all our group, and the start is particulally steep. For beginners, the base of the gondola makes for good bunny runs, and is where the ski school is located (ESF). Risoul had a good variety of pistes from green to black, although the psites seemed a little busier, narrower and slightly less varied than the Vars side, but we only spent one full day here. Overall, the whole area is quiet, with no lift queues and quiet, uncrowded psites.
The snow: Reasonable, hard pack. When we went in mid march, it had not snowed since February and they did reasonably well with grooming and snow cannons to keep the pistes in ok shape. The southern alps are meant to be sunny and we had a week of blue skies.
Off-piste: Due to the hard conditions when we went, not really a good idea. From the tracks it looked light there was some available, including tree runs.
The resort: Vars (Vars Les Claux) is a small french village at the end of the Vars valley road. There is a shoppping centre, a couple of small supermarkets, a few ski shops, a handful of restaurants serving the usual cheese, meat and pizza combos and that is about it. There is a disco but it looked dubious so we gave it a miss. It is quiet, not a place to take non-skiing friends, but for us it suited well.
Accommodation: It is mainly in SC apartments, we stayed in PV L'albane and was very impressed. In the pretty and modern duplex apartments (marketed for 6/7 ppl) there were 2 bedrooms (dbl and twin), 2 bathrooms, seperate WC, open plan kitchen diner living space, which could sleep an additional 3 people (2 sofa beds + camp bed), balcony. The aprtments are basic, but the kitchen was well equipped, and there was free use of their outdoor pool. The ski lockers were in the basement and offered ski to door access onto the end of the sibieres piste, and down to the lifts. All for less than £100 per head (with 5 ppl in one apartment and 6 in the other).
Food: We took pack lunches some days and there were only a handful of places to eat on the mountain but we didnt try any. Most people seemed to eat at the huts at the foot of the pistes, which all seemed to serve a reasonable standard of typical pizza/pasta dishes for ok value for money (£10 a dish). The food in the main restaurants in the village was tasty, lots of fondue and red meat around. We didnt have a bad meal! Looking at about £20 for a fondue.
Costs: We paid about £95 per head for the apartments, about £115 for 6 day ski pass (booked through skihorizon.com, who gave us a discount), about £70 for ski hire (sport 2000 - booked through snowrental.com).
Conclusion: Overall, a good resort with varied skiing, sunny slopes and doesn't break the bank. The drawbacks are the drag lifts and the long transfer, but I would go there again in the future just for the quiet uncrowded skiing. The scenery is quite intereting too, lots of ridges, crags and trees.
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