France

Arêches Beaufort

Off season
Official site

No snow yet. Snow depth and the seven-day outlook appear once snow is on the ground or forecast.

Typical snowfall
328cm

A weather-model figure, worked out the same way for every ski area, and lower than what actually falls. Use it to compare ski areas, not against the resort’s own totals. How we measure →

Elevation
1,022–2,319 m
Across
6.6 km

We do not show a snow depth here. The weather model we use reports snow lying on the ground — it knows nothing about grooming or snowmaking, and it is not the base depth a ski area publishes. In Japan we can check our figures against 234 weather stations. Outside Japan there is nothing to check them against, so we do not print a number we have not verified. Snow report on the official site ↗

Arêches Beaufort, in France, runs from 1,022 m at the base to 2,319 m at the top. Its mapped area is about 6.6 km across, with 66 marked runs and 15 lifts (about 38 km of piste in all).

Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 328 cm of snowfall a season, 363rd (tied) of 3,069 worldwide and 60th in France. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2017/18 (591 cm), brought more than twice as much as the leanest, 2016/17 (233 cm). January is usually the snowiest month, with about 101 cm.

The nearest city of any size is Geneva, about 69 km away in a straight line.

How much snow it gets

Modelled from weather data the same way at all 3,069 ski areas we cover. These are not the resort’s own published figures.

Seasonal snowfall
328cm
per season
Worst of 12 winters
233cm
The middle winter of the 12: 299 cm. The best: 591 cm.
World rank
363
of 3,069 worldwide
Rank in country
60
of 244 in France
Elevation rank
172
Highest to lowest, of 244 in France. The centre point sits at 1,316 m, 221 m below the national median.

Compared with what is nearby

Within 50 km in a straight line. Ski areas in the same weather-model cell (about 30 km across) get the same figure.

Ski areaDistanceSeasonal snowfallWorld rank
Espace Diamant (Les Saisies)14.0 km342 cm302
Les Contamines18.0 km462 cm104
Evasion Mont Blanc20.0 km355 cm275
La Plagne21.0 km427 cm137
La Sambuy Seythenex22.0 km204 cm1117

Runs and lifts

Counted from the runs and lifts drawn on OpenStreetMap, within the boundary of the ski area. These are not the resort’s own published figures.

Marked runs
66
Run length
38km
Lifts
15
Vertical
1,297m
Top 2,319 m · base 1,022 m

Run map

NoviceEasyIntermediateAdvancedOther Lift
North is up. Runs are coloured by difficulty; black lines are lifts.
Run map

Drag to move around, and use + and − to zoom. On a phone, swipe to move and pinch to zoom in further.

Slope shape, difficulty and lift types

The shape of the mountain

Longest run on the map3.4 km
Steepest pitch29°measured over at least 30 m
Average gradient of the runs10.3°

Which way the slopes face

North 51%
East 34%
South 3%
West 13%

85% of the vertical on the runs descends to the north or east. Those slopes get the least sun, so the snow lasts longer.

By difficulty

Novice 3 · 0.9 km
Easy 39 · 21.2 km
Intermediate 19 · 12.6 km
Advanced 3 · 2.4 km
Other 2 · 0.9 km

Lift types

  • Platter8
  • Chairlift4
  • Magic carpet2
  • Gondola1

See past trail maps on Skimap.org ↗

Source: OpenSkiMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0). How finely ski areas are drawn varies by region, so treat the counts as indicative. Vertical is the difference between the highest and lowest points of the mapped runs and lifts.

When it falls, and how winters differ

Month by month

The most snow falls in January. March brings 71% of January’s snowfall. That is in line with the median for ski areas in France (77%). In amount, March brings 72 cm, more than the median of 55 cm.

86cm
Dec
101cm
Jan
69cm
Feb
72cm
Mar
Average snowfall by month, last 12 winters

Winter by winter

Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 328 cm, and 7 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2016/17 with 233 cm; the biggest was 2017/18 with 591 cm (2.5 times as much).

268
330
233
591
349
405
369
289
251
257
280
308
14/1515/1616/1717/1818/1919/2020/2121/2222/2323/2424/2525/26

Snowfall each winter (December–March total). The dashed line is the average; the numbers mark the leanest and the biggest winter.

Live cameras

Footage remains the copyright of each operator. JAPANSNOWLINE neither stores nor redistributes it.

Map

The weather map, and where it sits among nearby ski areas.

Official piste map ↗

Other booking sites: Booking.com ↗ · Agoda ↗

Guides covering France

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