Arêches-Beaufort
Off season · opens 19 December 20261,200 mVillage altitude
2,320 mTop of the ski area
28 kmAlpine pistes
15Ski lifts
€41Adult day pass
Arêches-Beaufort is a summer and winter sports tourist resort in the Beaufortain valley, located in the commune of Beaufort, in the département of Savoie in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. It is situated in the villages of Arêches and Le Planay, on the slopes of the Grand Mont.
Live webcams
All webcams (7) →Bonnets RougesWebcam-HD
PlanayWebcam-HD
📷 Arrivée Télésiège des Combettes – 2130 MWebcam-HD
Each player is the camera operator’s own, loaded only when you ask for it — it may set its own trackers.
Official players of the resort, live image. 3 more cameras on the webcam page. Checked on 16 October 2026.
Snow, opening and weather
Snow report →The domain is due to open on 19 December 2026 and close on 4 April 2027. Open pistes and lifts will appear here as soon as the resort publishes its daily report.
Right now at the COL-DES-SAISIES station (1,614 m)
Source: Météo-France, COL-DES-SAISIES weather station, 8 km away. Hourly measurement — not the resort’s own snow report.
Avalanche danger
Snow cover varies from one winter to the next — the best time runs from mid-January to late February. 44 days a winter at 30 cm or more on average, and 252 cm of fresh snow, measured over 63 winters at the Météo-France “PEISEY NANCROIX” station. Fortnight by fortnight, over 63 measured winters →
3-day forecast
Village 1,200 m · top 2,320 m
Forecast corrected for altitude; fresh snow = forecast total at the top; UV = peak of the day. Beyond 3 days, check the resort’s own report. Source:Open-Meteo.
Seven criteria rated from 1 to 5 stars, in half-stars, from this page's sourced data. A rating is a rank among the 315 French resorts we cover — 5 stars means “among the best in France on this point”, not “perfect”. Nobody types these in.
- SnowCan you count on the snow?2.5 / 5
Top of the ski area: 2,320 m · Bottom of the pistes: 1,050 m · Days above 30 cm per winter, measured: 44 days · Days above 30 cm, December to March, model: 96%
- Ski areaIs there enough to ski all week?3 / 5
Km of pistes at the resort: 28 km · Lifts: 15 · Balance between piste levels: 79%
- ValueIs the lift pass reasonable for what you get?3 / 5
Adult day pass: €41 · Day pass price per km of pistes: €1.46/km · Adult 6-day pass: €214
- Families and beginnersIs it right for children and beginners?2.5 / 5
Share of green and blue pistes: 67% · Magic carpets: 2 · Sledging runs: 0 · ESF ski school · Ice rink, pool, rail sledge…: 1
- AccessIs it easy to get to?3.5 / 5
Average drive time from 20 major cities: 4 hr 32 · Nearest railway station: 31 min · Station-to-resort shuttles per day: 4 · Nearest airport: 1 hr 19
- Atmosphere and après-skiIs there life in the evening and off the slopes?2.5 / 5
Bars and pubs: 3 · Nightclubs: 0 · Restaurants: 7 · Upcoming events: 0 · Collective tourist beds: 1,124 — index: what the map and the listings publish
- Luxury and comfortHow upmarket is the resort?2 / 5
5-star hotels: 0 · 4-star hotels: 0 · Share of hotel rooms in 4 and 5 stars: 28% · Spas and saunas: 1 · Jewellers, watchmakers, fashion boutiques: 0 · Adult day pass: €41 — index: what the map and the listings publish
“Atmosphere” and “Luxury” are indexes: they count what OpenStreetMap and the event listings publish within 2.5 km (bars, nightclubs, rated hotels, spas, upcoming events), not what you experience there. A zero means “nothing mapped”, not “nothing there”. Sources per criterion: snow (altitudes declared by the resort (ANMSM, official website), STRMTG register, OpenStreetMap; snow depth observed at the Météo-France station, ERA5-Land model) ; ski area (figures declared by the resort (ANMSM, official website), national lift register (STRMTG), OpenStreetMap) ; value (the resort’s official price list) ; families and beginners (OpenStreetMap pistes, price list, ESF ski school, Famille Plus label, OpenStreetMap leisure) ; access (OSRM drive times from 20 cities, SNCF stations, GTFS shuttles, airports) ; atmosphere and après-ski (bars, nightclubs and restaurants within 2.5 km (OpenStreetMap), upcoming events (OpenAgenda), collective tourist beds (INSEE)) ; luxury and comfort (rated hotels within 2.5 km (OpenStreetMap) and by category across the commune (INSEE), spas and boutiques (OpenStreetMap), day pass price).
Lift passes
All prices (child, family, season) →€214 6 days
Price declared by the resort to ANMSM (the French ski resorts’ mayors association) — not the official price list, which prevails. Season not stated by the resort. ANMSM ↗
36 pistes, by level
3 green21 blue8 red4 black
- Skiable vertical
- 1,270 m
- Cross-country skiing
- 3 named trails — 20 km of marked loops (6.1 km of distinct track: the loops overlap) · Domaine de Marcôt area, 3.4 km from the resort
- Snowpark
- 3 mapped zones, 2.1 km from the resort — Sapinière (easy) · Wood Cross (easy) · Bovo cross
Ski-area figures — village, bottom, top: ANMSM — figures declared by the resort (16 Oct); km of pistes, pistes by level: OpenStreetMap (1 Oct); lifts: STRMTG — French national lift register (1 Jan) .
The ski area in figures
Measured on 7 October 20264 kmLongest piste — Sarrazine (blue), 372 m of vertical
685 mBiggest vertical without changing piste — 1,707 → 1,022 m, 2 km
2,137 mHighest lift top — Combettes (chairlift), national lift register
16,095Total lift capacity, people per hour — 15 installations: 1 gondola, 4 chairlifts, 8 drag lifts, 2 magic carpets
25 yrsAverage age of the lift fleet — oldest 1976, newest 2021
1,800Biggest lift, people per hour — Piapolay (detachable chairlift, 2008)
15 kmTotal length of lifts — 13 lifts mapped
861 haSki area boundary (OSM)
1,989Inhabitants — Beaufort (INSEE 73034)
Measured on OpenStreetMap (altitudes: IGN RGE ALTI), not taken from the brochure. The vertical above is that of one piste, not of the whole ski area. Population: INSEE municipal population via geo.api.gouv.fr.
Source: national register of mechanical lifts (STRMTG, CAIRN), fleet as of 1 January 2025 — lifts attributed to Arêches-Beaufort only (“ARECHES BEAUFORT”), magic carpets included.
Staying and hiring gear in Arêches-Beaufort
The partners covering this resort, shown side by side, and the shop to kit out before you leave. Some links earn us a commission — never at the expense of the price or of the data.
Collective accommodation
1,124 bed spaces in tourist residences, holiday villages and hostels
- 8 hotels · 144 rooms (1 × 4★, 1 × 3★, 4 × 2★)
- 3 holiday villages and family centres · 544 bed spaces
- 1 tourist residence or apartment hotel · 580 bed spaces
- 2 campsites · 159 pitches
Commune: Beaufort · INSEE tourist accommodation survey, 2026, read on 12 September 2026. Collective accommodation only — privately let flats and second homes are not counted. INSEE dataset ↗
Stay & accommodation
Holidu
Holiday-rental comparison site.
Ski Planet
Self-catering flats and all-inclusive ski holidays at the foot of the slopes, since 1999.
Montagne Vacances
Flats and chalets in the resort, at direct prices.
Gear & equipment
Absolute Snow
UK ski and snowboard shop — delivers to UK addresses only.
Hardloop
Mountain gear shop: ski touring, avalanche safety, winter clothing.
Beyond skiing at Arêches-Beaufort
Spa and thermal baths
- Cristal des Alpes · OpenStreetMap
Museum
- Ecomusée de Hauteluce · Hauteluce · 7.2 km away
Cinema
- La Chaudanne · OpenStreetMap
Source: DATAtourisme (open data), within 10 km of the resort; places in a large town of the valley are left out. Checked on 12 September 2026. Lines marked OpenStreetMap come from the map, within 3 km — opening times on site. Opening times and prices are the operator’s — check before you go.
Ski schools and practical information
Ski school
ESF Areches
61 instructors
🇬🇧 24 English-speaking instructors — lessons in English available
🗓️ This school sells its lessons online — book ↗
Source: esf.net
Resort contacts and documents
- Tourist office
- OFFICE DE TOURISME · 120 Route du Grand Mont, 73270 · 0479383757 · info@areches-beaufort.com (declared by the resort, ANMSM)
- Shuttle timetable (PDF)
- Brochure Horaire_NN 2024 BD (declared by the resort, ANMSM)
- Resort app
- Android (declared by the resort, ANMSM)
In case of accident
112 — the European emergency number, free of charge, triggers mountain rescue. On the pistes, the ski patrol number is printed on the piste map and at lift ticket offices. Piste rescue is charged: check your insurance or take the option sold with the lift pass.
Resort data: declared by OFFICE DE TOURISME and distributed by ANMSM · read on 16 October
Off the pistes: off-piste and ski touring
The resorts for off-piste skiing → 6 Marked off-piste itineraries · 4 km
— Ski touring routes
Named itineraries: Lac rouge · Super Noire · Télécabine du Bois · Télésiège de Piapolay · Freeride du Roc Blanc 1 · Freeride du Roc Blanc 2
Itineraries surveyed on OpenStreetMap within a 4 km radius (7 September 2026): “marked” means an itinerary exists on the map, not that it is open or safe on the day.
Ski touring routes described
12 ski touring routes documented within 10 km of Arêches-Beaufort — up to 1,750 m of climb.
| Summit and route | Ski grade | Climb | Altitude | Aspect | From resort |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Le Mappaz · Refuge du Presset par le passage de la Charmette et le col du Bresson | 2.1 · E1 · PD- | 1,750 m | 1,285 → 2,514 m | n/a | 1.4 km |
| Col du Couvercle · Boucle par le passage de la Charmette, le mont des Acrays. | 2.3 · E1 · PD+ | 1,100 m | 1,270 → 2,295 m | W · SW · NW · N | 1.5 km |
| Col du Pré · Depuis le Bersend | 2.1 · E1 · PD- | 600 m | 1,125 → 1,726 m | N | 1.6 km |
| Col du Pré · Versant SW | 1.3 · F | 400 m | 1,300 → 1,703 m | SW | 1.7 km |
The other 8 routes, with grades and vertical →
Not a piste. Neither marked, nor patrolled, nor secured: transceiver, shovel, probe, the day’s avalanche bulletin and, better still, a guide. Ski grade (1.1–5.6) = steepness and commitment; exposure (E1–E4) = consequence of a fall.
Source: Camptocamp.org topo guide (CC BY-SA), routes starting within 10 km, read on 13 October 2026. Descriptions and photos are on Camptocamp; an empty cell is a field nobody has filled in. Camptocamp ski touring routes ↗
Piste map
Open on OpenSnowMap ↗Official piste map
Pistes coloured by level, lifts as lines. The resort’s official map is the reference in season.
Base map © OpenTopoMap (CC-BY-SA) · pistes © OpenSnowMap (CC-BY-SA) · data ©OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Getting to Arêches-Beaufort
From Paris: 6 hr 55 (646 km) by road.
By road
- From Chambéry: 1 hr 08 · 77 km
- From Annecy: 1 hr 20 · 67 km
- From Grenoble: 1 hr 24 · 106 km
- From Genève: 1 hr 53 · 114 km
- From Lyon: 2 hr 18 · 175 km
From other major cities (15)
- From Valence: 2 hr 27 · 199 km
- From Saint-Étienne: 2 hr 52 · 224 km
- From Dijon: 4 hr 10 · 376 km
- From Clermont-Ferrand: 4 hr 11 · 341 km
- From Besançon: 4 hr 21 · 288 km
- From Montpellier: 4 hr 34 · 404 km
- From Marseille: 4 hr 40 · 413 km
- From Perpignan: 5 hr 56 · 551 km
- From Nice: 6 hr 01 · 491 km
- From Strasbourg: 6 hr 16 · 506 km
- From Nancy: 6 hr 17 · 587 km
- From Toulouse: 6 hr 52 · 638 km
- From Paris: 6 hr 55 · 646 km
- From Bordeaux: 8 hr 09 · 731 km
- From Pau: 8 hr 47 · 828 km
Excluding traffic and winter conditions; passes closed in winter are avoided.
By train
Albertville station
regional station · then 31 min drive (25 km)
Nearest main station: Chambéry - Challes-les-Eaux, 1 hr 06 by road.
- From Albertville station (stop “_ Gare routière”): line ARL_L21 — ARLYSERE LIGNE 21 (ALBERTVILLE - TRA Mobilité), 36 min to the “Le Praz” stop — 4 departures a day on weekdays, 5 a day at weekends · first 07:25, last 18:35 · timetable from 15 December 2026 to 15 April 2027 · official timetable ↗
Direct journeys read from the official timetable files published on transport.data.gouv.fr — no connections.
By plane
- Chambéry-Savoie (CMF): 1 hr 19 by road · 85 km
- Grenoble-Alpes-Isère (GNB): 1 hr 57 by road · 152 km
Take me there
These links open the app with Arêches-Beaufort as the destination. Your starting point is never sent by us — the app asks you for it, if you agree.
Charging an electric car
No freely accessible charge point is declared within 2 km of the resort (checked on 9 October 2026). Covered car parks in the resort may offer chargers reserved for their customers: those are not listed here.
Freely accessible charge points read from the French national EV charging database (data.gouv.fr ↗, operators’ own declarations), checked on 9 October 2026. Check availability before you leave: the database says what is installed, not what is free tonight.
Road conditions
From 1 November to 31 March, snow chains or winter tyres are compulsory in most mountain areas (French “Loi Montagne II”).
Driving times computed on the OpenStreetMap road network (OSRM), SNCF stations (open data), airports (Wikidata). Indicative, not a timetable: allow extra time in snow.
Translated from the French Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA), machine translation.
Frequently asked questions
How high is Arêches-Beaufort?
Arêches-Beaufort sits at 1,200 m at village level, and its ski area rises to 2,320 m.
How many kilometres of pistes does Arêches-Beaufort have?
Arêches-Beaufort has 28 km of slopes, 15 lifts.
What is the longest piste in Arêches-Beaufort?
The longest piste is Sarrazine: 4 km (blue run), for 372 m of vertical. Measured on the OpenStreetMap map, segments of the same name and level joined end to end, altitudes from the IGN RGE ALTI terrain model — a resort sometimes advertises a longer run by chaining several pistes.
How high do the lifts go in Arêches-Beaufort?
The highest lift, Combettes (chairlift), tops out at 2,137 m. Source: STRMTG, French national register of mechanical lifts (CAIRN database), file dated 1 January 2025.
How many lifts does Arêches-Beaufort have, and what is their capacity?
The French national register of mechanical lifts records 15 installations at Arêches-Beaufort (1 gondola, 4 chairlifts, 8 drag lifts, 2 magic carpets), for an authorised capacity of 16,095 people per hour, of which 1,800 for Piapolay alone. The fleet spans 1976 to 2021, an average age of 25 years. This count covers the resort itself, magic carpets included, not the whole linked ski area — a resort brochure often announces a different number. Source: STRMTG, French national register of mechanical lifts (CAIRN database), file dated 1 January 2025.
How much is a lift pass in Arêches-Beaufort?
The adult day pass costs €41 and the 6-day pass €214 (season not stated by the resort, declared by the resort to ANMSM (the French ski resorts’ mayors association)).
How do I get to Arêches-Beaufort?
By road, Arêches-Beaufort is 1 hr 08 from Chambéry (77 km), excluding traffic and winter conditions. By train, the nearest station is Albertville, 31 min by road from the resort. From Albertville station, line ARL_L21 — ARLYSERE LIGNE 21 (ALBERTVILLE - TRA Mobilité) reaches the “Le Praz” stop in 36 min, 4 departures a day on weekdays, 5 a day at weekends. The nearest airport is Chambéry-Savoie, 1 hr 19 away.
How long is the drive from Paris to Arêches-Beaufort?
6 hr 55 for 646 km from central Paris, excluding traffic and winter conditions. Computed on the real road network (OpenStreetMap): allow more on a school-holiday Saturday.
When does Arêches-Beaufort open?
According to the dates declared by the resort (ANMSM feed), the resort opens on 19 December 2026 and closes on 4 April 2027 (2026-2027 season).
Is the snow reliable in Arêches-Beaufort?
Snow cover varies from one winter to the next — the best time runs from mid-January to late February. 44 days a winter at 30 cm or more on average, and 252 cm of fresh snow, measured over 63 winters at the Météo-France “PEISEY NANCROIX” station. This verdict rests on 63 winters of Météo-France measurements (1959-2022); in season the daily report prevails.
Is Arêches-Beaufort good for beginners and families?
67% of the pistes are green or blue: a rather easy area.
Nearby resorts
Full page in French. The French page carries the editorial guides and a few extra readings; every figure, webcam and price on this page is the same one. Arêches-Beaufort in French →
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