Shifted to the end! "Next winter 2023-2024, the Forêt Blanche area, which unites the neighboring resorts of Vars and Risoul, in the Hautes-Alpes, will once again welcome skiers who will travel with a single ski lift pass from the opening of the season in December," the Vars resort has just announced. The news comes as the 2022-2023 ski season is just ending on all French massifs, and the next one is not yet a priority.
" READ ALSO In the Southern Alps, two resorts at war and skiers deprived of connection
But it is the epilogue of a soap opera that lasted all winter, against a backdrop of commercial quarrel between the operators of the ski lifts. At the beginning of the season, the mayors of the two municipalities had prolonged the suspense, suggesting that a solution would be found. The White Forest, the second largest ski area in the Hautes-Alpes after Serre-Chevalier, was their common goal, we wrote.
After weeks of heated discussions, then a renunciation that had made a lot of noise, Dominique Laudré, mayor of Vars and manager of the ski lift company SEM-Sedev, Régis Simond, mayor of the municipality of Risoul, and Jean-Yves Rémy, director of the operator of the resort, Labellemontagne, had relaunched their negotiations. In vain. No skier has been able to enjoy this beautiful area this winter which, connected, has 185 slopes and 56 ski lifts on 1100 meters of elevation, from 1650 m to 2750 m altitude.
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Skiers' event
At the height of their disappointment, skiers even demonstrated on the slopes of Risoul. "About sixty skiers, mainly students, are gathered at the Plate de la Nonne chairlift, at nearly 1900 meters above sea level. On some banners, one could read "UVR" for Union Vars-Risoul, "reported then the local TV news channel BFM DICI. A reaction revealing the weight of an affair in the promise to holidaymakers. A month later, in February, in the middle of the school holidays, a strike notice was also filed by the employees of the ski lifts, who finally turned the machines.
« I told the two mayors of Vars and Risoul: as long as you fight, I cut the aid! »
Renaud Muselier, President of the South Region
The closure has cost the entire estate dearly. "It was especially expensive in terms of images! Because they had two great seasons, "says to Le Figaro, Renaud Muselier. Exasperated, the president of the South region sounded the end of the game. "I told the two mayors, of Vars and Risoul: as long as you fight, I cut the aid! For a few thousand euros you are not able to get along, while during Covid, I invested 200 million euros in the mountains?! I told them: if you continue you will have nothing and you will not receive anyone, "hammers the elected representative of the Regional Council Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur.
Result: "The White Forest will once again bring together the areas of Vars and Risoul at the price of a fair remuneration of the passages of skiers from one to the other, in accordance with a precise study carried out by the 2 resorts and as is done in the largest ski areas connected," says the press release sent on May 9. Because 70% of Risoul skiers ski on the Vars side 4 to 5 hours a day while 30% of Vars customers take the Risoul slopes for lunch or a momentary change of universe.
Renaud Muselier is proud to have 65 stations under his wing, and has applied for the South region to host the 2034 or 2038 Winter Olympics. Domain links are a strong link. This is why he also "organized the rapprochement between Pra Loup and the Fou d'Allos", two other family stations whose interconnection also created in 1976 must be revived in 2024.