Have you skied Vars in France?

What are you looking for exactly in a resort?

I've been to Risoul/Vars a few years ago and to be honest the ski area is catered more to beginners and Intermediates. Of course it has some areas for experts but it just doesnt compare to any of the Big French Resorts in terms of kilometres of pistes or off piste.  Also as its one of the most southern resorts in france it gets alot of sun throughout the season which ruins the snow pretty quickly as well as not being that high. If you look at resorts like Tignes, Val D'isere or Val thorens - their ski areas are well over 2000metres high- meaning the snowpack lasts all the way into may, giving them better maintained parks and pistes.

If your just looking for park riding - yes vars park is good but again doesn't even compare to places like Val d'Isere, Les Deux Alps or Morzine/Avoriaz - where the snowboarding movement first stated in france so It has 5 snowparks in its ski area.

Personally I'm off to Verbier, Switzerland for a season this year, because it has a fairly big park but mainly for its powder, the place is renowned in europe for its off piste areas.

hope this helps  

Vars/Risoul has a very bad snow record and the park is shitty. If you want to spend a season in this region you are better off stayin in Briançon which accesses the Serre Chevalier and Via Lattea ski areas. Better terrain, more snow and a slightly better park.

well basicly, i wanna go to work and then go ski the park, i'm quite a noob at powder skiing so its not as important to me and i couldn't care less about skiing on peist. I already have a job and the choices of resort i can go to, the only two with parks worth a mention are LDA and Vars(and maybe serre che if the guy below you is right). I am not very keen on the preasure in LDA that there is to go out and party all the time and i heard that vars is a nicer quieter place in that respect

I'm such an idiot, I forgot to say thank you very much for your help so far guys!

so all you want to do is ride park and your options are LDA and Vars. Here's my assessment of both resorts compared because I went to both on the same year 3 years ago.

Risoul / Vars vs Les Deux Alpes

Pros for you

definately a lot quieter, no where near the party resort of LDA
Stepped up the park design since I was there
small ski area not a problem as you want to ski park
Good snowfall means good times for all

Cons

Small french resort- not as many good skiers or english people as LDA
Low height and bad snow record- their park is at 2400m while LDA at 3600m ish
This means you can ride LDA park for most of season because of snowpack and cold
while it will take longer for snowpack at Vars to form for big jumps and melt away quicker come april sun.
If poor snow record - means poor park- Even if their next year park design looks good if you dont get enough snow you cant get the park. Example I did a season in Val thorens this year - resort level 2300m -  park level around 2900/3000m  - the whole of europe had a poor snow record this year - Val thorens park design was MEANT to be bigger with a half pipe, a quarter pipe and another whole line of kickers but we didnt get enough snow. We didnt even get our pro line (30ft+ jumps) till mid season.

Conclusion
 
If we get a really get a good snowfall in Europe next year Vars could be sick

But If it doesn't, you be leaving one of the best parks in Europe to go to Slush City - population - 1 bummed out Newschooler

Thanks thats a massive help. I'd like to hear from someone who has ridden there recently as well though. It does sound like a gamble and i'm not a fan of that but it also sounds like it could be so much better for me! this sucks!

Any one else got any advice?

if you speak french check this link : http://www.fluofun.fr/snowparks/vars/

not sure if i could handle another 5 months of deux alpes, if they started to change the park up then ye....but it got boring fast.

my french is incredibly poor(so is my first language mind you!), but it doesn't take much to work out "parc exeptoinal" and look at the pics, thats just the jib park though but its got me back on the train of fought that going there could be a good idea.

o wait no its not! again i mentioned how i am an idiot right? that makes it sound as good as it looks, i am gonna have to persude someone to come with me, i really want to go! Caaaaaammmmm..... are you sure you want to go to uni?

one last bump. someone must have been there last season or the one before it.

It's shit. Go somewhere with a good park and good terrain, which isn't anywhere mentioned in this thread so far.

when were you there? did they they have the new park when you were there? cos seriously, it doesn't look like a shit park to me! It kinda used to look shit though when it was just the one at the bottom of the hill and they didn't have all the new rails and boxes.

It was a few years ago. It's really low and pretty far south too so it's a much shorter season than most. Plus if there is good snow the terrain didn't look anything special.