Pierrefontaine Les Varans is a ski area in France, at about 754 m. Its mapped area is about 0.9 km across.
Over the last twelve winters the ERA5 weather model gives it 106 cm of snowfall a season, 2,301st (tied) of 3,069 worldwide and 232nd in France. It swings a lot from year to year: the biggest winter, 2017/18 (177 cm), brought more than 3 times as much as the leanest, 2023/24 (48 cm). January is usually the snowiest month, with about 38 cm.
Snow depth and the seven-day outlook appear here once snow starts to fall. Until then, the long-run record comes first.
Elevation of the ski area’s centre point, taken from a digital elevation model. It is not the base-to-summit range.
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 ↗
How much snow it gets
Measured by us across 3,069 ski areas by one identical method. These are not the resort’s own published figures.
Compared with what is nearby
Within 50 km straight line. Measured the same way, so the ranks compare directly. Ski areas a few kilometres apart share a weather grid cell and can return the same figure.
| Ski area | Distance | Seasonal snowfall | World rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goule | 19 km | 134 cm | 1892 |
| La Combe Saint-Pierre | 21 km | 165 cm | 1470 |
| Site du Meix Musy | 22 km | 165 cm | 1470 |
| Site du Meix Musy | 22 km | 165 cm | 1470 |
| Chapeau-Râblé - La Chaux-de-Fonds | 22 km | 165 cm | 1470 |
When it falls, and how winters differ
Month by month
Month by month, the most snow falls in January. March brings 55% of January’s snowfall. That is a steeper fall than the median for ski areas in France (77%): the snow here is concentrated early in the season. In amount, March brings 21 cm, less than the median of 55 cm.
Winter by winter
Across the 12 winters measured, the average is 106 cm, and 6 of them fell short of it. The leanest was 2023/24 with 48 cm; the biggest was 2017/18 with 177 cm (3.7 times as much).
Snowfall each winter (December–March total). The dashed line is the average; the numbers mark the leanest and the biggest winter.
Map
Where it sits relative to nearby resorts. For a piste map, see the official site.
Official piste map ↗More places to look
Guides covering France
- A Black Run in Colorado and a Black Run in Austria Are Not the Same Thing. The Maps Prove It. Across 2,888 ski areas: 39% of American runs are graded advanced or harder, and 9% of Austrian ones. Nobody thinks Austria is four times gentler. The grades are measuring different things.
- How Big Are Japan's Ski Areas? Smaller Than the Alps, Snowier per Kilometre Measured across nearly 1,800 ski areas: the median Japanese one has 12 km of piste against France's 25. What Japan has instead is 25 cm of seasonal snow for every kilometre of run — more than two and a half times France and three times the United States.
Updated: 8 Oct 2026, 00:52