Le Grand Ballon
Skiing on the highest summit of the Vosges ended for good in September 2026, after six years in which the station managed an average of 8.75 open days and 12,524 euros of revenue a season.
- Region
- Haut-Rhin
- Country
- France
- Status
- closed
- Year opened
- 1954
- Year closed
- 2026
- Reason for closure
- A collapse in snow cover since the 2018-19 winter at a station with no snowmaking. Over its last six years the site opened an average of 8.75 days a season for average revenue of 12,524 euros, against more than 30,000 euros of outstanding maintenance and the need to replace a snowcat. The managing syndicate announced the permanent end of winter lift operations on 2 September 2026.
History
The Grand Ballon is the highest summit of the Vosges at 1,424 m, and the ski area below the col ran from a 1,110 m base to a 1,340 m top - 230 m of vertical, nine pistes, and five lift lines still mapped on the hillside: the Ballon drag, Gloupe, Combe, the Ferme nursery lift and the Bambi rope tow. Skiing here dates to 1954, when Poma put in the 858 m Ballon T-bar, a 520-persons-an-hour machine that took just over five minutes to the top. By the end only three drag lifts were being operated. The decline was rapid and entirely about snow: cover has been lacking since the 2018-19 winter, and across the last six seasons the station opened an average of 8.75 days a year for average revenue of 12,524 euros. Set against more than 30,000 euros of overdue maintenance and a snowcat that needed replacing, the arithmetic was finished. On 2 September 2026 the Syndicat Mixte Markstein Grand-Ballon announced that the lifts would not run in winter again - 'c'est un crève-coeur', as the regional coverage put it. Staff were offered work at the neighbouring Markstein, where alpine skiing continues, and the syndicate is reorienting the Grand Ballon towards hiking, snowshoeing and ski touring, a direction local businesses have publicly doubted; one establishment had already stopped opening in winter in 2021 for lack of custom. Whether the lifts will be dismantled has not been stated. The coordinates mark the centre of the lift network below the Col du Grand Ballon.
Lifts
| Name | Type | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ballon | T-Bar | Poma | The original line of 1954: 858 m with 230 m of vertical, 520 persons per hour at 3 m/s, about 5 minutes 10 seconds to the top. Recorded as closed and replaced, the replacement running until the 2026 closure |
| Gloupe | Platter | Drag lift, mapped at the northern end of the area | |
| Combe | Platter | Drag lift | |
| Ferme | Platter | Drag lift, also recorded as La Ferme or École - the nursery lift by the farm | |
| Bambi | Rope Tow | The beginners' rope tow |
Sources and further reading
- https://france3-regions.franceinfo.fr/grand-est/haut-rhin/c-est-un-creve-c-ur-le-grand-ballon-ferme-definitivement-ses-remontees-mecaniques-l-hiver-3417176.html
- https://www.altitude.news/business/2026/09/23/fermeture-grand-ballon-ski-alpin-vosges/
- https://www.skiresort.fr/domaine-skiable/grand-ballon/remontees-mecaniques/l91819/
More in France
Location
47.8970, 7.1124